50 Horror Movies That Haven't Been Remade... Yet
We stress the ‘yet’…
The People Under The Stairs (1991)
Original Version: Wes Craven does home invasion, except this time it's a young kid from the ghetto invading the house of a family of nutters.
When Fool (Brandon Adams) breaks into the home of his family's landlords, he ends up trapped there - and discovering it's more of a circus funhouse than an actually home.
The Remake: Chan-wook Park did wonders in Oldboy ’s early ‘captivity’ scenes.
We’d love to see what he’d do with a house like the one in People Under The Stairs.
The Pit (1981)
Original Version: Canadian horror flick about a 12-year-old boy who discovers a pit in the forest that's home to four creepy monsters called Tra-la-logs.
The mean-spirited ending has to be seen to be believed.
The Remake: Relocates the action to London, where a pit in Regent’s Park starts devouring vagrants.
Roadgames (1981)
Original Version: Jamie Lee Curtis is likeable doing her eighties wise-cracking thing and Stacy Keach brings new meaning to the term 'craggy' as the truck driver who picks her up on the road.
The ensuing cat-and-mouse thrills are Grindhouse at its best - Roadgames is dark and visually gorgeous, with admirably lofty ambitions.
The Remake: Director Mark Tonderai pretty much already updated Roadgames for modern day with Hush , which means a remake proper is unlikely.
Still, a stunt-filled, post -Fast & Furious version would be awesome.
Basket Case (1982)
Original Version: Micro-budget horror about Siamese twin brothers who were separated as children. One of the brothers is a deformed monstrosity who lives in a basket. Naturally.
It spawned two sequels, both of which were the very definition of dreadful.
The Remake: Basket Case is B-movie to the max, so a remake would have to play it for laughs.
We’re thinking The Muppets vs Basket Case – Kermit attempts to track down the scary Basket Case, who's making a bad name for puppets by killing people. Can a song about being misunderstood fix things?
The Lost Boys (1987)
Original Version: Easily one of the coolest vampire flicks ever made.
Two brothers move to California, where a gang of vampires have turned Santa Carla into their own personal playground.
The Remake: Trying to remake The Lost Boys would be like trying to remake The Goonies . Even the official Boys sequels couldn’t recapture the magic.
That said, we wouldn’t be surprised if some studio type decided to jump on the Twilight bandwagon for a ‘teen market’ vampire flick. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Pumpkinhead (1988)
Original Version: Dated but still imminently watchable revenge-demon-horror.
Much of its watchability is thanks to Lance Henriksen. He plays a grieving father who calls on a demon - that would be Pumpkinhead - to get revenge on the teenagers who killed his little boy. Bloody and atmospheric.
The Remake: A gothic horror that sticks to the Pumpkinhead formula and plays it dead straight.
With a little help from that terrifying demon, this should be scary, moody and gory as hell.
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Night Of The Comet (1984)
Original Version: Unlike any zombie film you've ever seen, Night Of The Comet is a weird genre-blend of sci-fi, teen flick and horror.
When a passing comet covers the Earth in a misty red aura, exposed humans collapse into dust while the dead are re-animated. A band of unaffected humans are left to fend for themselves.
The Remake: If John Hughes were still alive, this is exactly the kind of horror film he'd make.
In lieu of Hughes, get Emma Stone to reunite with her Easy A director Will Gluck for a knowing but bloody zombie epic.
Sleepaway Camp (1983)
Original Version: Cheap and twisted slasher flick in the Friday The 13th mould. When shy teen Angela is sent off to summer camp, her fellow campers end up killed in horribly inventive ways. Is Angela next?
Meanwhile, flashbacks fill us in on Angela's unusual upbringing…
The Remake: Sleepaway Camp is just begging for a remake - if only because its final twist is so deliciously sinister.
Everything that comes before that moment is ropey enough to warrant a second go.
We say get Cabin In The Woods director Drew Goddard on the case…
The Stuff (1985)
Original Version: Pleasingly gooey horror spoof about a mysterious new wonder-food that has no calories and tastes even better than ice cream.
There's got to be a catch though, right? Turns out people aren't so much eating The Stuff as it's eating them - from the inside out.
The Remake: A GM nightmare in which a malicious food company targets candy-loving children, who are turned into zombies when they devour said company’s products.
John Waters is just begging to direct this.
Killer Party (1986)
Original Version: Obscure sorority slasher in which pledge Vivia (Sherry Willis-Burch) has to play a prank at a party in order to get a place at a sorority.
What sounds like a typical slasher is actually just about as much fun as you can have with an '80s horror - not least in the surprising third act.
The Remake: The cheesy '80s setting is integral to the fun of Killer Party , so the remake should be a 'period' slasher set in the mid-80s – with all the big hair and shoulder-pads that era loved so much. Let's get Ti West to do this one.
Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.