10 Necessary Movie Remakes That Do More Than Just Repeat the Originals

“Remake” has become a dirty word in the film-watching world, and for not entirely unfair reasons. At their worst, remakes take great stories or films audiences have seen before and just… tell them again. A direct remake lacks originality and sometimes a good reason for even existing. When the story already exists and was done better before, it’s hard to see the worst kinds of remakes as anything more than blatant cash grabs.

Remakes can be good, though, when they retool the story in an exciting or unique way, or otherwise update it for more modern sensibilities. The following eight films are all examples of remakes done right. They take well-worn stories and make enough changes to justify their existence without changing so much that they’re unrecognizable from what came before. They are, essentially – for one reason or another – necessary remakes.

10 ‘West Side Story’ (2021)

Director: Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg‘s 2021 retelling of the classic musical (itself a spin on the centuries-old story of Romeo & Juliet) maintained the spirit, vibrancy, and tragedy of the famous 1961 version. It retold the same core story about the racial tension between two street gangs, a romance that develops between two people on each opposing side, and the explosive consequences that come about as a result.

The main updates for 2021’s West Side Story involved casting Puerto Rican actors in major roles (many of those roles were played by white actors with skin-darkening makeup in 1961), as well as having more dialogue in Spanish, to help things feel more authentic. On top of that, a couple of songs in West Side Story were shuffled around and altered, and a few settings changed (like the “Gee, Officer Krupke” song taking place in a courtroom). The changes helped to fix the most poorly-aged part of the 1961 adaptation, and the other minor changes helped things feel fresh enough to ensure West Side Story was a worthy remake.

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9 ‘Scarface’ (1983)

Director: Brian De Palma

Brian De Palma‘s iconic 1983 crime epic, Scarface, is one remake that’s surpassed the original in terms of its pop-culture impact. Released just over 50 years after the original, it takes the same story of the dramatic rise and fall of a gangster who starts the film with almost nothing, gets almost everything, and then loses it all when his world comes crashing down around him.

The original was a very good film in its own right and one of the most essential early crime films, but the 1980s update is a classic. It features one of Al Pacino’s biggest and best performances, and the excessive profanity, violence, drug use, and runtime all work to encapsulate the excessive, over-the-top, unsustainable lifestyle Tony Montana lives. For dialing a solid, older premise up to 11 and then some, 1983’s Scarface stands as a classic remake.

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8 ‘Little Women’ (2019)

Director: Greta Gerwig

With 2019’s Little Women, Greta Gerwig took a classic story set in the distant past and made it feel fresh and modern in all the right ways… but never to the point where it sacrificed believability. It successfully takes audiences back some 150 years, telling a coming-of-age story that feels more resonant and emotional than ever before.

The core story still involves the four March sisters and the ups and downs of their lives, their relationships, and their struggles. Gerwig does an amazing job at striking a balance between the film feeling old and new (much like she did with her 2023 follow-up to this film), and Little Women is a great watch, even for those familiar with the original story, previous adaptations, or even for viewers not usually interested in historically based romance films.

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7 ‘The Departed’ (2006)

Director: Martin Scorsese

The first (and so far only) Best Picture winner directed by Martin Scorsese, The Departed is a remake of the Hong Kong crime thriller Infernal Affairs. Both involve a complex, tense storyline with a member of a criminal gang infiltrating the police force, and a police officer simultaneously going undercover to infiltrate the same gang.

Both are great in their own ways. Infernal Affairs came first and is faster-paced (and about 50 minutes shorter), but The Departed gives the story and characters a little more time to breathe, and is slightly easier to keep up with as a result. The Departed also ensures it feels fresh by setting things in a new city, letting Jack Nicholson ham it up more than any actor from the original, and by altering the original ending.

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6 ‘The Thing’ (1982)

Director: John Carpenter

John Carpenter‘s 1982 version of The Thing stands as another remake that’s more well-known than the original. In this case, it was an update of 1951’s The Thing from Another World, which was also about a group of scientists who clash with a mysterious and deadly alien life form in a freezing cold, eerily isolated location.

1982’s The Thing was potentially too shocking for audiences when it first came out, but it’s since gone on to be recognized as one of the best horror movies of all time. The Thing uses the already-established premise to make something far more suspenseful, gory, and haunting than what came before. It holds up brilliantly today, partly due to its fantastic practical effects, which still look wonderfully disgusting and horrifying.

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5 ‘A Fistful of Dollars’ (1964)

Director: Sergio Leone

A Fistful of Dollars is generally agreed to be an unofficial remake of Akira Kurosawa‘s 1961 samurai film, Yojimbo. It makes sense, because the plot does feel a bit like a Western, with a mysterious stranger entering a town with two rival gangs at war, and playing each side against each other to take them all out.

While this led to a lawsuit back in the early 1960s, nowadays, since the dust has settled, both are held in high esteem as classics of their own genre. It feels right, too, as arguably, the samurai film is to Japan what the Western is to America. Each genre looks back on an interesting, distant part of history, sometimes mythologizing it, sometimes critiquing it, and sometimes doing a bit of both. Regardless of who may have stolen what, Yojimbo stands as a classic samurai movie, and A Fistful of Dollars lives on as an essential Western, thanks to making Clint Eastwood a movie star, and providing legendary director Sergio Leone with his first big break.

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4 ‘The Fly’ (1986)

Director: David Cronenberg

The original version of The Fly from 1958 is fun, if a little schlocky. It lacks the capacity to scare modern audiences, but the premise of a man transforming into a fly is an undoubtedly great one, and it features horror icon Vincent Price, who you can never go wrong with.

David Cronenberg‘s 1986 remake, on the other hand, is still genuinely scary, and surprisingly sad, too. It has timeless special effects that emphasize just how gross turning into a fly would be, and the performances of Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis get you invested in the characters, making the plot emotional and quite tragic in the process. The Fly is a great horror film that takes a potentially goofy premise and executes it in a way viewers can actually take seriously. Indeed, it’s up there with the scariest sci-fi movies of all time.

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3 ‘Nosferatu the Vampyre’ (1979)

Director: Werner Herzog

At the risk of getting confusing: 1979’s Nosferatu the Vampyre is a loose remake of 1922’s Nosferatu, which is an unauthorized adaptation/retelling of the classic Dracula story. Adding to the complexity of it all? Nosferatu is slated to get another remake, this time from director Robert Eggers.

Both the 1922 and 1979 versions tell the story of a vampire who falls in love with a woman whilst morally corrupting her partner. Werner Herzog’s take is just as good as the classic, silent original, and Klaus Kinski is magnificently creepy in the title role, with it standing as one of the very best collaborations, as well as a particularly great entry in Herzog’s filmography. The music, visuals, and overall atmosphere combine to create a cold and quietly creepy vampire film that’s one of the best ever made.

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2 ‘A Star Is Born’ (2018)

Director: Bradley Cooper

Over the years, there’s been a surprising number of filmed versions of A Star Is Born. The story is a timelessly tragic romance, centering on one young artist/entertainer who’s finding her profile rapidly on the rise, and what happens when she falls in love with a man who’s in a similar field, yet finds his career trajectory going in the opposite direction. The 1930s, 1950s, and 1970s all gave different generations their own A Star Is Born, and then the latest came out in 2018.

Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper both deliver strong lead performances in 2018’s A Star Is Born, with the latter notably also excelling in the director’s chair, making for a well-made movie overall. It modernizes the story that’s been told before while remaining faithful in all the ways it needs to, and can easily count itself as another fine addition to what’s become a series – or legacy – of A Star Is Born films.

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1 ‘Cape Fear’ (1991)

Director: Martin Scorsese

15 years before directing an update to Infernal Affairs in the form of The Departed, Martin Scorsese was behind another remake: 1991’s Cape Fear, which updated the film of the same name from 1962. It maintains the premise but makes things considerably more violent and intense, which feels fitting, given this thriller revolves around a lawyer and his family being stalked by a terrifying criminal who’s recently been released from prison.

The 1991 version of Cape Fear also benefits greatly from containing one of Robert De Niro’s most memorable – and nerve-wracking – performances in a career filled with great ones, and he’s reason enough to watch the movie. It might not quite be one of the very best Scorsese films, but it is still a good one that overall has the sort of quality one would expect from a movie bearing his name.

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