Movies From Beyond Remake Special: Dawn Of The Dead & Psycho

Movies From Beyond is a weekly celebration of movies from just outside the mainstream.

You might call them B-movies, hidden gems, cult classics or the just plain odd, but if it involves zombies, blood, guts, slashers, deviants or all of the above then we are in. That’s how we roll, punk!

Today we're looking at nothing but remakes, in particular Dawn Of The Dead and Psycho…

Before he did the fantastic 300, Zack Synder took on a pretty steep challenge by remaking Dawn Of The Dead. It could have gone so horribly wrong, especially as generations of horror fans love the original so much, but there are some really great moments with the super-speedy undead tearing around the mall. The merry band of survivors, too, are really well cast with mostly unknowns; the main star of the gang being Sarah Polley, who has a definite ouch moment when she wipes out and smashes her head against the bath.

If you are a proper geek, the director’s commentary is well worth checking out, as is the soundtrack that features Johnny Cash and Richard Cheese. We watched the movie on the DVD that has been around for ages, although a HD-DVD release is also available.

If Dawn of the Dead ranks among the best remakes ever, which it does, then Gus Van Sant’s remake of Psycho must surely be the worst and probably the most pointless.  

Pretty much a shot-for-shot redoing of Alfred Hitchcock’s original, we really felt like there was no point to it all and the casting of Vince Vaughn as killer tranny nutcase Norman Bates is questionable as you are constantly expecting him to do something Wedding Crasher-ish. Never happens. We would advise horror fans to just watch the original, then Rear Window.

However, there is still the tension of the original Psycho, the voiceovers at the start and the infamous shower scene are still there but, having seen it in black and white so many times before, it was weird in glorious technicolour.  

In other news, the Resident Evil trilogy is just released on Blu-ray, which is very exciting as it is one of the better movies based on a videogame. Well worth checking out.   

[story by Simon Woodley]