10 Slashers That Could Benefit from a Remake: THE MUTILATOR (1985)

Now that we're well into 2012, something has occurred to me: it's the first year in a decade that has no slasher remakes scheduled for release. While the remakes have swooned the box office with usual great success, very few horror film movements have drawn up as much protest as the dreaded remake craze did.

It's pretty obvious, looking back, as to how studios and producers chose which slashers were deemed worth remaking - they were the slashers that were original moneymakers upon their original release. HALLOWEEN, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, FRIDAY THE 13TH, PROM NIGHT, THE HILLS HAVE EYES, and A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET were all monster successes and pop-culture phenomenon's. Even more cult-y slashers like BLACK CHRISTMAS and MY BLOODY VALENTINE had earned a solid enough reputation to guarantee a solid fanbase.

But when you really think about it, doesn't the thought of remaking more well-known slasher films seem to sort of juxtapose what a remake stands for? Shouldn't they be remaking films that are less-known and more dated, to bring them to a modern-day audience? While 2012 might not have any remakes on its schedule, I can guarantee you that a second wave of remakes will eventually come along. But when it does, it should be focusing its efforts on the movies that actually could benefit from a redo. As we take a break from remakes in theaters, here's the ten suggestions for films to consider a redux for, and ways to take the original movie and make it fresh and modern without spitting in the face of the original's fans (here's looking at you, Rob Zombie!).

04. THE MUTILATOR

"By Sword. By Pick. By Axe. Bye, Bye!" - one of the best slasher film taglines, ever.


The Mutilator told the story of a young boy named Ed who accidentally shoots and kills his loving mother while cleaning his father's gun. Years later, his now-crazed father stalks him and his friends as they vacation at the family's beach house, and eventually wipes out the friends while trying to get to Ed.

By the time The Mutilator was released, interest in the slasher genre had pretty much begin to dry up. The Mutilator a no-budget shlock that lacks the style, personality, atmosphere, and creativity that made earlier slashers so much fun. The film seems uninspired in most parts, but the one thing that The Mutilator did live up to is its name - the gore factor is really the only reason why The Mutilator has retained any type of cult status. And because of its cult status, it deserves another shot - gorier and nastier, with a better rounded story. 

The Concept

What the original 1985 film really had working for it was the very basic plot - insane father is driven to kill his offspring. It also had those shocking death scenes, from one character getting impaled in the groin with a fishing gaff to another character being completely cut in half, crawling on the ground with his intestines dragging along. While undoubtedly tasteless, The Mutilator at least followed through on one of its promises.

Over the decades since its release, The Mutilator has become known for its gore, so the gore is essential in the remake. But the gore should be nasty and intense, in the vein of I SAW THE DEVIL and THE RAID: REDEMPTION. Too often, teenage slashers are glossed over - even SCREAM and Friday the 13th, while gruesome, don't fully commit to the nastiness and violence. The Mutilator remake must.

When looking at things to fix, the story for The Mutilator is the best place to start. First of all, our protagonist accidentally shoots hit mother and kills her. Years later, he seems rather normal, considering that he committed matricide. Realistically, that would mess a kid up a little bit more. Rather than having the kid literally kill the mother, it might make more sense for the mother to die of natural causes related to child birth. This still happens a lot, and the grievingly insane father could be driven to madness through his wife's death and the sudden realization that he must now care for a new baby... or three.

That's right. Three children - triplets - should be the targets of the insane father in The Mutilator. Why? Well, for several reasons - it gives them more friends for their crazy daddy to hack up, it adds an emotional bond, and it also leaves room for a sequel (could one of the kids become the next "mutilator?"). Also, going back to the original backstory with the mother dying in child birth, the insane father could be so overwhelmed with three babies that they literally could drive him mad. His solution: killing them in a very Andrea Yates-inspired way by drowning the newborns. But he is stopped by his sister-in-law and her husband, and committed to a hospital for insanity. Meanwhile, the sister-in-law and her husband could take the kids in.

Now, for daddy. In the original film, it is never really specified what makes the father suddenly snap after all those years and try to kill his son and friends. However, if he has been in a hospital for the past twenty years, the father will eventually be released back into society, and follow his wrath on his family. Of course, the three triplets known very little about him, but they eventually start to figure things out.

The triplets, now all college aged, bring their friends home for Fall Break to their New England beach house. As tensions arise between the three siblings and their guests, they are unaware that someone has been watching. Oh, and the mutilator is prepared with a tool-shed full of weapons. I mean, he has to live up to his classic tagline; "By Pick. By Axe. By Sword... Bye, Bye!"

The Plot

Twenty years ago: a beautiful, loving, sweet woman dies on a hospital bed while giving birth to triplets. Her ruling, military-man husband James is overcome by grief. The woman's sister Deborah and her husband Harrison come to help James care for the triplets. One night, James is left alone with his newborn sons; he is unable to cope with his wife's death and the new responsibility, and blames the babies for losing the love of his life. He attempts to drown them in a bathtub, but Deborah and Harrison arrive in time to save them. James is taken to a mental hospital, and the triplets are taken in by their aunt and uncle. 

Present day: Deborah wakes up after a nightmare. She goes downstairs to get a glass of water. Hears a noise, discovers the door is open, and assumes its the house caretaker. She goes back upstairs to discover Harrison is dead. She is then attacked and gruesomely killed by... James. He's back. 

The next day: Michael, one of the triplets, arrives at the house with his girlfriend, Hudson. They can't find anyone, except for Grady, the house caretaker. It isn't long before Michael's brother John and his lady-friend Annabel show up. And then Thomas, the third triplet, rolls up with his rowdy posse of fraternity brothers; Russ, Kevin, and Ian. 

While Thomas and his crew parties, Michael and John both become concerned about Deborah and Harrison's whereabouts. As they investigate the house, they discover the truth about their father. But the phones are down, and everyone's cell phones have mysteriously disappeared. And soon, people start disappearing as well.

SPOILERS: But here's the twist - Michael and Hudson discover that James actually committed suicide shortly after being released from the hospital. When they try to find Thomas and John to relay the information about their biological father, they discover a tool-shed filled with mutilated bodies. As it turns out, Thomas has taken up daddy's homicidal ways after hearing about his real past and what happened to James. And now, Michael and Hudson have to find any survivors and escape the new mutilator - Thomas! 

The Gore

As mentioned, this movie is all about the red-stuff. We're talking about serious carnage. To do this, the villain - good ol' daddy James - needs to be pretty much inhumane. He needs to get the sick enjoyment out of his mutilations that real-life serial killers do. Make it scary, intense, and graphic. But not over-the-top and humorous like HATCHET, but really intense and, at times, sick.

When people buy tickets to a movie called The Mutilator, they know what they're getting themselves into. But the movie needs to exceed their expectations. If they're expecting some goofy gory fun like Hatchet, give them I Saw the Devil and make them squirm in their seats.

The Characters 

Michael Cooper. Male, 20. Good looking with a quiet, sensitive lack of confidence. Dedicated and smart.

John Cooper. Male, 20. Athletic and handsome. A genuine and logical guy. He makes sure those he cares about are taken care of. Just a really great guy. 

Thomas Cooper. Male, 20. The rowdy, careless, rebellious Alpha-Male. He doesn’t mind pushing his brother’s around. Has a lot of attitude. 

Hudson. Female, 20. Michael’s fun, energetic girlfriend. Pretty, athletic, youthful, and adventurous. 

Anabell. Female, 20. John’s ultra-sexy girlfriend. An attractive college girl, although a little bit bitchy and conceded. 

Russ. Male, 20. Thomas’ sex-starved roommate. Funny and always horny. He’ll make a move on any girl he deems “worth it.” 

Kevin. Male, 20. Thomas’ football star best friend. Black. Good-looking and funny, with a ripped body. An athlete. He’s used to getting what he wants. 

Ian. Male, 20. Thomas’ chubby buddy. Technological and kind of a geek. His friends suspect he’s a virgin, but he swears he’s not.

Harrison Cooper. Male, 40s. The triplet's uncle and adoptive father. Casual and calm. A guy who made it rich easily.

Deborah Cooper. Female, 40s. The triplet's aunt and adoptive mother. Hospitable and caring. She worries about the triplets more than anything.

Grady. Male, 60s. Black. The Cooper’s beach house caretaker. Cool and funny - he was probably the man in the 70s. He knows about the triplet’s brutal past. 

James Degrutte. Male, 40s. The triplet's maniac, biological father. He tried to kill them once, and will try again... and again... and again...

Final Thoughts

1985's The Mutilator is by no means a good movie. It's not even a good slasher movie, and if it weren't for the gore the film wouldn't have any fanbase. But there were some decent ideas in The Mutilator, and its a shame to let it go to waste with the schlocky, tasteless original. Now that makes The Mutilator a very worthy film for a remake. 

Just think, after all the movies that have surpassed The Mutilator in terms of nastiness, it's time to give the mean daddy another shot at slicing and dicing. And with today's technologies, nothing can be left to the imagination. Who needs an R-rating? Just skip the semantics and give us the Uncut remake.

"What If?" Sequels: Part 1

The horror genre - and especially its slasher sub-genre - is notorious for having series of never-ending sequels. In fact, some of the longest-running, most expansive film franchises started with low-budget slasher movies from the 70's and 80's - namely HALLOWEEN, FRIDAY THE 13TH, and A NIGHTMARE ON ELMS STREET.

But these three titans of terror are not alone in the franchise market. Some others - such as PSYCHO,  SCREAM, CHILD'S PLAY, and THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE - have expanded into their own huge franchises, with sequels, prequels, spin-offs, comic books, and novelizations. Heck, even low-budget exploitation fare like Wes Craven's THE HILLS HAVE EYES have enjoyed franchise success, and low-budget titles like PROM NIGHT, BASKET CASE and SLEEPAWAY CAMP have each spawned into cult-favorite franchises. More recently a craze of rebooting old slashers like MY BLOODY VALENTINE, THE TOOLBOX MURDERS, and THE FOG has become a new form "sequels" that continue the stories.

But the reasons for making a franchise out of a certain movie has always baffled me. Yes, Halloween, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Scream were overwhelming successes and guaranteed a sequel. But what made The Hills Have Eyes deserve a sequel, a remake, and a sequel to the remake (I'm not bashing - I find campy humor in the 1985 sequel and the 2006 remake is one of the most badass movies of the past decade).

Sometimes its for the best that certain movies never continue their stories (BLACK CHRISTMAS and THE HOUSE ON SORORITY ROW are extra creepy because they don't have a sequel), but sometimes it makes you wonder how a stand-alone movie could have continued (especially with great villains in the mix)?

So, in my opinion, here are the first 5 of 10 movies that should have been franchise starters:


(SPOILERS BELOW)


10. TOURIST TRAP (1979)

Original Film's Logline: After experiencing car troubles, a group of young friends become stranded at a secluded off-road museum, where they are stalked by a mysterious plaster-faced killer with the power to control inanimate objects with his mind.

How the Original Ended: As it turns out in the end, Plaster Face and museum owner Mr. Slausen (Chuck Connors) are actually the same person, and after killing all of her friends, Molly (Jocelyn Jones) is left alone to fight him. She ends up subduing him and escaping, although its quite possible that we haven't seen the last of Plaster Face.

Sequel Idea: Some of the best horror franchises are built around interesting and unique villains that can do unique and interesting things. Plaster Face is a telekinetic serial killer - think Sissy Spacek from CARRIE without the embarrassing girl problems. So in a sequel, Plaster Face's kills could get more and more creative and gruesome (unlike the original film's rather tame deaths, due to its PG rating). Just think about the insanely inventive death scenes where Plater Face could take ordinary objects (such as a scarf, in the first film) and turn them into deadly weapons without ever using his hands. It could be like FINAL DESTINATION, only with a tangible villain. The sequel should move Mr. Slausen/Plaster Face to the grounds of the city, where he is living under an assumed name to escape prosecution or capture.

The setting of Tourist Trap is, what I believe, kept it from achieving greatness. The film's setting overshadowed its unique elements, like the cool twist of having Slausen and Plaster Face literally be the same person, and the telekinetic aspect to the killings. Instead, it comes off too much like other backwoods slashers, including The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The Hills Have Eyes, and most notably MOTEL HELL and HOUSE OF WAX. The House of Wax remake in 2005 was largely inspired by Tourist Trap, and shares more in common with this film than it does with the 1953 original.




9. HELL NIGHT (1981)

Original Film's Logline: As their final right of initiation, four college pledges are forced to spend the night inside an abandoned mansion where they are stalked by a monstrous man who is the surviving member of a family massacre that occurred at that very mansion years earlier.

How the Original Ended: Marti (Linda Blair), Jeff (Peter Barton), and Seth (Vincent Van Patten) believe that they have killed the mutated killer of Garth Manor... only to discover that the killer has a brother! Seth and Jeff are picked off rather quickly, leaving Marti to take on the ghoul. She kicks his ass, hitting him with a car and impaling him with a gate.

Sequel Idea: Marti would have to return. She would just have to. She was such a badass heroine. She could have become the Ellen Ripley of teen slasher films. And with a sequel, Marti could grow from traumatized victim into hardcore mutant butt-kicking bitch. And you know Linda Blair would have been down to return. In the sequel, more would have to be explored in Garth Manor... maybe both brothers didn't die, or possibly there are even more siblings that survived the original Garth Manor massacre (they said the boys had a sister, didn't they...)? In any case, I would envision a small film crew from the college making a short documentary about the events of Garth Manor for their thesis project, and then murders begin anew. Before filming, they try to get Marti to join them, but she initially refuses. Eventually, Marti comes around and wants to make sure the teens are safe. Soon, she's face to face with Garth terror once again!

Ever since the PROM NIGHT came in number one at the box office back in 2008, Screen Gems has been trying to develop a remake to Hell Night. And they want it to be PG-13. Luckily, that project seems to have slowed down. To this day, the idea of having my proposed Hell Night sequel could work. Heck, Linda Blair certainly could use the work.

8. THE MUTILATOR (1985)

Original Film's Logline: After accidentally committing matricide as a young child, a now grown college student returns to his beach house with his friends for spring break, where his now crazed father stalks them and kills them in increasingly creative ways out of vengeance for the mother's death.

How the Original Ended: After killing all of their friends, psychopath Ed Sr. (Jack Chatham) confronts his son Ed Jr. (Matt Mitler) and his girlfriend Pam (Ruth Martinez), attacking them and refusing to die until finally, Ed Jr. and Pam are able to chop off Ed Sr.'s legs and drive away, leaving him for dead.

Sequel Idea: Okay, don't bite my head off, but I'd prefer a reboot of The Mutilator over a sequel. I mean, really, how could the story actually continue after the original? Ed Sr. gets bionic legs and slowly, over the course of the franchise installments, becomes a cyborg? Or Ed Jr. just snaps and picks up the role as the mutilator? No, they all sound... pointless.

Rather than having a sequel, The Mutilator is ripe for a remake. Face it people: the first film is really not a good movie, but it has interesting ideas. Take the basic story - a father wanting revenge on his son for killing his wife - and you've got a classic slasher film story. But why not amp things up? Rather than having the crazed father attacking his one child, why not have him target twins or - wait for it - triplets. And with each triplet comes slasher fodder friends, too. And rather than having the mother get murdered, why not have her die of birth complications? Then the triplets are left in the care of their father, who goes mad after his wife's death and tries to kill the infants but they are rescued and put up for adoption while the father is sent to a sanitarium. 18-years later, the father is released, and the triplets are on their fall break.

7. HUMONGOUS (1982)

Original Film's Logline: A woman is raped at a cocktail party and, years later, her offspring grows up as a savage monster who stalks and kills teens shipwrecked on his abandoned island.

How the Original Ended: After everyone else is killed by the monster, Sandy (Janet Julian) is on the run and finds the monster's shrine, and - ala FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2 - she pretends to be his deceased mother until finally burning down the shrine and killing the monster. She then goes and sits on a dock, waiting for help to arrive.

Sequel Idea: Well, the problem with Humongous is that it borrows so much of its story from Friday the 13th Part 2, especially the ending where the final girl finally defeats the villain. What started as a fresh story in the genre (monster stalking teens stranded on his island) eventually suffers from a technical lack of creativity. And that's a shame, but its also ultimately a franchise killer.

Like my suggestion for the above film, The Mutilator, the idea would not be to create a sequel to Humongous, but rather a complete reboot that could stand completely alone. Once again, the idea is there, the execution was just weak. Humongous' basic plot reminds me of a classic ancient Greek myth - a monster on an island terrorizing people. So let's think about it and apply it to Humongous - set it in ancient times (perhaps after the Trojan War). A soldier is returning home to his loved one, but when he arrives home he discovers his village has been pillaged by bandits, and the said lover has been taken along with other virgins by these bandits. They take her on their ship, but a storm shipwrecks them onto Dog Island, where they encounter the beast - the monstrous offspring of a witch who was raped by a criminal. While the slayings begin, the soldier follows clues in search of his girl. How could would a slasher film be in the style of 300 or IMMORTALS? The gory possibilities are endless.

6. NIGHT OF THE DEMON (1980)

Original Film's Logline: A professor, obsessed with cryptology, takes a team of students into the forest to investigate a series of gruesome killings that he believes is connected to the legendary creature Bigfoot.

How the Original Ended: Does it really matter? A bunch of people die and Bigfoot still walks the lands. Professor Nugent (Michael J. Cutt) and his cadre of Anthropology students discover that Bigfoot raped a hermit called Crazy Wanda (Melanie Graham) and then she gave birth to his mutant son. Oh, and there's also a cult that worships Bigfoot.

Sequel Idea: Night of the Demon has a lot going on for such a low-budget movie - aside from being a standard backwoods slasher, it also features Bigfoot, a Bigfoot cult, a mutant child, and a bunch of random killings (yes, this is the movie where someone dies by getting their penis ripped off while urinating in a bush). The best part of this movie is that Bigfoot is such a crazy character and villain. Well, that, and the fact that its unintentionally hysterical.

Still, over time Night of the Demon has gained a larger cult following than it deserves, largely due to its campy nature, its rather obscure availability, and the fact that it is about Bigfoot. A sequel should simply continue the story, further investigating Bigfoot and the crimes he has committed. It could be interesting to continue looking at the idea of Bigfoot cult, and seeing if they somehow control him (like the Thorn Cult in HALLOWEEN: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS). But at the end of the day, a sequel to Night of the Demon just needs to feature Bigfoot destroying a bunch of people.

Stay tuned for the final 5 slasher movies that deserved - or still deserve - a franchise.