Marvel’s Werewolf by Night was a surprising special that especially stuck out compared to the rest of the MCU, with its black-and-white cinematography, emphasis on horror, and separation from the usual characteristics that make up other MCU entries. It marked the biggest success of director and composer Michael Giacchino’s filmography so far, something that hasn’t gone unnoticed by other film studios. Now, barely a year removed from Werewolf by Night’s release, Giacchino is planning to make his feature film debut with a remake of 1954’s Them!.
It’s certainly an interesting proposition. While remakes are as popular as they ever were, with some audiences becoming jaded as the same properties hit the big screen over and over, there’s an argument to be made for remaking films that were simply too high of a concept for their respective time. Sure, we can ask if Them! specifically needs to be remade, but the better question is if we really need more remakes of 1950s monster movies.
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Should We Remake Monster Movies?
Warner Bros.
While remakes can usually be called quick cash grabs, they do present a unique opportunity. You have to remember that filmmaking as an art form didn’t really exist until around the early 1900s, and even then, the tricks and techniques to convey supernatural ideas were still significantly limited decades later. Yes, it’d be nice to see the ants in Them! look much more vicious and intimidating, but that’s only scratching the surface of what remakes can offer.
A staple of sci-fi films that, coincidentally, also had inadequate budgets for their concepts is one that plagues the genre: the “standing around and talking” scene. Instead of characters having agency, reacting naturally to the supernatural phenomena they encounter, or even showing off whatever titular creature the film is about, characters will often just stand separated from the action, reacting to it as if they were reading their script directly to the audience. Combined with overly stilted or stoic acting, mediocre pacing, and incompetent scripting, it’s a death knell for what could’ve been an interesting film in general, let alone something based on monsters or science fiction. It can be seen in schlock-fests like First Man in Space, Robot Monster, and what is legitimately one of the worst films ever made, Plan 9 from Outer Space.
Remakes offer a chance to bring these stories the quality, and more importantly, the budget, they deserve. While Them! is a particular standout among a variety of 1950s monster movies, it still offers a chance to possibly improve upon the flaws it may have, be it in direction, acting, effects, or sound design.
Which Remakes Worked?
Of course, Them! isn’t the only 1950s monster movie that’s been remade before. A surprising number of films, be they cult classics or popular hits, originally stemmed from the 1950s. One notable example is 1986’s The Fly. Often seen as one of David Cronenberg’s best films, it was a remake of the 1958 film of the same name, though it took some liberties in adapting from the source material.
The Blob came out towards the tail end of the ’50s in 1958, featuring an amoebic blob creature that terrorized a small community. The 1988 Blob film, despite updating the original’s themes, retained several visual references to the original and even kept its small-town setting.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers has seen multiple remakes, oddly enough, ever since its original debut in 1956. Invasion of the Body Snatchers in 1978, Body Snatchers in 1993, and The Invasion in 2007 all adapt the same source material with details varying between them, although the first two films are generally the most highly regarded.
We can’t forget that The Thing, arguably the pinnacle of John Carpenter’s filmography next to Halloween, is itself a re-imagining of the 1951 film The Thing from Another World. Yes, it’s a remake in the loosest definition, instead following the source material Who Goes There? much more closely, but both films still follow a similar structure and setting.
Adapting for New Audiences
Aside from reintroducing an idea to a new audience, remakes allow for the opportunity to translate outdated themes into something that a contemporary audience would more easily relate to. According to Deadline, Giacchino himself has already stated his desire to update the themes of Them! to tackle the current topic of immigration, with “them” representing “the unknown which one refuses or can’t understand.” It’s one of the most efficient ways of translating an older film for a new generation, but also reflecting the current societal issues that are present during its production.
The Blob is an especially noteworthy example of how a remake can drastically update a film’s messaging. While the original film reflected the fear of the unknown in the form of a blob that came from space, the remake challenges this by making the blob a direct product of the military, originally meant to serve as a vessel for germ warfare. The original film’s plucky All-American jock protagonist was replaced with a rebellious teenager, along with a pervading theme of distrust towards authority figures seeping throughout the film’s runtime.
Them! was originally a story about the atomic age, in much the same way that Godzilla was. The gigantic ants were a direct result of exposure to nuclear radiation, and while it’s a silly thing to think about now, the threat of nuclear annihilation was one that was all too real only a few decades ago. Now, with mass migrations and asylum seekers filling up the headlines, it’ll be interesting to see how that can be related to giant ants.
As for remaking other 1950s monster movies, there’s a legitimate case for doing so. A lot can be done to update their structure and theming for modern audiences, and given that the right talent is on board, it can easily translate into a financial and critical success.
