Horror is timeless. From the earliest days of cinema, filmmakers have been telling–and retelling–terrifying tales of monsters and spirits from beyond the realm of mortal comprehension.
In the past decade, the reboot and remake culture of Hollywood has looked to the classics of horror lore to bring already-familiarised audiences to the multiplexes, with hopes that they can capitalise on the iconic stories for huge box office wins. And it seems like it's working. With films like Get Out, Hereditary, and Us making tons of noise in critics circles and lighting up the box office like bonafide blockbusters, the late 2010s have felt like a new golden age for horror filmmaking.
The beloved Stephen King novel, It, saw its first screen adaptation back in 1990 with the ABC miniseries directed by Tommy Lee Wallace. The series, though schlocky by today's standards, became a beloved fixture in the horror hall-of-fame, gaining a cult audience of former kids who were likely much too young to be watching it in the early 90s. Now, Pennywise the Clown is back on everyone's minds (and in our waking nightmares) with his return to the big screen in the 2017 film adaptation by Andy Muschietti. The titular demonic entity is set to return to cinemas again this year, in the upcoming It Chapter Two, which centres on the children from the first film returning home as grown adults to do battle with the spooky clown yet again.
It has been a formidable horror remake, but it's not the only franchise to be receiving a top-notch modern day revitalisation. In the video above, we count down the best horror remakes of all time.
Dom Nero is a staff video editor at Esquire, where he also writes about film, television, tech, and video games.
