Hollywood fumbles in a great many departments – most notably in diversity and ethics in general – but one of its biggest yet somehow unsung failures has to be mishandling of the art of the reboot.
In a world saturated by reboots, it’s gotten to a point where the term holds nothing but ugly connotations for the more scoff-happy moviegoer. Disney, for example, sours the essence of the reboot by remaking already-beloved animated films to markedly underwhelming effect. This, among other things, has perhaps caused the world to forget its true power; to take the forgotten misfires and breathe new life into them (Disney, if you’re reading this, get on a Treasure Planet remake stat).
All of this to say that reboots simply need to find the right material to reach its rarely-achieved peak, and no genre has a surplus of that quite like horror. From the exhausting schlockfests of yesterday to the gratuitous torture porn that the genre has made leaps and bounds in separating from, there’s plenty of forgettable horror that’s ripe for a reboot, and fans on r/horror have taken to campaigning for a Wes Craven-produced fantasy horror flick to be given that chance.
For those of you not aware, the Wishmaster films follow the wicked plights of a wish-granting genie who seeks to release his kind from another dimension and take over Earth; indeed, Wishmaster takes “be careful what you wish for” to a whole other level.
None of its four films have exceeded a Rotten Tomatoes critic score beyond 25 percent, but perhaps that only underlines how lucrative a proper remake would be; a notion mostly highlighted by the defiant outpouring of love for the franchise in the comments.
It’s hard to say if we’ll ever see an end to the milking of successful IPs, but, with a bit of luck, perhaps remakes will still get to indulge in their true purpose, even if such an indulgence is only witnessed by a fraction of Wishmaster diehards.