What did you have in mind, exactly?

Added my notes on The Last House on the Left (2009) over at Alex on Film. Why did the 2000s see so many remakes of horror films from the 1970s and ’80s? Just off the top of my head I can think of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th, The Hills Have Eyes, Nightmare on Elm Street, The Omen, The Amityville Horror, The Fog, The Crazies, Black Christmas, even I Spit On Your Grave! You know when you’re remaking I Spit On Your Grave (and they did both a remake and a sequel to the remake) that you’ve reached the bottom of some kind of creative barrel. I guess it’s also the nature of the film business to want to go with a familiar commercial brand rather than try to sell audiences an entirely new product. What I find most discouraging, however, is how depressing these remakes are in their general tone and outlook. Gore in the ’70s was grim too, but it also had a playful, inventive spirit to it. Aside from Alexandre Aja’s The Hills Have Eyes, which I actually prefer to the original, these millennial retreads get me down.