If, like us, you enjoy watching foreign movies, you’ll appreciate how creative, unusual and thought-provoking they can be by broadening our experience of cinema and exposing us to new film making styles and genres. You’ll also understand how nerve-wracking and infuriating it can be to see your favourite foreign movies to get the dreaded ‘Hollywood treatment’. From blatant plagiarizing of the source material to losing the spirit of the original and making silly changes to the plot and characters, Hollywood has a checkered history when it comes to reimagining classic films from around the world. So here are 12 of their worst attempts!

1. The Vanishing (1993)

The Original: Spoorloos (1988)

Probably the biggest boo-boo the remake made was that it did away with the original’s hauntingly grim ending in favour of a much less memorable, happily ever after final act.

6. The Wicker Man (2006)

The Original: The Wicker Man (1973)

Nicolas Cage is no stranger to shoddy American remakes but the hilarity of this completely nuts reboot of the British cult classic really takes the biscuit. “Oh no! Not the bees!”

7. Bangkok Dangerous (2008)

The Original: Bangkok Dangerous (1999)

Proof that lightning rarely strikes twice, the Pang Brothers’ tried to remake their own successful original with an added Nicolas Cage, and instead ended up with a withering score of 9% on Rotten Tomatoes.

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