The search for remakes that are better than the original according to Tarantino rests on a premise worth checking. His admiration for a new version does not, by itself, prove that he compared it with the earlier film and declared it the winner.
The issue: a reliable reference, a different comparison
Tarantino explained to Time Out in January 2016 that John Carpenter's The Thing was a key reference for The Hateful Eight and for Reservoir Dogs. That comment confirms an important influence. It does not, however, include an explicit ranking placing the 1982 film above The Thing from Another World, from 1951.
The distinction allows for precision. Both films are connected to John W. Campbell's story Who Goes There?, but they organize the danger and the creature's identity in different ways. A critical comparison can examine those choices. To present it as Tarantino's opinion would require a statement from him that addressed that relationship specifically.
In Carpenter's version, the ability to imitate makes the group unsafe from within. The problem is not simply defending a base against a recognizable being. That condition explains The Thing's usefulness as a model of suspicion and confinement, developed in the profile of John Carpenter and his relationship with Tarantino.
Sorcerer and new adaptations of the same source
Sorcerer, by William Friedkin, appeared in Tarantino's selection for Sight and Sound in 2012. Its presence documents enthusiasm for the 1977 film, but it does not amount to saying he prefers it to Henri-Georges Clouzot's The Wages of Fear. The shared literary source makes the comparison relevant; the list, by itself, does not settle it.
In addition, Friedkin described his film as a new interpretation of Georges Arnaud's novel. The oral history published by the Cinémathèque française in March 2024 records that position. The word remake can be useful in general conversation, though it does not exhaust the relationship between two films that return to the same source.
Nor does the comparative preference needed to place Invasion of the Body Snatchers in a ranking of superior remakes appear in the statements contrasted here. Including it because other filmmakers have praised it would transfer one person's opinion to another. A good selection needs to preserve the authorship of each judgment.
A new version is not a sequel
A remake returns to a story; a sequel extends a story or brings back characters for another adventure. The boundary can get complicated with franchise reboots, but it remains useful for avoiding confusion between different questions. The comments about sequels Tarantino rates highly do not automatically prove his theory about new adaptations.
His public refusal in 2024 to watch the new Dune films also does not establish an aesthetic rule that applies to all eras. It expressed fatigue with stories he already knew. The documented admiration for The Thing and Sorcerer shows, at minimum, that his preferences cannot be explained by a rule as simple as rejecting any film with a predecessor.
The verifiable answer is, therefore, a limited selection of new versions he values, along with the exact scope of each piece of evidence. The quality comparison with the originals remains open when he has not stated it in an identifiable source. Turning that absence into a closed ranking would create certainty that the available testimony does not provide.
Check out the selection of movies recommended by Tarantino.