The search for remakes better than the original according to Tarantino rests on a premise worth checking. His admiration for a new version does not, on its own, prove that he compared it with the earlier film and declared it the winner.
The point: a solid reference, a different comparison
Tarantino explained to Time Out in January 2016 that John Carpenter's The Thing had been 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 makes it possible to speak precisely. Both films are linked to John W. Campbell's story Who Goes There?, but they organise the threat and the creature's identity in different ways. A critical comparison can examine those decisions. To present it as Tarantino's opinion would require a statement from him addressing precisely that relationship.
In Carpenter's version, the capacity to imitate makes the group unsafe from within. The problem is not simply defending a base against a recognisable being. That condition explains the value of The Thing as a model of suspicion and confinement, developed in the profile on 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 origin makes the comparison relevant; the list alone does not settle it.
Moreover, Friedkin described his work 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 a general conversation, although it does not exhaust the relationship between two films that return to the same source.
Nor does Tarantino's comparative preference appear in the statements considered here in a way that would allow us to place Invasion of the Body Snatchers in a ranking of superior remakes. Including it because other filmmakers have praised it would transfer one person's opinion to another. A sound selection needs to preserve the authorship of each judgement.
A new version is not a sequel
A remake revisits a story; a sequel continues a story or brings back characters for another adventure. The boundary can become blurred with franchise reboots, but it remains useful for avoiding confusion between different questions. Comments on sequels Tarantino has rated do not automatically prove a theory of his about new adaptations.
His public refusal in 2024 to watch the new Dune films also does not establish an aesthetic ban that applies to every era. It expressed weariness at stories he already knew. The documented admiration for The Thing and Sorcerer shows, at the very least, that his preferences cannot be explained by a rule as simple as rejecting every film with a predecessor.
The verifiable answer is therefore a limited selection of new versions he appreciates, together with the exact scope of each piece of evidence. The question of quality compared with the originals remains open when he has not formulated it in an identifiable source. Turning that absence into a closed ranking would give a certainty that the available testimony does not provide.
See the selection of films recommended by Tarantino.