Five friends, in one log house, surrounded by numerous flesh-eating neighbors. Sound familiar? It should, seeing how only fourteen years separate this from its predecessor. Not since Gus Van Sant plunged a knife in Psycho have we witnessed such an unnecessary remake. Had Quentin Tarantino upped the number of “Hatefuls” to nine, thereby parenting a slot for his good buddy, Eli Roth, this carbon replica might never have been. After all, a down payment on a house is the only possible excuse for this Roth-produced scene-for-scene, at times shot-by-shot, reboot of his 2002 comedy horror success. Roth’s original wasn’t all that original to begin with, but it did give off a certain aura of grungy authenticity. What little promise of creativity the remake holds gets quickly dashed the moment the actors appear draped in Western Costume hillbilly regalia, flashing their toothy, FX paint-stained grins. Tack a few more “z’s” to the end of director Travis Z’s handle as punishment for an astonishingly pedestrian job of tracing. (2016) — Scott Marks