What remakes truly recontextualize or improve upon their source material?

[Ryan19]

I'm teaching a film studies seminar on adaptation, and I want to dedicate a section to the best movie remakes of all time that genuinely recontextualize or improve upon their source material, moving beyond simple visual updates. I'm thinking of examples like "The Fly" or "The Thing," which used new thematic concerns and advanced practical effects to explore deeper anxieties. For fellow cinephiles and scholars, what remakes do you consider essential viewing for understanding the artistic merit of the form? How do you evaluate a successful remake—is it fidelity to the original's spirit, a bold new interpretation, or something else entirely—and are there any underrated foreign-language remakes of Hollywood films that flipped the script in an interesting way?