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Wednesday
23Jul2008

'Nightmare on Elm Street' Names a New Writer

DateWednesday, July 23, 2008 at 9:23AM
I'm slightly encouraged by one line in the description of the new Nightmare on Elm Street movie, although I still think the producers are missing the only golden opportunity left for the franchise and Freddy Krueger.

The line goes like this, "The new project will keep the high school setting [of the original] and delve deeper in the psychology of nightmares and Krueger himself." That's from The Hollywood Reporter via Movieweb, incidentally. That's close to what I think the Nightmare franchise needs, but we'll see how much psychological delving they do when the time comes.

I still think the golden opportunity here is not a remake, not to present the events of the first film again, but rather to do a prequel. We know what a dark character Krueger is and we know how he came to haunt people's dreams, but what about a movie that shows us the human Krueger? Isn't that slightly more compelling?

Despite earlier claims touting different writers, New Line has hired Wesley Strick to work on the new film, which we found out earlier this year would not star Robert Englund, another thing they should correct before they start production. Strick has been down the remake road before, penning Scorsese's Cape Fear; his other credits include Arachnophobia and, sadly, The Saint. It's also being reported that New Line wants the film ready for the 25th anniversary of the original, which would be next November. Because of its success, this series helped New Line become a global force in the motion picture industry, and for many years it was referred to as "The House that Freddy Built."

I have no problem cranking back the odometer on this series. After all, the first one was something of a horror movie revolution, but many parts of it simply don't hold up when viewed today. Halloween, for example, can still work if you watch it, as can The Exorcist. But because this was so cheap to produce, a lot of the elements look very cheesy and campy.

The story is good enough to revisit - and it's all the more compelling if you know that Wes Craven based the movie on news reports of Filipino children in Los Angeles complaining about their nightmares and eventually dying in their sleep - and Krueger is timeless. I just wish they'd do the prequel, because really, after the first movie, it's the only thing left to explore.

AuthorColin Boyd | | in , , , , | Print ArticlePrint Article | | CommentPost a Comment |

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