One, two, Freddy’s coming for you… three, four, will there be more gore?
The remake of “A Nightmare on Elm Street” has just finished filming in Chicago. While we have to wait until next April to actually see the movie, Patrick Goldstein at Los Angeles Times blog The Big Picture has an early preview of the franchise reboot. There’s not much in the way of details, not even a look at the new Freddy Krueger (played by “Watchmen” actor Jackie Earle Haley). Instead, Goldstein focuses on the talent involved, including music video director Sam Bayer (“Smells Like Teen Spirit”), and addresses the difference in budget between this remake and the 1984 original.
The way the piece reads, I’m almost led to believe that the new “Nightmare” will be more of a thriller about a pedophilic psychopath than a slasher flick. While the original is indeed about a child murderer who comes back from the dead to kill teens in their dreams, the semi-appropriate involvement of Haley and screenwriter Wesley Strick recalls their previous work with similar stories. Haley played a man convicted of exposing himself to a minor in “Little Children,” while Strick penned the remake of “Cape Fear,” which had a villain who’d been convicted of raping a young woman.
New Line production chief Toby Emmerich is actually quoted in Goldstein’s article, alluding to that specific performance of Haley’s as being the primary reason the actor won the part of Freddy, an iconic bogeyman remembered for his brown hat, striped sweater and razor-clawed glove. Sadly, there’s no mention of whether or not the costume will be the same in the new movie. Rather, Emmerich notes that Haley could bring more vulnerability to the killer, whom he says previously was only given a hint of such character development.
The question is, do we really want more complexity in a figure who is memorable for being so simple and mysterious? More importantly, so utterly, remorselessly violent?
No. For me, I prefer the loosely exposited back-story and the inexplicable premise of the original. There’s no place for more realism and psychology in the fantastical idea of a supernatural serial killer who strikes at the subconscious. As long as there are gory scenes that rival the blood geyser spewing out of Johnny Depp’s bed in the original, horror fans will be happy. Fortunately, as Goldstein points out, with the combination of modern horror trends and the budget increase from $1.8 million (1984 version) to $27 million (the remake), there should be plenty of improvements on the graphic nature of the remake.
The piece ironically finishes with a quote from Emmerich, in which he calls Freddy Krueger “the Coca-Cola of the horror market.” So does that make this reboot “New Coke”? Obviously it’s an unfortunate analogy to inadvertently make. Hopefully the new Freddy won’t similarly leave such a bad taste in our mouth when held up against the classic original.
Are you looking forward to the remake, or do you hold the original Freddy dear to your heart? Would you be more interested in a more psychological remake or a gorier one?
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