Thursday, August 6, 2015

Another Walk Down Elm Street?

It has been leaked by a very reliable source that Warner Bros. is planning on bringing Freddy Kreuger back to the big screen.  I have to say that this news excites me.  Nightmare on Elm Street is my favorite slasher franchise and I would love to see what someone else could do with the bastard son of a hundred maniacs.  Interestingly enough, Platinum Dunes is NOT part of the as-yet unnamed production team.  So with some new blood in the water, here are my suggestions for what they should (and shouldn't) do:


Set it in the 80s
One of the greatest things about the NoES series is that they kept up with the times that they were in.  The team behind the films cared enough (in most cases) and had their fingers on the pulse of pop culture.  The style, music and even Freddy's jokes were all of product of the 80s.  One problem I saw with the 2010 remake was the internet making things easier.  Googling sleep deprivation, watching a web cam confession and alarms on cell phones just seemed to take away some of the appeal of the movie.  Setting it in the 80s could give some of that back.  Which brings me to my next thought.....

Give us a sequel, not a remake
Most of the people who want to see a new Elm Street film are familiar with Freddy and his origins.  So let's undo Nancy, Quinn and the Badham School.  With a new Halloween ignoring everything but the Carpenter films, why couldn't we start again somewhere in the middle?  If Freddy's Dead took place "Ten Years From Now" and The Dream Child took place in 1989, surely there are more stories to tell.

Use the books as inspiration
In the early 2000s, a Canadian publishing group called Black Flame acquired the rights to make books based on New Line Cinema's horror franchises.  In addition to making a film novelization of Freddy vs Jason, they released new and original stories for Final Destination, Friday the 13th, Jason X and of course, NoES.  I have had a chance to read all of the Elm Street books and I have told anyone who would listen that these need to be adapted into films.  Among them there was a mid 21st century tale of an iPod-style device that recorded dreams for others to experience, a group of horror loving misfits who found a way to use Freddy as a weapon against their high school enemies & even a continuation of Jacob's story.  My favorite of them had to be Suffer the Children, a story about a group of high schoolers who ditch class to earn money as test subjects for a dream drug.  When one of them sees Freddy and goes into a coma, his constant sleep state gives Freddy the power to attack the others even when awake.  The teens also gain Dream Warrior-style powers.

Give Freddy jokes again
I don't think that anyone wants to have a repeat of Freddy's Dead or even Dream Child-style humor, but I don't see a reason why Krueger couldn't be a little funny.  Jackie Earl Haley did a great job in my opinion, but the comedy that was there was very black.  One of the things that sets the franchise apart from others is the fact that Freddy has a personality.  So shouldn't he shine in that way again?


Regardless of my ideas, I'm sure we can all agree that we as fans of Freddy will be happy to at least have an opportunity to see him on the big screen again.

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