Here's Why I'm Cool With a New Freddy Krueger
Yes, of course I'm a horror "purist" in many ways: I think most remakes suck, most sequels are limp, and most new ideas are recycled ... but when it comes to horror remakes, I decided long ago (somewhere between Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Dawn of the Dead) to take each one on a case-by-case basis. An obvious approach, some might say, but when you're being inundated with the likes of Prom Night, When a Stranger Calls, and The Fog, it's tough to stay positive.
So here I am, knee-deep in hopeful excitement for the new Friday the 13th film, and I start thinking about NEXT year's big remake: Yep, the guys who gave us Chainsaw, Friday, Amityville, and Hitcher remakes are setting their sights on Freddy. And I'm writing this BEFORE seeing the new F13, so it's not like I have a huge fanboy crush on Platinum Dunes -- but still, a new Freddy sounds pretty darn cool to me right now. And here's why:
Freddy Krueger, as originally envisioned by Wes Craven, is one sick, twisted, and SCARY bastard. True, some of the sequelizers came up with a cool idea by having Fred be the "bastard son of a thousand kooky-heads," but I like the old-school, basic story: That Freddy K. was a deviant pedophile and child murderer who earned his demise at the hands of angry parents -- thereby making his re-appearance that much more disturbing. Jason and Mikey are scary in a "hulking brute" sort of way, but there's something extra-creepy about a child predator who escapes death by surviving in our nightmares.
But here's the sticky part: Aside from perhaps a few stray moments in Part 3, Freddy was never scary after the original Nightmare on Elm Street. Never. Chucky the Angry Doll is scarier than Freddy Krueger at this point, and I look forward to a remake that taps back into that old-school scariness. No quips, no one-liners, no hamming it up for the T-shirt logos. Which leads to the inevitable question ... who the HELL should play Freddy Krueger these days? I don't care if it's a newcomer or an old-school character actor (maybe Matt Frewer?), just so long as the edict is this: Be scary. And stay that way for the damn sequels.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-11-2009 @ 9:56PM
Cole said...
BEN FOSTER FOR FREDDY! The guy has all the right elements (the look, the intensity, a little bit off his rocker!).. true he may be a little young, but he could definitely pull it off!
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2-11-2009 @ 10:09PM
MCW said...
That's pulling one out of a hat!
I don't disagree, I like Foster in everything he's been in, but it's always funny to me the obscure casting choices people pull and theorize.
In my mind, under a layer of thick makeup, and fully clothed, arms covered... it's hard for me to believe that the actor matters too much in A Nightmare on Elm. To me, the story, the thrills and kills are what made me fall in love with the dueling franchises. Not Robert Englund. That's just my opinion as always.
I can't see a remake capturing the feel of the original series Scott. Look at where so many of them have failed. In 1984, what you saw was lightning in a bottle. In the setting of that movie, it was beautiful. In the setting of 2010, it's boring and tired. So why redo what has been done?
I used to be careless when it came to remakes... I said heck with it (And I loved MBV3D recently, for the record), I am no purist. But for some things, it is just plain pointless. If all you are trying to do is regain fans to your dead franchise, there HAS to be a better way than making a new movie that will inevitably anger all who see it.
2-11-2009 @ 10:21PM
Peter Hall said...
Say word. I am actually really looking forward to a new Nightmare on Elm Street and...wait for it...I'm looking forward to it in the hands of Platinum Dunes.
Can't speak for the F13 redo, but that outfit has tapped into the new breed of horror better than any Hollywood shingle out there. I may not be in love with any of their remakes the way I am with the originals, but they're better and bolder than anyone could have expected. Not appeasing the seasoned vets wholesale, mind you, but the new generation is sucking at the teet and I respect that. Nightmare on Elm Street has always been my favorite of the '80s franchises and I think it is ripe for big budget badassery. Hell, if it were up to me I'd bring Chuck Russel back to direct it and cast Eli Roth as Freddy.
Not kidding about Russel, and haven't decided if I'm kidding about Roth. He's pretty damn skeezy in that Basterds trailer and anything to keep him from behind the camera. (Though a serious suggestion would be John Jarratt)
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2-11-2009 @ 10:39PM
MCW said...
Despite liking the trailer for Inglorious, I cringed at seeing Eli Roth. I don't like to do research for a movie like that, so knowing that he is in it (For however big a part it doesn't matter) really just takes away some of the validity of that movie. He is not an actor :( But then again, I just read that Mike Myers is in it, so I might as well avoid it at all costs.
2-11-2009 @ 11:15PM
dishesaredone said...
Jackie Earl Haley. It might be because of Little Children, but seeing the trailer for Watchmen makes me wonder what kind of film he could carry. I also think the makeup would work on him.
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2-12-2009 @ 12:08AM
Cole said...
WOW! Good call! I might like JEH better than my pic (Ben Foster). Good thinking!
2-12-2009 @ 12:27AM
Yoda's House of Pancakes said...
What about Joaquin Phoenix? I just saw his Letterman interview, and I think he's already in the dream world.
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2-12-2009 @ 1:03AM
rubbersquare said...
Jackie Earl Haley. Make it scary. Get a visionary director. Make it scary. Make it scary! Creepy! Trippy! And, oh, SCARY!
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2-12-2009 @ 3:24AM
Bill C. said...
Robert Downey Jr
Daniel Day-Lewis
Sean Penn
Johnny Depp
Don't make some cheesy re-boot. Take a lesson from TDK / Heath Ledger. Hire a dynamic actor to re-interpret this truly terrifying, iconic villain.
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2-12-2009 @ 4:00AM
Vic said...
Garret Dillahunt is the first name that comes to mind, but that's mostly because he has such a lovely history of terrorizing children and young adults on screen. Still, he's already appeared in the remake of Craven's The Last House on the Left (TBR in March) as the early version of Krueger so chances of him getting cast as Freddie are probably next to none.
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2-12-2009 @ 7:14AM
marshall said...
The only remakes i had a problem with were TEXAS CHAINSHAW and THE HITCHER, the former because the greatness of the original isn't the story but the filmmaking, and the latter because I think the original is one of the more cold and beautifully austere genre films of its era, almost a precursor to NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN.
It would ruin the family film leading man persona he's built up in the last decade, but Johnny Depp as Freddie would have a wonderful symmetry. I wonder just how much he feels he owes his career to Wes?
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2-12-2009 @ 10:12AM
NP said...
I haven't been the biggest fan of any of Platinum Dunes' remakes so far (and yes I am going to see Friday the 13th tomorrow), and Nightmare was always my favorite and I always found scariest/most disturbing of the first gen slashers precisely because of what Scott describes here (and we're talking the original Wes Craven film, not the sequels..though I thought Craven's New Nightmare had some limited success at recapturing some of original's darkness), but I'm not against a Nightmare remake.
I have two concerns about it. One of my concerns is what Scott addresses in the post about bringing Freddy back to the original's scary darkness.
My other concern is that the remake will not have a Final Girl as badass as Nancy was in the original film. Nancy, to me, is the pinnacle of Final Girls: tough-as-nails, completely intelligent, but also attractive and "normal" in the sense that most of the Final Girls in the original slasher films are kind of the outcasts of their group of friends, but with Nancy that wasn't as much the case. I have bigger doubts about the creators of this remake writing a character who can even hold a candle to Nancy than I do about them getting Freddy right.
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2-12-2009 @ 2:52PM
jeff said...
Robert Knepper
/thread
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2-12-2009 @ 6:50PM
Gab said...
John Malkovich.
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2-12-2009 @ 11:19PM
YouFaceTheTick said...
Foster isn't a bad idea. He's a scary bastage in Alpha Dog.
Still, when was Nightmare scary? We always thought it was a comedy. The first one was funny...
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2-13-2009 @ 3:45PM
GL said...
Tommy Lee
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2-14-2009 @ 2:21PM
WJDR said...
I love the idea of Robert Knepper, he could be a great Freddy. He plays his role of T-bag on Prison Break as a child molester and killer. I could even see Tom Seizmore or someone like Kurt Russell doing the role. Tommy Lee Jones would be interesting but doubt he would want to do it.
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2-17-2009 @ 4:30AM
Deeds Not Words said...
Keep Robert Englund in the role. But if they don't, my choice is Terry O'Quinn.
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