The NIGHTMARES on ELM STREET and in HADDONFIELD remade!
September 30th 2009 00:08
Freddy Krueger is played by Jackie Earle Hayley, who looks more like a child-murderer than Robert Englund, and actually played a pedophile in the drama Little Children. However his voice doesn’t possess the same nightmarish tone (but that’s after years of Englund’s voice echoing along the cult fabric of our cine dreams). Relative unknown Rooney Mara plays the role of Nancy.
From the slick-looking teaser trailer there are numerous shots lifted straight from Wes Craven’s original, an 80s cult classic, and seminal in the horror cinema dreamscape. Why bother? This kind of blatant laziness really pisses me off. The vaguely interesting element, however, is what looks like more narrative based around Krueger’s atrocities which lead to his demise at the hands of grief and rage-stricken parents. This back-story was provided in pieces through the duration of the A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) movies. I don’t have a problem with this important part of Krueger’s character history as it was injected early on in the series, whereas I have a big problem with Rob Zombie providing massive back story to Michael Myers in his Halloween re-boots, when none existed in the original movies. It smacks of creative licence bullshit. But I’m a purist.
... and his name is Rob Zombie
Essentially Freddy Krueger was a psychopathic killer who was transformed into a relentless demon by the intense rage of his victims’ parents. As far as I’m concerned Michael Myers was the seemingly supernatural embodiment of the boogeyman, but he was killed at the end of the Halloween II (1981).
The biggest and most crucial problem with both these remakes is that neither of the villains is actually that scary anymore. Countless sequels have reduced these once seminal horror icons into parodies. I’m a little longer in the tooth, so perhaps any Gen-Y and younger who haven’t seen the originals (as rare as that may be) may find the movies genuinely frightening, but somehow I doubt it. The original Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers, and Jason Voorhees characters are firmly etched into the modern horror consciousness. No remake will ever re-invent them as vividly as they were when they first started slashing victims to pieces back in the late 70s and into the 80s.
Here’s the teaser trailer for A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010):
Here’s the trailer to Rob Zombie’s dreadful looking Halloween II (2009), which was released in America last month (not sure of a release date for Australia, but probably straight-to-DVD):
And here’s a link to the H2 trailer that shows Sheri Moon Zombie as Deborah Myers (oh, he’s got another sister??), which makes the movie appear even worse than the crap I’m sure it is!
| 68 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Totally unimpressed with both these titles, even though I am a big fan of Jackie Earle Hayley.
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Comment by Sue Gabel
Comment by Sue Gabel
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
I'm pre-empting H2, as I haven't seen it, but I'll reserve further judgment until I do ... (but I'm not holding out hope). I appreciate there are Rob Zombie fans out there, but I think he's a hack and hamfisted as a director with no real style. His first feature House of 1000 Corpses while derivative had the most novel moments, and a modicum of style, but The Devil's Rejects is an over-rated piece of crap as far as I'm concerned, I don't care what anyone says.
The point I'm making about Freddy Krueger is that no matter who plays him in the wake of all the ludicrous sequels (and stupid re-envisionings a la Wes Craven's New Nightmare drivel) he simply won't be as genuinely frightening as he was in the original movie. He swiftly became a parody of himself. I'm open to seeing what Michael Bay's production will do with the re-boot, but frankly I'm not counting my headless chickens until they're hatched ...
Comment by Anonymous
Friday the 13th remake: Jason always had the potential to be as good as Michael but never lived up to it. It was a poor man's Halloween!
A Nightmare on Elm Street: Given, Freddy is in history as one of three of the biggest Horror Icons around.. I think only Leatherface could be added to that list. (although it was more fear in the chainsaw than the man holding it).
Halloween: First and foremost, it didn't need a remake. The way Halloween Ressurection was left, there was the opportunity for it to go onto another sequel. Zombie could have taken that on, (not changed michael's look or mask and in turn not alienated the character from it's audience) and explained a back story in flashbacks as Michael is burnt at the end of Halloween Ressurection as he was in the original H2!
There was always a great mystery about Michael which is now gone. If he was planning a back story, the character deserved better. Someone in real life kills a few people and eventually it's found out that he had a bad childhood.. that doesn't make people fear him.
Michael was portrayed as no different to an everyday killer, where as previous he was portrayed as the embodiment of the devil incarnate.. A stronger back story having fans wondering how he survived through his childhood would have benefited this..while leaving elements unexplained so the audience can only imagine..
The idea of a 7ft tall Michael was lost on me. I am all for a 7ft masked killer as the new picture (Vida Nocturna) will have two of them! but, Michael was never that big.. everyone who grew up watching the Halloween series of films.. I'd imagine were totally lost with that element, it's as if it was a different character all together.. at least that's how I saw it.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge Halloween fan, but the remakes have done nothing to benefit the series..
I think Rob should get to writing some original features and going that way instead of remaking already classic films.
One of the masters of the original Halloween films 'Cinematographer Dean Cundey' is directing a new Spanish set Slasher movie called 'Vida Nocturna'.. I've spoken to Mr Cundey about this picture and basically, it's a new original Horror movie, new Horror icons worthy of the stature, yet the movie will be shot with old school tactics that made the original horror movies back in the seventies and eighties so successful..
As the log line for Vida Nocturna goes...
Burning with Anticipation...
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
check out my reviews for both Halloween remakes here and here and the Elm Street remake here.
I'm envious you got to talk with Dean Cundey, I love his work on Halloween and The Thing. I would love to Q&A him for my site!