Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Hell No

Some people out there need to be smacked. I have had about enough of classic horror films being remade. Of course the Friday the 13th remake is really an update since last I saw they had drastically altered the story. Spoiler for anyone who hasn't seen the original and/or doesn't know about the change in story- The killer wasn't Jason in the original and now it is. STUPID is all I have to say on that one.

And now they are going ahead with remaking A Nightmare On Elm Street. There are so many things wrong with that. The biggest one being the fact that I just read that Billy Bob Thornton is going to play Freddy. HELL NO is my opinion on that one. And I do not care if Robert Englund thinks it is good casting.

The thing with movies like Halloween or Friday the 13th is the killer is masked and has no real personality. They are silent stalking killers. You can make as many of those movies as you want and as long as the actor playing the killer is of the same basic body type and learns the mannerisms it doesn't matter that much. That isn't the case with Freddy.

Part of the genius of the Freddy character was the Wes Craven wrote him with a personality. He has dialogue and it's not lame dialogue either. Not only did it take great writing to make that character it took some damn good acting. In the wrong hands Freddy is campy and not scary. Robert however, made Freddy into an icon of pop culture. He transcends all horror sterotypes and can never be recreated properly. The only reason Freddy vs. Jason worked at all is that Robert came back to play Freddy. I've always said when Robert was done being Freddy that had to be it and it should be.

The other problem with Billy Bob being Freddy is his age. Should this work and they decide to make a whole new series they are going to have problems. They run a huge risk of having to recast the Freddy role again and that screws things up even more.

Any new Nightmare on Elm Street movie without Robert is just a complete waste of time and shouldn't be made. They won't be getting my money at the theater for this disaster.

There is really only one Elm Street movie left to make. And it is the only way to make one without Robert. You would still need Wes though since the character and the story are his creation. And that movie is a prequel. That's right if you want a new Elm Street movie Wes needs to write a movie about Freddy leading up to his death by fire.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

No Robert. Forget about it. You know there are probobly a lot of young writers out ther that have come up with new psycho killers that could be made into profitable franchises. But no. Hollywood has not orginality left. And BTW what happened to Billy Bob's career. Isn't he an Oscar winning writer and a Oscar nominated actor? Whatever.