Wednesday, January 30, 2008

The day I've been dreading has arrived...

 
Okay, look Bob...you want to add yet another pointless slapstick sequel chock-a-block with snappy one liners? Have at it. You want to have Freddy vs. Jason vs. the rest of the New Line Stable o' Horror? Whatever. But you're never, NEVER EVER going to be able to top the original Nightmare. You're never EVER going to find a better Freddy than Robert Englund and absolutely not EVER, NEVER NEVER EVER going to find a better Nancy than Heather Langenkamp. The backstory's been covered several times. The sequels have covered nearly every angle, for better or worse. So...where do you expect to go from here? New Line may be the house that Freddy built, but certainly the Hobbits brought in enough to keep it going without most likely ruining its foundation?
 
Wes Craven once said, just before he made New Nightmare, that he sat down and tried to watch all of the films in the series and by the end, he could make neither heads nor tails of the story. It was part of the reason why he made New Nightmare, to bring Freddy back to his roots and make him scary again. (That stupid fifth claw aside, it was actually a fantastic entry in the series, in my opinion.)
 
On a personal level, and pardon my American here, I think this is a really shit idea. The original Nightmare is extremely important to me and the only thing I've ever seen happen with 99% of the remakes being forced onto us is somehow, the remake is worse than any of the crappy sequels the original spawned. Other than a lucky strike with the American version of The Ring (I really liked it, surprisingly enough considering how much I LOVE the original...The Ring 2, not so much) I have not seen one remake that was even close to being good much less up to par with the original.
 
I actually almost started crying. If I felt better, I probably would have.

1 comment:

NoelCT said...

(sigh)

They just won't learn. I don't mind a reboot with Freddy preying on a new cast of characters, but I don't see why it can't just be another sequel that still fits in continuity. Granted, that pretty much describes most of the sequels...

I agree with you that all the angles have pretty much been covered: waking dreams, shared dreams, baby's dreams, dreams breaking into reality, Freddy's parents, Freddy's children, possession, rebirth, sleeping pills, caffeine pills, dream pills, coffee coffee coffee, etc. I just can't think of what's left.

But then there's the FREDDY VS. JASON script by Peter Briggs, which I like because it tied their origins together in an interesting way as well as bringing an ancient, apocalyptic element to the plot. It's not perfect, but there were some clever ideas in there. Maybe some could be harnessed for a standalone Freddy film.