Nightmare on Elm Street’s Remake Missed A Perfect Freddy Krueger Retcon

A Nightmare on Elm Street‘s 2010 remake had a lot of problems, but one of the biggest was a missed opportunity to change Freddy’s motivation. It was inevitable that A Nightmare on Elm Street would get remade, and that Freddy Krueger would be played by a new actor. Freddy is just too iconic a character to ever truly rest in peace, and there’s basically unlimited potential for creativity when it comes to the idea of setting slasher films within a dream world.

Sadly, the A Nightmare on Elm Street remake was mostly happy to settle for being a mediocre recreation of Wes Craven’s original classic. The few times it tried something new, like the “micro naps” idea, were interesting, but way too much of the film was simply rehashing famous scenes using CGI special effects that somehow look much worse than the practical effects Craven used back in 1984. Of particular note was the effect of Freddy pushing his way out of the wall over Nancy’s bed, which looked amazing done practically, and looks like a bad video game cutscene when rendered using modern CGI.

SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAY

One particular plot element that showed promise was the A Nightmare on Elm Street remake’s repeated hints that perhaps Freddy (Jackie Earle Haley) was wrongfully accused, and now back for revenge due to his undeserved death. It would’ve been an interesting spin on the character, but sadly, the filmmakers chickened out.

Nightmare on Elm Street’s Remake Should’ve Made Freddy Innocent

At several points during the 2010 remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street, it’s implied that Freddy Krueger, a groundkeeper at Nancy’s preschool, was falsely accused by her and other children of sexually molesting them. Why exactly they would’ve lied is certainly up for debate, but at one juncture, Nancy and her friend Quentin genuinely believe that Freddy is trying to kill them – and has already killed several of their friends – because he’s a vengeful spirit out to retaliate for being burned alive by their parents under false pretenses.

That could’ve been a very provocative development, if it had turned out to be true. Of course, the ending reveals that Freddy did in fact molest them, and the brief hint of something new and creative happening is replaced with feelings of nausea and revulsion as Freddy’s taunts toward Nancy get more and more sexual. Interestingly, remake writer Eric Heisserer eventually revealed that an early version of the script did indeed have Freddy be innocent, but it’s unclear why exactly that changed along the way to production. Whatever the reason, it’s just another contributing factor to the A Nightmare on Elm Street remake being so unsatisfying overall.

Adam Sandler Reportedly Reuniting With Uncut Gems Directors On New Project

About The Author

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *