So, there's going to be a Nightmare on Elm St. (remake) sequel.
I can't really get excited for it.
Now, don't get me wrong. I really, really liked the remake. They took all the main parts of the original (Freddy murdering uninteresting teenagers) and got rid of all the cheesy Wes Craven bullshit (Nancy's mom turning into a glow stick skeleton, the "Home Alone" booby trap climax, the infinite scenes of Nancy hitting Freddy with vases and trash cans and, of course,
this abortion of the cinematic art.Admittedly, though, there were new cheesy bullshits added in the remake. The Freddy-in-the-Wall scene looked like B-roll footage from "The Frighteners" and pretty much any scene featuring the Joy Division kid made me want to throw up. Also, half of Freddy's kills involve him thrusting his glove through people torsos and skulls effortlessly, which seems implausible since Freddy seems to have little to no upper body strength.
All in all, I think the aesthetic of the two films can be summed up very simply. In the original, Nancy takes away Freddy's power by declaring she no longer believes in him. In the remake, Freddy has no power over anyone until they do believe in him.
The latter idea, I think, is the true mark of a villain or a monster whether that be likened to Freddy, ghosts, America's desire to stay out of WWII or being unnerved by the guy standing next to you at the subway station at 4 a.m. The former idea is naive fairy tale bullshit at best and lazy film writing at worst.
ANYWAY- back to the sequel. This remake has made less money Freddy vs. Jason (as anyone could have guessed) and also made less money than the doomed-to-have-no-sequel Friday the 13th remake (which seems surprising). This remake also made about the same money as remakes of things no one even saw the original of, like "My Bloody Valentine" and "Prom Night" so why do a sequel to a movie that no one likes and that only made the box office average for a slasher film. Why not go back to the lucrative, lucrative business of Freddy/Jason grudge matches?
But beyond my bewilderment at the movie studio's apparent lack of desire to make money, I'm not excited for sequels to this remake for a more selfish reason: I love the original Nightmare sequels. Robert Englund's Freddy became the star of the show and that's not something I'm convinced that Jackie Earle Haley's Freddy will be able to do.
