A villain introduced in Wes Craven's New Nightmare called The Entity could prove central to a successful reboot of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. The iconic slasher series has been dormant for some time now, with no new installments since Samuel Bayer's disastrous 2010 remake of the same name. Despite the original director Wes Craven's Scream saga set to produce a new entry in 2022, there has been no word about Freddy Krueger returning to cinema screens for years now, and some horror fans have begun to wonder whether the franchise can be successfully revived at all.
It's not often easy to bring a horror franchise back to life, as evidenced by the critical mauling that Bayer’s A Nightmare On Elm Street remake received upon release. Marcus Nispel's 2009 Friday the 13th reboot and Gil Kenan's 2015 attempt at a Poltergeist reboot suffered similar fates, and neither series has delivered a new installment since. However, recent releases in the sub-genre have proven that franchises like Halloween and Candyman could succeed not by entirely ignoring their lesser sequels, but by obliquely acknowledging them in their respective reboots. The Nightmare On Elm Street franchise could also take this approach, and the series has already paved the way for such a reinvention.
In 1994, shortly before the director made Scream, Wes Craven’s New Nightmare introduced horror fans to a meta take on Freddy Krueger that proved scarier and more inventive than almost every other sequel in the series. The Entity was the new villain introduced in New Nightmare, and the evil being could be the best way for the Nightmare On Elm Street franchise to salvage its reputation after years of inactivity. Since the Entity is both tied to the original incarnation of Freddy and able to change its appearance and powers, the meta-monster could do justice to Robert Englund’s unforgettable slasher villain while passing the torch down to a new generation.
2010’s A Nightmare On Elm Street was a straightforward remake starring Rooney Mara, but received almost universally negative feedback, receiving a 15% critical score on Rotten Tomatoes. With a more unpleasant but less scary Freddy played by Jackie Earle Haley instead of Robert Englund, a more dour tone, predictable kills, and a deeply exploitative twist, the Nightmare on Elm Street remake was proof positive that the franchise could not simply be rebooted with a new Krueger. Like Tony Todd’s terrifying Candyman, Englund’s take on the role was simply too closely tied to the success of the franchise for fans to accept a substitute. A total reboot is clearly a better avenue for the A Nightmare on Elm Street saga going forward, and The Entity could help facilitate this approach while avoiding the sins of the previous installment.
2018’s Halloween, 2021’s Candyman, and 2022’s upcoming Scream movie all prove that meta reboots that acknowledge their originals and play on existing franchise lore are currently all the rage. As such, a Nightmare On Elm Street movie that acknowledges Wes Craven's original horror movie while also disregarding its lesser sequels could work well, much like the aforementioned Halloween trilogy and Candyman. Luckily, New Nightmare provided the blueprint for this approach.
The sequel saw Craven, annoyed by the neutering of his original character over the course of several films in the late 80s and early 90s, introduce the Entity as a way to revive the original, terrifying Freddy. Craven also added a meta, fictionalized versions of both himself and Englund into the sequel to comment on Hollywood’s history of running franchises into the ground—a self-aware statement that the A Nightmare On Elm Street series can now revisit for the modern era, since so many slashers are being revived to cash in on a nostalgic craze.
Related: Watch The Freddy Vs Jason Weigh-In From 2003
A shape-shifting evil being that takes the form of whatever cultural horror is keeping people up at night, New Nightmare’s Entity is a timeless evil that is distinct from Freddy but takes his form thanks to the Springwood slasher’s popularity. This premise allowed writer-director Wes Craven to comment on the declining creativity of slashers around New Nightmare’s release, with the monster representing the audience’s demands that Freddy is both a recognizable pop culture icon and a terrifying, unpredictable monster at once. In a reboot of the franchise, the Entity’s changing face would mean that it could be played by both original star Robert Englund and a new actor at the same time, making Freddy Krueger a villain who moves from host to host like 2021’s version of the Candyman.
Meanwhile, the premise of the Entity taking the form of a relevant cultural fear could let the series comment on the recent dormancy of the still-iconic A Nightmare On Elm Street franchise. The films remain one of horror’s most beloved properties and Englund’s take on Freddy Krueger remains one of the most famous faces in the genre, but as seen proven by the critical success of New Nightmare, viewers want Freddy to change while also remaining the same. Bringing back the Entity to transition Freddy from one actor to another could allow the Nightmare On Elm Street franchise to address the fact that viewers are paradoxically unwilling to accept a Robert Englund replacement despite its inevitability, if the series hopes to survive.
Freddy Krueger has always existed in a trippy psuedo-reality being a dream demon who resides in the minds of his victims. Various movies in the Nightmare On Elm Street franchise repeatedly changed the nature of his powers, with Freddy sometimes needing the fear of innocents to thrive, sometimes having absolute dominion over the dream world, and sometimes being confined to his hometown even in slumberland. However, the fact that the Entity existed in New Nightmare’s “real world” means that the being could free Freddy from his narrative limitations, and thus free the franchise from its limited locations and the trap of replaying old stories.
As Halloween Kills’ huge body count proved, simply re-staging familiar slasher movies with more gore and the same story as before are not enough to impress critics or fans of the genre. However, freeing Freddy from Springwood and allowing the slasher villain to appear anywhere opens up myriad creative opportunities for the Nightmare On Elm Street series, much like bringing Chucky to the small screen breathed new life into the tired Child’s Play franchise.
from ScreenRant - Feed https://ift.tt/3CVodyH
via IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment