The Horror Thread - Part 6

[StarLord]

So is this like confirmation they've started working on the next chapter? Please say yes!

Yeah, it's from the Cult of Chucky set which has been filming lately.

 

[Wildcard]

They should have just continued with the rebooted "Michael Bay produced" Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street movies... Jackie Earle Hayley was an awesome, dark Freddy. It's a pity we won't see more of that version.

I disagree. He had a horrible script to work with and then the actual execution was off. The producers kept stating his Freddy was returning him to his more serious and darker roots, but he given a litany of Englund's old lines from the more comedic installments.

Nothing Haley did stood out, the voice he chose was annoying and in the case of NOES, I'd say the best thing that happened was that they didn't make a sequel.

 

[Ipodman]

Hmm... I do see where you're coming from. Maybe I was just hoping for a good movie so badly that I forced myself to like it... But I still stand by that Haley's Freddy was a good Freddy. The movie also showed Freddy's "origin" which people didn't like but I found to be okay...

 

[Wildcard]

Hmm... I do see where you're coming from. Maybe I was just hoping for a good movie so badly that I forced myself to like it... But I still stand by that Haley's Freddy was a good Freddy. The movie also showed Freddy's "origin" which people didn't like but I found to be okay...

I tried doing the same but I couldn't when it was all said and done. I guess mainly because this remake had the most potential that it failed to capitalize on.

The one positive I can give this movie is regarding the origin there was no Dream Demon mess like with part six. As bad as I find the remake to be, part six is the absolute worst of the series.

 

[Loki882]

Showing Freddy's origins wasn't the problem. We more or less knew that in the older films as well. The problem was the execution, which was awful.

 

[Wildcard]

Pretty much. And all of the main characters were pretty boring, they had nothing memorable about them. Kyle Gallner is a phenomenal talent and was utterly wasted in the remake, imo.

Everybody was, to be fair.

 

[StarLord]

Incoming Stephen King hype tweet!

Saw a rough cut of Mike Flanagan's GERALD'S GAME yesterday. Horrifying, hypnotic, terrific. It's gonna freak you out.

 

[Kane52630]

Niccce.

 

[Loki882]

Pretty much. And all of the main characters were pretty boring, they had nothing memorable about them. Kyle Gallner is a phenomenal talent and was utterly wasted in the remake, imo.

Everybody was, to be fair.

Heck Rooney Mara is really talented as well, and I've liked her a lot in other things. But jeez was she boring in that remake (also she apparently hated making it so much that she almost quit acting entirely. Thank goodness that she didn't imo). Also "loner socially awkward Nancy" was lame and cliché from a writing standpoint as well. The best character in the movie was Katie Cassidy's, and she gets killed off early on.

Also changing Freddy's origins causes more problems than it solves, and the whole "mystery angle" was completely pointless.

 

[Lasirius]

Incoming Stephen King hype tweet!

t:

 

[Heretic]

I can't stand Rooney Mara. I remember reading somewhere that she didn't even really want the role and didn't try during the auditions but they gave her the role anyway. Great story...but if you don't want a huge career break in a wide release franchise film, there were plenty of actresses who DID want it. Part of what made the movie so bad was her performance.

Of course...it had other problems...but I didn't mind some of the things people complain about...like making Freddy a child molester. I get it...that makes him a terrible person that we can't cheer for...but isn't that the point? I always assumed he was one anyway. Besides...why were people cheering for a child killer before?

 

[Loki882]

He was already a terrible person before. If anything, the only thing that it changes (along with other things) is to make the parents decision to kill him make far less sense in-context. Oh and now the whole thing with the boiler room makes no sense either.

 

[Heretic]

Yeah...thats my point...he was killing kids before. That's not someone I ever would root for or wanted to root for. When I watched those films as a kid I didn't assume that he just killed kids...I assumed that there were other aspects to his crimes that the movies couldn't really talk about. So, I was kind of surprised by the backlash of his origin "change" because I always assumed that it was an unspoken fact of the franchise anyway.

 

[chamber-music]

I found the remake unmemorable and boring.

 

[Wildcard]

Yeah...thats my point...he was killing kids before. That's not someone I ever would root for or wanted to root for. When I watched those films as a kid I didn't assume that he just killed kids...I assumed that there were other aspects to his crimes that the movies couldn't really talk about. So, I was kind of surprised by the backlash of his origin "change" because I always assumed that it was an unspoken fact of the franchise anyway.

It wasn't the killing part so much as the remake explicitly states Freddy is a pedophile, an element Wes Craven wanted to include in the original but decided not to because there were huge cases of that nature going on and he didn't want anyone to think he was trying to profit off of them.

 

[Loki882]

Yeah Wes didn't want to be accused of trying to cash in on the string of child sex abuse scandals going on at the time (BTW, most of those were later proven to be either false or at least highly exaggerated).

So he just made Freddy a child killer, and then left what else he may have done ambiguous. And the sequels made it pretty clear that he was doing "other things" to them without needing to flat-out state it. And that subtlety worked so much better imo.

We didn't need to have it flat-out stated that he was a pedophile. It added nothing to the story, and it just raised a whole bunch of issues/questions that the movie didn't explain/address all that well.

 

[chamber-music]

Freddy in the first movie made creepy lewd comments ans sexual advances towards Nancy "I'm your boyfriend now Nancy" phone turning into a tongue that licks her, the famous bath tub scene. Freddy definitely had a sexual predator vibe in Nightmare On Elm Street .

 

[Wildcard]

True, he did have a sexual predator vibe, but they didn't go as far as initially intended with it so he went from "child rapist" to just "child killer" with only slight implications of the former.

And I'd have to agree, it didn't add to the story to go back and re-introduce that element. Overall, the whole thing just ended up being uncomfortable and pointless.

Another thing about Haley's Freddy was that he seemed like he was trying too hard. Englund's Freddy was a genuinely a weird dude, and he sold it well. Haley's was just...there. And he had no real life as the character, when he walked he was stiff as a board. Englund has presence, he oozed charisma, especially in the darker installments.

 

[Loki882]

It didn't help that the makeup/prosthetics weren't that great either. He just wasn't scary. He came across as less Freddy and more like Freddy's idiot cousin Teddy Krueger.

And again, the whole "did he do it or not" mystery angle was completely pointless to, and a waste of time.

 

[Wildcard]

Exactly, because you already knew he did it. It wasn't even a plot twist or a convincing angle to ever undertake in the first place.

And I am now officially lobbying for the remake version of the character to forever be called Teddy Krueger.

 

[Peyton Westlake]

The plot should have had Freddy as a socially awkward janitor at school who was mercilessly harrassed by the students.
One day the kids decide to play a prank on Freddy that backfires with him dying in a furnace explosion.
His soul/spirit arises and tortures and murders those kids in their dreams.
He then continues to haunt the 'bullies' of the world.

 

[Wildcard]

Surely you jest.

 

[Muze]

The plot should have had Freddy as a socially awkward janitor at school who was mercilessly harrassed by the students.
One day the kids decide to play a prank on Freddy that backfires with him dying in a furnace explosion.
His soul/spirit arises and tortures and murders those kids in their dreams.
He then continues to haunt the 'bullies' of the world.

that would make him less scary than the killer in 'Unfriended.'

 

[Wildcard]

that would make him less scary than the killer in 'Unfriended.'

And would be a completely unnecessary change to his whole characterization. Freddy isn't a hero, none of these characters are. And they shouldn't be marketed as such either.

 

[KillerMcQueen]

It didn't help that the makeup/prosthetics weren't that great either. He just wasn't scary. He came across as less Freddy and more like Freddy's idiot cousin Teddy Krueger.

And again, the whole "did he do it or not" mystery angle was completely pointless to, and a waste of time.

While I disagree with most of the hate the remake gets (I loved JEH as Freddy, I loved the costume/makeup design, that remake glove was gorgeous, and Freddy looks and sounds more like a burn victim, and less like a man who was viciously attacked with a pepperoni pizza), I do agree that the mystery aspect was a waste considering the outcome ended up being that he was guilty, would've been far more interesting if he actually had been innocent of the crimes the parents murdered him for, and Freddy's response simply being to become even worse than the monster they thought he was.

Also, loved the hell out of this part of the film: