Posted on 02/13/2009 8:52:41 AM PST by qam1
The new Jason Voorhees is coming this Friday in Friday the 13th, and a new Freddy Krueger is not far behind.
Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, A Nightmare on Elm Street is being remade by first-time director Samuel Baye, who has given us music videos like "No Rain" from Blind Melon and the classic "Smells Like Teen Spirit" from Nirvana.
The script reportedly draws heavily from the original film and not the sequels.
Casting for the clawed Freddy, who invades the dreams of his victims, is underway. Though there may be a guest spot for Robert Englund, he will definitely not be playing the serial killer in the reboot.
Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.
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Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae?
The great strength of the original was playing on the fears found in adolescent sexual anxiety. Struggling against falling asleep for the teenagers is like struggling to maintain sexual control with raging hormones. You can try, but you will fail.
As such, Krueger represents all sorts of things: loss of control, lust, fear, sexual tension, the grotesque, and is ultimately menacing.
There are all kinds of ways to approach the idea, but ironically, they haven’t emphasized dreaming as much as the other elements. For his victims, dreams are generally crystal clear. While in reality, it is hard to keep attention in dreams, Krueger can somehow fixate and maintain the focus of the kids, long enough to harm them.
So this might be a good way to restart the series. With Krueger having to teach them how to have dreams vivid enough so he can hurt them. At first, they don’t remember their dreams, just that they wake up very excited and afraid, feeling pursued by some invisible horror they can’t remember.
This makes them more and more afraid of sleeping, and then, one after another they get more clues about Freddy, but at the cost of their lives.
I hope the Friday The 13th is good. The commercials look pretty decent. As do some of the extended trailers online.
What are the chances with that? Has there been a good one since the first? Hope it’s on tv tonight.
Rebooting Batman wasn't a problem because all the Batman actors were empty suits. This will be more like trying to remake Dragnet, where the Joe Friday character was personified by Jack Webb and no one else can play it.
I have no idea how they can remake the mystery of the original. It seems like trying to remake the Sixth Sense.
I think the bottom line will be what it usually is, a combination of screenwriting, acting, and direction. In the original series, it took five films to get Freddy’s back story out, so it would probably be a good idea for Freddy to start fresh, and not let too much out of the bag too fast.
A lot of it will be in how effectively they use suspense, instead of shock. The audience should be squirming in their chairs with just little hints that Freddy is coming. Things that would normally not be noticed, but now stand out in glaring fashion.
For instance, the “moment points” that James Cameron used in “The Terminator”, like when Arnold says, “Ill be back” in the police substation, and then there is a few seconds of the police desk officer writing with a pencil. The audience knows something dramatic is about to happen, but get to squirm while waiting for it.
As they go about their ordinary lives, walking inside a house, the audience catches a little reflection in something like a clock face, but the actors are unaware of it. Something distinctively Freddy, but just a hint. Freddy is invisible and in the room with them, as they are talking about something mundane.
Thank God. From the headline I thought they were talking about Freddie Mac.....
That was my first thought when I saw the headline.
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