Saturday 8 May 2010

"He Was A Child Murderer... Then After He Died... He Became Something Much Worse"

The One Where I Like The Remake


Hmmm. I seem to like Horror movies more than I thought. I'm not into them with any sort of dedication though. Want to remake Halloween? OK. I love John Carpenter, so just give him his cut.Want to make another Friday 13th? OK. I'll maybe Love Film it. Want to remake The Thing? Er... please don't. I have to keep putting myself in that last mindset, when looking at the hate this film is getting. But, as much as I would hate a remake to my fave Horror of all time... I'd see the silver lining, though. That all these noobs going to see it, may take five out, and rent the original.

I get the remake hate, to a certain extent. It shows up how poor most writers are in Hollywood. No original ideas (except Inception!). And why not remake bad movies? Why cherry pick the good ones? *makes money gesture with thumb and two fingers*

However, on the flip side, how easy is it to come up with truly original ideas?

Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), is a class act. Great idea. Better than expected acting. Set pieces. Genuinely creepy. Horror Icon... and that's the problem.

Most people bitching about this remake seem to be doing it on the basis of it not being Robert Englund behind the makeup. I have two problems with that. One... its not fair on Jackie Earle Hayley. His voice is perfect, its not his fault some people don't like the make up, and he is genuinely creepy. When was the last time Freddy was creepy? For me, back in the original. As soon as Freddy starts advertising things on TV (cereal???), then he's tarnished.

Second is... was Englund ever that good? I love the original and New Nightmare. The others are black comedies. The remake isn't scary or gory enough for my liking... but its certainly not played for laughs. You cant picture a dog going for a wee on Freddy in this one, resurrecting him in doing so. And I'm glad for it.

This is a cool link to everything that is right and wrong with the sequels for me.

I get that the remake is getting stick for the dreams being pretty non-descipt, and samey. But they look stunning. Lights at the cafe glowing green, and red, as Classmates bursting into ash, then into the dream world. People are again attacking Michael Bay for this. I cant believe people haven't gotten over TR2 yet. He produced it. Or his company did. It looks slick. Hardly his fault.

Go and see it for what it is. Am inferior remake of a classic original. I think any would struggle to say its better than the original. Is JEH better than Englund, though? Well I think that is up for debate.

The films not getting enough credit for how dark it is. And not for crass reasons, for me. Freddy is genuinely creepy. Says creepy things. Has done creepy things. Hopefully, will get to do creepy things again.

I think MC was right though. It should have been a Michael Mann procedural film. Prequel. Freddy only turning up at the end.

"Why are you screaming....? I haven't even cut you yet."





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