Rorschach Becomes Freddy Krueger

[Andy Chalk]

Rorschach Becomes Freddy Krueger

Watchmen [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0355097/], has been signed up to become the next Freddy Krueger in a remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Haley earned major props for his portrayal of the uncompromising vigilante A Nightmare on Elm Street [http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0029762/]. Haley will take on the title role of Freddy Krueger, a vicious serial killer who has the power to murder people through their dreams.

"Looking at his performance in Watchmen, here's a guy playing a character under a mask yet you feel tremendous empathy for him," said Nighmare on Elm Street director Sam Bayer. "And in Nightmare, he is going to be under prosthetic make-up. You have to feel something for the character. The greatest villains are multi-dimensional and I think he will bring that to the character."

Haley's selection as Freddy is the latest step in a return to the acting business that has been nothing less than meteoric. He worked regularly as a child actor throughout the 1970s, appearing in everything from All the King's Men [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065333/], roles which brought him solid reviews and launched him on a comeback.

Bayer said he's not worried that Haley will end up typecast by the role the way the original Freddy Krueger, Robert Englund [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000387/], was. "It's what you bring to the material," Bayer said. "He's a well-rounded actor who will not be stereotyped by this. If anything, he'll be celebrated for it."

The "re-imagined" Nightmare on Elm Street [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1179056/] begins filming in May and is scheduled to hit screens in April 2010.

Trivia Time: Did you know the original Nightmare on Elm Street, released in 1984, was Johnny Depp's [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000136/] very first film? Totally true!

Source: Wired [http://www.riskybusinessblog.com/2009/04/nightmare-has-its-new-freddy.html]


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[pantsoffdanceoff]

I wonder if he doesn't mind being typed-casted.. I wonder if this is an EXAMPLE of type casting actually.

EDIT: I know BAYER says he wont be, but I'm more curious why Haley thinks.

 

[Goldeneye103X2]

Ah yes,nightmare on elm street, johnny depps first movie,
He was tired and rested,
And he was sucked in the bed in a geyser of blood, how silly of he.
Seriously, that death couldn't be bested,
and since then johnny returned,
but the first movie was where his acting was tested.

 

[ironfist86]

this seems like a decent choice. not that i think anyone but englund should play Freddy, but like with the case of Ledger as the Joker, it could be a pleasant surprise.

 

[Cpt_Oblivious]

Sounds like it'll be good. But only time will tell.

 

[Susan Arendt]

I wasn't aware you had to feel anything for Freddy. After all, he's kind of ridiculous at this point...not a very good villain at all.

But hey, what do I know? I'm only a professional.

Well, that's exactly the point. He was really quite terrifying in the first movie, but eventually became more of a comedic character. For him to have any kind of weight as an actual villain, you're going to need somebody who can make the audience forget the old character. To do that, the actor is going to have to convince us that there's something other than just *yawn* typical psychokiller there.

 

[Anachronism]

Oh, for Christ's sake.

Does nobody have any new ideas any more? There have already been approximately 20 billion Nightmare on Elm Street movies, and now they're remaking the first one? I just have one question for the guys in charge of this.

WHY?!

What about this film could possibly merit remaking it? It's done, the series is over, you bludgeoned it to death with all those terrible sequels you kept making, and now you resurrect it, only to kill it all over again. This is just laziness; they can't be bothered to come up with something new, and as such they remake something that's already been rehashed far too often, and all in all done to death.

It's the same situation as the Jason movies. There was a remake of Friday the 13th fairly recently, despite the fact that there have been at least ten Jason movies in the past. Seriously, when the fourth instalment in a franchise is subtitled "The Final Chapter" and there are at least six films after that, you know you have a problem.

This is exactly the same situation as the Jason one. The film will bomb, everyone will agree it was a mistake, but the fact remains that they should have stopped after the first movie! There shouldn't have been any sequels, let alone the God knows how many there actually were!

In case this is TL;DR, I shall summarise thusly: this film is unnecessary, pointless, and just shows how lazy Hollywood filmmaking has become.

 

[RebelRising]

Why would we want to empathize with Freddy Krueger? I thought the whole point was that he was an irredeemable psycho killer. I was hoping this movie would be two-hours worth of adolescent cleansing, but know we have to sit around and pretend to be interested in why Freddy's parents never loved him.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

well this won't end well, don't really want to see the new friday the 13th and don't really want to see this one, no matter who is playing Freddy

most remakes arent't that great, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre wasn't bad but just didn't have the same feel of the original, tho My Bloody Valentine wasn't bad, i didn't mind it at all tho it was probly more due to the 3d in it

 

[Drayco90]

I always considered the whole Freddy and Jason Franchises to be Cliche and terrible. Even with Rorschach this will probabley not be any good.

 

[Captain Blackout]

Jackie Earle Haley, the former child star (As what, Chucky?) who brought Rorschach to life in Watchmen, has been signed up to become the next Freddy Krueger in a remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street.

"Looking at his performance in Watchmen, here's a guy playing a character under a mask yet you feel tremendous empathy for him," said Nighmare on Elm Street director Sam Bayer. "And in 'Nightmare', he is going to be under prosthetic make-up. You have to feel something for the character. The greatest villains are multi-dimensional and I think he will bring that to the character." A deeper, multdimensional empathy building Freddy. Why does that scare the f' out of me on deep multi-dimensional levels?

Trivia Time: Did you know the original Nightmare on Elm Street, released in 1984, was Johnny Depp's very first film? Totally true! (All that talent and this was his first film? That explains an awful lot!)

All in all this has potential. Haley is brilliant. Also, this was a good story period, despite what I think of remaking films that already have an obscene number of sequels.

 

[Zombie_Fish]

Since the character's Rorscach and Freddy Kreuger have very similar characteristics and personalities, he should be able to pull that character off amazingly well.

 

[Harumania]

New Freddy movie? Wow, nostalgia bomb. Freddie was one of the first horror movies I remember watching and one of the first things to give me nightmares as a child (the first was the WEEK of reading/watching things about The Headless Horseman in Kindergarten. No lie, scariest freakin' week of my life.)

I think the reason Hollywood keeps releasing "reimagines" and "remakes" of movies like this is the same reason certain gaming companies rerelease and remake older videogames. There are a, probably select, group of people out there that are always up for this sort of thing. Case in point: Square Enix has released Final Fantasy IV four times now. FOUR TIMES. And... through chance and circumstance, I've come in to possession (and still own!) all four versions. I have my favorite versions and my 'Well, that was slightly pointless' versions of the games, but all in all I'm grateful to Square for dropping nostalgia bombs on me every couple of years when they run out of ideas.

Now, Freddy's nowhere near as cool as FFVI (note: personal opinion), but the same thought applies. I personally can't wait to see it. I probably won't be running out my door to watch it opening weekend, but it'll be fun to see a new take on an old childhood nightmare.

 

[Susan Arendt]

I wasn't aware you had to feel anything for Freddy. After all, he's kind of ridiculous at this point...not a very good villain at all.

But hey, what do I know? I'm only a professional.

Well, that's exactly the point. He was really quite terrifying in the first movie, but eventually became more of a comedic character. For him to have any kind of weight as an actual villain, you're going to need somebody who can make the audience forget the old character. To do that, the actor is going to have to convince us that there's something other than just *yawn* typical psychokiller there.

Ahhh...I'm not sure if I've ever seen the original, not being a big horror movie fan.
But in whatever one I saw, he was definitely...campy? So tired...
Oh, and thanks for yawning. I think I dislocated my jaw.
:[

Oh, the later movies are absolute jokes. They tried a few things to try and reboot the franchise (see also: New Nightmare), but once they made Freddy into a parody of himself, it was all over.

As for the idea being tired, well, the slasher flick could do with a revival. Horror goes in waves, the most recent being the torture porn of Hostel, Saw, and so forth. We haven't had a good old fashioned slasher flick -- by which I mean high body count, terrifying villain, not camp -- in a very long time. It was very popular in the 80s, but of course as more and more came out, the genre became diluted, cliche, and boring. Rob Zombie tried to modernize the slasher with his remake of Halloween; not sure how I felt about it personally, but it was a bold effort. Perhaps a revisiting of Freddy is a way to kick-start the genre.

 

[Susan Arendt]

*snip*

Well, for fans, I hope that's the case. As I said, I'm not a huge fan of watching something that'll make me jump while I'm watching it.

Though to be fair, I have seen a few horror movies, and none of them were actually scary. Just startling.
There was no "Oh god where are the lights I have to turn on the lights" moments afterwards, just "Oh that jumped out and made a loud noise."

Now I'm imagining people who get off on torture porn.
No rest for the wicked...literally. I won't be able to sleep now.
Ever.[/quote]

Well, it's not literally torture porn, just the term that sort of film's been given.

And there are definitely two types of scare: the "boo" scare and actual fear. One is startling, as you say -- that's the cheap and easy route. It's tough to rely on the boo scare to keep viewers frighted, because you can only startle someone so many times in a compressed time period before they become immune to it. Actual fear, which comes from the threat not known, a lingering dread, is much, much harder to do well. So, yeah, most horror films aren't actually all that scary. Bloody, yes, violent, sure, perhaps even shocking, but very rarely actually frightening.

 

[Dastardos]

Jesus seems that every classic slasher flic is being remade.
How long until we get a Children of the Corn remake?