The Horror of Remakes

Today while perusing my email, I came across the Videoport newsletter, and gave it my customary skim-through to see if anything interesting was happening at the awesomest of video rental establishments. As my eye traveled down the page, it fell upon the headline, "Teaser Trailer from 'Nightmare on Elm Street' delivers the goods". My immediate reaction was, "Nooooooo!" I clicked on the link and proceeded to play said trailer, which was released via MySpace. When I saw the words "from producer Michael Bay" appear on-screen, my immediate reaction was, "Nooooooo!"

Clearly, I'm quite skeptical about the new version of A Nightmare on Elm Street. Growing up, I was a fan of the series (except the second installment, which was truly bad, and not even in a so-bad-it's-good kind of way. I am still wary of lovebirds, lest one attack the other, chase after a bunch of humans, and then spontaneously combust). It's always difficult to see something one had an affection for in its original form undergo a "re-imagining". The primary issue I have with the idea of a remake is a Freddy Krueger other than Robert Englund. Whereas the monsters of Friday the 13th and Halloween were best remembered for their masks, Englund provided the face of his character through 8 films and a few TV series. After having watched the trailer, I am still extremely doubtful, yet intrigued despite myself. I suppose we'll have to wait until April of 2010 for the verdict.

Revisiting classic horror franchises has been somewhat of an epidemic in Hollywood in recent years. I can't say that the Friday the 13th retread caused me any distress, as I've never seen the original, and wasn't tempted enough to see the new version. The new version of Halloween did bother me, but because I have never seen the original of this film either (I'm prepared to be beaten for this admission), the reason it does is that Rob Zombie bothers me. The man believes in the greatness of his filmmaking, daring to take on a horror classic, even after creating the atrocity that was House of 1000 Corpses. (By the time the young female protagonist dressed in a bunny costume was being chased through a field by the psycho redneck family, I collected my wits long enough to wonder how I'd made it this far into the the film. And how did Rainn Wilson end up involved in this mess? John, this may actually be a good selection for Bed Time Movies.)

One film I have seen in both its original and remade incarnations is the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I'll be blunt. The new version was awful. What made the original so effective, and so horrifying, was everything that was left to the viewer's imagination. The remake took the opportunity to show, in bloody, gory, grisly detail, everything that the original made you picture in your head. It just goes to show how far Hollywood has drifted from what makes a film truly frightening.

In summary, Hollywood's recent attempts to reimagine horror classics don't bode well for the updated A Nightmare on Elm Street. It remains to be seen whether, 9...10... Freddy really will be back again.

(For those who are curious, the new teaser trailer can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-tSvrkKx2Y)