The number of decent horror remakes can be counted on the knives of one hand.

The recent Matt Reeves incarnation of Let the Right One In was a rare success, and I can think of Breck Eisner’s The Crazies and Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead as two remakes which were far better than expected.

It’s hard enough to shake the memories of the source material when there’s an iconic cinemonster centre stage, Rob Zombie’s revived Halloween movies suffered by comparison and this rethrusting of Freddy Krueger into the pop culture of the twenty-first century suffers also, begging the question: Why bother?

The 2010 remake/boot/imaging/gurgitation is a pale fire of mostly spent matches, with the welcome casting of Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy Krueger given almost nothing to do while wearing the Dennis the Menace jumper, save for growl and disembowel. More interestingly it is the backstory of how Freddy came to be that hooks you and while it’s not exactly Little Children there is something in the performance of Haley as pre-disfigured Freddy that provides the only moments of engagement.

Fans of the blood splatter and crazy kills are given their moments though when you’ve seen one foundry set dream sequence you’ve seen them all, and I found it completely impossible to engage with the kids, who in the fade out of the post modern slasher movie era are simply trendy blood bags.

The Blu-ray has the obligatory special features, with the cast and crew waxing lyrical about the power of the original, and I don’t doubt their sincerity in wanting to revive a horror classic, but in amongst the homage and updating of what is an instantly recognisable horror icon there is nothing more here than a scratching of the surface.

For another take on this check out HeyUGuys’ resident evil expert Gary’s review. He didn’t like it as much as I did.

To celebrate the of the 25^th October release of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, which sees a new Freddy Krueger born in a contemporary and horrifying re-imagining of the horror classic we have the ultimate horror giveaway. We’re got three copies of the multipack edition, which also includes a DVD and digital copy of the film to giveaway.

Terrorising a new generation of teens’ dreams is Oscar^® nominee Jackie Earle Haley (“Watchmen”, “Little Children”) as the iconic Freddy Krueger, complete with the trademark red and green sweater, fedora hat and bladed glove.

This chilling new interpretation packs a glove-full of thrills, with special features that take you into an even deeper nightmare, including a Freddy Krueger Reborn featurette, deleted scenes and an alternate ending.

In A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, a group of suburban teenagers share one common bond: they are all being stalked by Freddy Krueger, a horribly disfigured killer who hunts them in their dreams. As long as they stay awake, they can protect one another…but when they sleep, there is no escape…..

For your chance of winning simply answer the following question using the form below:

In A Nightmare On Elm Street, horror icon Freddy Krueger is played by this actor who recently starred in the action-thriller Watchmen and was nominated for an Academy Award® for his performance in Little Children. Name the actor.

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET is the ultimate film for a terrifying Halloween night in and the definitive horror experience of 2010 on Blu-ray and DVD.

To join in on the Nightmare fun, become a fan here: http://www.facebook.com/dontfallasleep

The small print:

• This competition is open to the UK only
• Only one entry per household will be counted
• Entrants must be 18 years or over
• The competition will close Monday 1st November (release date) at 23.59 GMT
• The winner will be picked at random from entries received

The usual T&Cs can be found here. Good Luck!

COMPETITION NOW CLOSED

© 2010 Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. All rights reserved.

Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead, Burn Notice) is reportedly set to direct an ensemble horror film, which he’s calling “The Expendables of Horror”.

The film, tentatively titled Bruce Vs Frankenstein, will be a sequel to My Name Is Bruce and will shot as soon as the script is complete.

There’s a script, it just kind of blows right now, so no-one’s really seeing it [...] We gotta work on it. Definitely shoot in Oregon all on a stage. It’s like the 300 of horror comedies. We want to make it a whole world. Someone’s gotta take Frank down for good.

Commenting on the film during an interview with The Los Angeles Times, Campbell said he hoped the film would feature some of horror’s biggest fictional characters.

I want to have Kane Hodder (Jason, Friday 13th) be very particular about what he eats[...] I want Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger, Nightmare On Elm Street) to be a tough guy, like he knows tae kwon do or something. I want to find out the hidden sides of all these people. Some will play themselves, some will play alternate characters as well.

Bruce Vs Frankenstein is set to be released sometime next year, if everything comes together.

I’m a huge fan of the horror genre, I adore Robert Englund’s performance as Freddy Krueger and have been looking forward to the remake of Wes Craven’s Nightmare on Elm Street since I watched all the original movies back to back for my Halloween Special.

The HeyUGuys coverage to the release of this remake has hinted at quite a reasonable movie too so has it delivered or has it fallen asleep, been murdered and outdone by the original version. read on to find out.

One, Two how did Freddy do?

When it comes to Horror icons and films, there is arguably none better than the brilliant Freddy Krueger and the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. Anyone who saw the original Nightmare on Elm Street when they were young fondly remember it as a scary and well made horror film that still holds up today as it did in 1984. The remake however is probably one of the most disappointing films I’ve ever seen.

Platinum Dunes have been responsible for the awful remakes of the Texas Chainsaw massacre,  Amityville, The Hitcher, Friday 13th and no doubt the upcoming remake of The Birds and so it’s no real surprise Nightmare on Elm Street has gone the same way. What is more disappointing is the way that they didn’t add anything remotely new or interesting to the story except some terrible dated CGI thrown in to scare in some hugely predictable ways.

This would bleed a whole lot more?

Three, Four it’s starting to bore

The basic story is the same with a bunch of teenagers being killed off in their dreams by a burnt disfigured man with a fedora and a glove of blades and for some reason nothing new is added or event attempted with any form of creativity. The only new idea that is presented to us is the rushed backstory that Freddy was an accused child molester of our teenage victims when they attended nursery as children and we witness the chase and murder of Krueger by the parents during a dream of one of the kids.

It’s utter nonsense as it attempts to make us believe that Freddy was actually innocent of the crimes and the parents acted a bit aggressively without just cause which is why he is murdering their children (which is a pretty interesting idea) but then that explanation is taken away in the end when he is proven to be a molester so what was the point of it all? 

The parents should have had a bigger role to play and it should have been explained clearly that they were the reason for Freddy killing their kids and there guilt attached to it but we get no explanation apart from they killed Krueger and that’s all we need to know.

Five, Six crap CGI antics

The murders when they came were your typical CGI deaths with gore a plenty. There were throat cuts, Freddy’s glove through chests, claws through faces and a female body dragged round the bedroom in homage to the original film but almost all of them seemed to be included just to shock and awe you with its brutality. This isn’t a bad thing if that’s what you want to see but I look back at the original film and the deaths were done by Freddy so that nobody would believe the kids stories of Krueger being alive. Freddy framed Rod for Tina’s murder after splattering her body all over her room then Freddy hanged Rod in his cell using his sheets which all worked for the story, where as in this remake people are dying in front of other people on surveillance camera’s which removes a vital part of the evilness of Krueger’s killing.

The CGI was used terribly for other scenes and in particular the iconic scene where Freddy’s face and hands appear in Nancy’s wall that was incredibly effective in the original but was copied and ruined by CGI that looked so dated and so so bad (See below) it was almost embarrasing. There was also a quick nod to the famous Johnny Depp scene where Nancy runs onto a carpet that turns in to a rivers of blood and sinks which opens up through her bedroom ceiling pouring through but almost instantly disapearing in CGI madness. It seemed like they were going to copy the scene then bottled it as it looked so bad.

Seven, Eight the remakes not so great

Overall a complete waste of time but unfortunately the box office will no doubt prove to be a success as the franchise is so iconic it will raise plenty of interest especially from the character of Freddy Krueger who was played admirably by Jackie Earle Haley who brought a creepy and often dark humour to the role. His makeup I’m still undecided on, at times it looked really effective but at others it looked like plasticine and ineffective compared to the old 80′s makeup which looked bloody horrible in the originals.

The casting of Jackie Earle Haley is a good one, he had a huge pair of shoes to fill and never played it quite as comical as Robert Englund which was a good move. He did have some excellent mannerisms like rubbing his blades together between his thumb and fingers which was great and he had some decent lines, but when the F-Word is thrown in from him and the other characters in increasing volumes then it all started getting a bit depressing and needless.

The scares were all forced but effective as almost everyone seemed to jump when they arrived, but who doesn’t when it’s dead quiet and then all of a sudden with a loud bass enduced thump something runs past screen, of course i’m going to jump but I’m not scared I’m startled and movies need to understand that this doesnt make a scary film.

The other cast are completely forgettable and unlikeable, Nancy (Rooney Mara) was hardly even used for the first third of the film and I really thought there was going to be a nice play on the story changing the lead and giving us a nice surprise by killing Nancy off early on but it was just bad character development and writing and not a brainwave from the evil Michael Bay production company.

Nine, Ten Never see it again.

Director of many music videos, including Smells like Teen Spirit, Samuel Bayer was given an impossible task to direct his first ever feature length film when supported by such drivel as the story and script from Wesley Strict and Eric Heisserer and with Platinum Dunes behind it all I should have known better than to expect something at least good from Nightmare On Elm Street. A missed opportunity and a huge let down.

Remakes and Revisitations are the order of the day for 2010 and and Total Film have pointed us to a sneak peek of the new Nightmare on Elm Street film tucked into the folds of the DVD release of The Final Destination and it’s a brief but interesting look behind the scenes of Samuel Bayer’s film.

While the film looks set to recreate the visceral screams and scrapes of the original it’s tagline (Don’t Fall Asleep…) is an invitation to critics, but I wonder what would happen to you if you fell asleep during a Freddy movie?

In the video embedded below you can see Jackie Earle Haley in the make-up chair interspersed with footage from the trailers already seen so if you’re hungry for more Freddy you’re in luck.

It’s a bit late but to finally end my Halloween champion Slasher report on who is the king out of Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers and Freddy Krueger,  I have watched the entire back catalogue of their films and given a run down on each characters franchise story and best kills.

Part 1 was on Jason, Part 2 was Michael Myers and finally Part 3 is on the killing Dream Demon Freddy Krueger.

Set on Elm Street, Freddy is the reason I struggled to sleep through the late 80′s due to being terrified of him visiting me in my dreams.

Beware pictures of blood, a lot of gushing blood and other violent deaths.

And so a little rhyme to begin this story:

One, two, Freddy’s coming for you.
Three, Four, Better Lock your door.
Five, Six, grab your Crucifix.
Seven, Eight, Gonna stay up late.
Nine, Ten, Never sleep again.

The brilliant little rhyme is sung in each film by little kids playing jump rope and fits in with the mythology of Krueger and like the Halloween theme it will always bring a chill to your spine when heard.

Freddy is possibly the most instantly recognizable looking of the three horror killers with his burnt and disfigured face, trade mark Fedora hat, stripped Jumper and razor sharp clawed glove.

Freddy kills you in your sleep where he terrorises you by making it difficult to tell the difference between dream and reality. I remember being terrified to go to sleep after seeing it as a youngster and the concept heightened the myth that if you die in your dreams then you die in real life.

First brought to the big screen in 1984 by Wes Craven and spawning eight films in total with a 9th coming in 2010, Freddy Krueger has racked up only 31 of on screen kills but with approximately 20 deaths of kids tallied up before he was murdered by the revengeful parents.

The story of how Krueger came about is a fantastic one, A serial child killer who was caught but released on a technicality who was hunted down by the parents of the victims and cornered, he was burned alive and forgotten by the parents but not by the dreams of their children.

Freddy has done something that Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers haven’t done and that’s get his own TV show called Freddy’s Nightmares, it was an anthology show similar to the Twilight Zone that Freddy Krueger hosted and occasionally made appearances in of episodes, one being the trial of Freddy Krueger and the aftermath.

Freddy was magically brought to life on the big screen by the possibly irreplaceable Robert Englund who added a personality to Freddy that made him equally terrifying as he was comical, Robert Englund is the only Horror Icon that was performed by the same actor throughout it’s run in the eight movies over ten years, Jackie Earle Haley has a lot to live up to but his performance as Rorschach in  Watchmen is definitely encouraging and potentially more insane.

A Nightmare on Elm Street in 1984 was a roaring success and came off the back of Halloween and Friday 13th franchises that were into their 3rd and 4th films respectively and receiving huge box office receipts.

The film starts with Tina in a dream being stalked by Freddy but she awakes with rips in her clothes similar to the claws that the thing in her dream attacked her with.
Tina tells her friend Nancy and they agree to have a sleep over with Nancy’s boyfriend Glen (Johnny Depp) joining them.

Whilst at Tina’s house Tina’s rebel boyfriend Rod joins them and they go upstairs to do what all teenagers do before they get murdered in these films.
And so during a dream Tina is killed by Freddy and in reality her boyfriend watches in disbelief as Tina is slashed open then dragged up the wall then across the ceiling leaving a bloody trail then dropped to the floor, As Rod is the only one present he flee’s but is arrested the next day.

Nancy starts to have dreams about Freddy, she see’s her friend Tina in a bloody body bag and is staked by Krueger awaking just in time before being killed. Nancy

visits Rod and they discuss what he saw and so Nancy believes that the man in her dreams is the one who killed Tina.

After another dream involving Rod, Nancy and Glen rush to the police station where Rod is found hung but only Nancy concludes that it must be Freddy.
Nancy’s mum takes her to a dream therapy clinic where she is studied and whilst dreaming she is cut on the arm by Freddy and brings back his hat that she was holding as she awakes with her arm bleeding also.

Nancy’s mum is hiding the truth of this monster but spills the beans when she gets drunk showing the glove of Krueger that she has hidden in their basement.
Nancy and Glen hatch a plan to bring Freddy back through to reality but that night Glen falls asleep and is eaten by his bed, spewing tons of blood in a jet from the bed in the now famous scene.

Nancy’s dad, the sheriff, now becomes involved and Nancy tells him to awaken her and arrest Freddy when she brings him through, Nancy goes to sleep and eventually brings Freddy through and using a series of booby traps, Freddy is set on fire and locked in the basement and fetches her father.

But Freddy has escaped and following his fiery footsteps they find Freddy has smothered her mum in a fiery blaze and killed her and she vanishes into the bed. Freddy Krueger then brilliantly rises through the bed sheets and Nancy confronts him saying she takes her power from him and she wants her friends and mother back as it’s all a dream and Freddy lunging to attack vanishes.

The ending is bizarre, like a dream within a dream, Nancy leaves the house and gets in a car coloured like Freddy and Nancy’s mum waves them off, The car seals itself up and Nancy’s mum gets comically dragged through the window of the front door by Freddy.

Best Kill:- There can be only one, Mega star Johnny Depp getting eaten by his bed and regurgitated in a water of blood, utter bonkers and forever memorable!

A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge in 1985.
A complete nightmare of a film that ruined everything the first movie did so well.

The story is set five years after part one and is about Jesse, whose family have moved into 1428 Elm Street and Jesse has moved into Nancy’s old bedroom. It begins with Jesse getting on a school bus that is shown to be driven by Robert Englund which speeds off through the desert and finally stops and the floor collapses leaving the bus dangling like a seesaw and as Freddy approaches and the kids back off the bus tips so the kids move closer to Freddy and just as it falls Jesse awakens, Nice little Nightmare. Jesse starts to have more nightmares about Freddy and in them Freddy tells him to kill for him so Freddy can come back into the real world through his body, Right….

Jesse’s friend Lisa finds Nancy’s old diary in his room and the dreams described in it are obviously similar so Jesse panics to his parents who argue and he runs out.
Jesse then works out at school with his gym teacher and afterwards whilst showering, the gym teacher is his office and attacked by balls and sports equipment, he is dragged to the showers by rope and is attacked by a Freddy silhouette and as the steams disappears its revealed as Jesse.

And so the story continues with Jesse dreaming and Freddy manipulating Jesse to commit murders which was so against everything Freddy is known for and creating a fear of dreaming, but having said that one scene has Freddy ripping out from the inside of Jesse and it’s very well done using the brilliant animatronics that was so popular in the 80′s, Jesse eventually returns to normal and runs to Lisa’s house who’s having a pool party with a load of friends and Jesse is again taken over by Freddy who proceeds in killing a few revelers who think they can take him on, they die and so it’s Lisa’s dad who saves the day by coming out with a shotgun shooting but Lisa just stops him from shooting Jesse in the form of Freddy.

Lisa has been doing her research and discovers that Freddy will be found in the factory where Freddy use to take his victims and so heads there for the final showdown. She comes face to face with Freddy and tells him/Jesse that she loves him and can fight it from the inside and so gives the burnt face killer a big kiss which finishes Freddy off as the factory and Freddy go up in flames. Freddy is dead and so it seems is the mass murderer Jesse, but not quite, Jesse crawls out from Freddy’s ashes and they live happily ever after.

(And now finally a decent bit of the film) That is until they board the school bus the next day and the bus seems to be speeding, Jesse panics but the bus stops and everyone relaxes then bam! Freddy’s gloved hand comes out the chest of one of Jesse’s friend and the bus speeds off into the desert with Freddy laughing.

Best Kill:- The ending of the film, I could only find it in Spanish but that’s an improvement really.
All seems ok but Freddy wants to wave goodbye so bursts his arm through an unsuspecting girls chest, BYE!

A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 3: Dream Warriors in 1987 was the return of Wes Craven who wrote the screenplay which is why it this is a huge improvement on part two and a return to the imaginative dream sequences that should fill the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, the possibilities are endless.

Ignoring part two and set six years after part one and starts with Kristen making a model house that looks familiar and she goes to sleep dreaming of a little girl running into 1428 Elm Street where she follows to the basement and comes across Freddy and awakes in a panic, She goes to her bathroom where she reaches for the tap which turns into a hand and attacks her, as she looks into the mirror she sees Freddy who slashes her wrist and she awakes to see her mother enter and she has slashed wrist appearing to be a suicide attempt.

Kristen is taken to a psychiatric hospital and when they try to sedate her she freaks out, grabs a scalpel and cuts one of the orderlies (Larry Fishburne) with a scalpel and starts singing the Freddy Rhyme and before she finishes in walks old Freddy killer Nancy from part one and finishes the rhyme, Nancy works out that Kristen and the other patients of this loony bin Taryn, Kincaid, Phillip, Joey, Jennifer and Will, are the last of the Elm Street children of those vigilante murdering parents who killed Freddy.

Some of the kids start to die in awesome ways, see below, and Nancy realizes she has to protect the kids. Meanwhile a decent additional plot of the origin of Freddy Krueger starts to unfold that carries on in the next films, the kids psychiatrist, Doctor Neil Gordon, gets visited by a nun Sister Mary Helena who explains that Freddy was never buried and needs to be put to rest is consecrated ground.

Another kid, Joey is kidnapped in his dream by Freddy and is put in a coma and Nancy and Dr Gordon get fired for their involvement in helping the kids and Sister Mary explains to Dr Gordon that a young girl was locked by accident with 100 insane maniacs who raped her and when se was released she was with child her name was Amanda Krueger, Freddy was the Bastard son of 100 Maniacs and so Dr Gordon and the recruited Lt Donald Thompson, Nancy’s dad from part one, head off to bury Freddy’s remains as Donald is the only one left who knows where they are hidden, in a junk yard.

Nancy gets the kids and performs mass hypnosis to get all the kids into dream together so they can battle Freddy once and for all and rescue Joey from his coma, and as they get into the dream world they take on their Dream Warrior forms and their alter egos, Freddy splits them up and kills Taryn and Will. Nancy, Kincaid and Kristen save Joey and and Kristen fights Freddy and Nancy realizes Freddy is more powerful as he absorbs the souls of the children and just as he is about to kill Kincaid Freddy realizes his bones are about to be buried so he takes control of his skeleton (awful animated scene) and kills Nancy’s dad and knocks out Dr Gordon. Exciting.

The kids battle on and Nancy dies by trusting a ghost of her dad visiting her and gets stabbed by Freddy, and as he goes for Kristen Nancy grabs Freddy’s arm and stabs Freddy with his own glove, at the same time Dr Gordon is finishing the ritual with holy water on Freddy’s bones and Freddy starts to die and with a finishing touch of a crucifix on his head and he is killed but so too is Nancy from her wounds.

At the funeral Dr Gordon sees the Nun again and goes to thank her but she has vanished and he stands by a grave of Amanda Krueger/ Sister Mary Helena the mother of Freddy Krueger. Dr Gordon heads to bed and owns the model house that Kristen built and as he closes his eyes the light comes on.

Best Kill:- I couldn’t decide on these two. Young Dream Warrior Jenny is trying to stay awake watching TV but nods off and awakes to see Freddy Krueger kill a cameo from Zsa Zsa Gabor on a show then as she gets closer gets picked up by the TV which turns into Freddy and he smashes her head into the screen.

Also Philip gets his tendons cut from his arms and legs and Freddy uses them to control Philip like a puppet and it looks horrible!

‘

A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 4: The Dream Master in 1988.

Following on from the Dream Warriors, Kristen (now played by Tuesday Knight), Kincaid and Joey have all somehow been released from the loony bin after their friends and Nancy were all killed on the premises in suspicious circumstances with them surely being the only suspects! But on with the plot where they have been released and living there lives as normal teenagers with new friends.

Whilst having a bad dream she pulls Joey and Kincaid to her dream (her dream warrior power) and the next day they freak out for her doing it. That night Kincaid dreams of Freddy in the scrap yard where Freddy’s remains lie, Kincaid’s dog urinates on his grave that then goes up in flames and Freddy bones rises and grow flesh and Freddy is back, Somehow.

Freddy Kills Kincaid and then visits Joey who is killed in his dream in a great little scene involving his water-bed and the next day as they both fail to turn up for school Kristen gets worried and tells her friends Alice, Sheila, Debbie and Rick who all have a Dream power, Alice tells Kristen about the

Dream Master Rhyme but can’t remember all of it which helps you have happy dreams.

Kristen tries using the Rhyme and has a dream but then gets killed and passes her power to Alice who gets dragged into Kristen’s final dream. Kristen also gets the powers/abilities of Sheila, Debbie and Rick when they die that she eventually uses to fight Freddy in the final fight after her boyfriend Dan is put into a coma after a Freddy induced car crash and Alice goes to sleep to save Dan and to face Freddy inside a run down Church.

The new found abilities she uses are not enough to kill Freddy but she remembers the final line of the Dream Master Rhyme and sings it:

Now l lay me down to sleep.

The master of dreams, my soul l’ll keep.

ln the reflection of my mind’s eye…

Evil will see itself, and it shall die!

Alice uses a piece of mirror and shows Freddy’s reflection and he vanishes leaving just he clothes and Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah Freddy is dead until part 5.

Best Kill:- Debbie, who’s arms horribly break when doing weights and if that wasn’t bad enough is then turned into a cockroach and Freddy offers the only solution you can do with cockroaches.

A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 5: The Dream Child in 1989.

And so Freddy is dead and Alice and Dan live on with no sign of Freddy, until of course during a dream Alice dreams of Amanda Krueger being locked in the asylum with 100 maniacs and another dream of Amanda giving birth to a baby, the baby escapes to the run down church from the end of part 4 and crawls into Freddy’s clothes and grows quickly into Adult Freddy and she awakes.

Alice calls Dan and he has another Freddy induced car crash on his way to see her and dies in front of Alice and she faints. When she awakes she’s told she is pregnant with Dan’s baby and see’s a young boy called Jacob walking the hospital who apparently doesn’t exist according to her friends.

And so Freddy starts to kill off Alice’s friends who take on some pretty decent alter egos in their dreams to fight Freddy but alas die. Alice she is informed that Freddy is using her unborn baby’s dreams to kill off her friends, How, I do not know. Further more she finds out that Jacob is Alice’s unborn son who’s being haunted by Freddy and so Alice sets off to release her son from his dreams by getting Freddy. Bonkers!

Alice sends her friend to find Amanda Krueger’s soul and releases it whilst she goes to get Freddy, Freddy however traps Jacob and Alice in an Escher type labyrinth to slow them down. Finally Amanda’s Soul is released and she instructs Jacob how to kill Freddy and using some sort of nonsensese power turns Freddy and himself back into babies, Alice absorbs Jacob and Amanda absorbs Freddy who puts up a fight but the church doors close.

We fade out to the new Alice Family with kids in back ground singing One, Two Freddy’s coming for you. What a crazy mess!

Best Kill:- One of the dream kids uses his obsession with comics to create the ultimate character to destroy Freddy, but alas Freddy has a better imagination.

A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 6: Freddy’s Dead, The Final Nightmare in 1991

Ah good, the final film as promised right? nope,  At least it came in 3D right?, no way, only the last ten minutes were in 3D, well they used Peter Jackson’s script for this one right? Not at all, his awesome sounding script was rejected and they commissioned a script by veteran Freddy producer Rachel Talalay who also directed.

In the futuristic year of 1999 Freddy has long since returned and killed almost all the kids in Springwood and the last one, known as John Doe, is confronted by Freddy in a dramatic imaginative dream and ends up getting hit by a bus throwing him through the border of Springwood which is a barrier Freddy can not cross, the poor kid gets amnesia after hitting his head.

John Doe ends up at a youth shelter and is introduced to three other kids all with troubled pasts, Carlos is deaf, Tracy was abused and Spencer is unable to live with his fathers expectations and all are cared by Dr Maggie Burroughs who confiscates some items of the naughty kids (lovely plot devices).

Maggie finds a newspaper article from Springwood and suggests they go there to jog his memory with Spencer, Tracy and Carlos stowing away to escape the Shelter. They enter Springwood and come across a crazy bunch of adults who haven’t seen kids for years, two being a bizarre cameo from the happy couple Rosanne Barr and Tom Arnold, Weird.

They learn that Freddy had a child that was taken away from him which was why he went a bit crazy and John Doe suspects it’s him which is why he is still alive, meanwhile The three other kids take the van to drive back to the shelter but are unable to leave continually driving in circles due to Freddy’s powers.

They eventually give up and decide to enter a house, no prizes for guessing what house it is, 1428 Elm Street.

Freddy starts to get the kids in their sleep in more decent and imaginative dream sequences and kills two of them, Carlos, by turning his hearing aid to 11  and Spencer in a video game dream. John Doe confronts Freddy and is killed but learns Freddy’s child was a girl and he tells Dr Maggie before he dies.

Freddy possess Maggie and as Tracy and Maggie drive through the Springwood border the barrier collapses, Freddy is out. On their return to the shelter no one remembers Carlos or Spencer except for Doc who has learned to control his dreams, of course he has.

Maggie discovers her adoption papers and when sleeping is visited by her father who explains he used her to escape Springwood so he can start killing another towns children.

Good old Doc discovers that Freddy’s power comes from Dream Demons that continually revive him but he can be killed if he’s pulled into the real world (haven’t we heard this all before?) and enters Freddy’s mind where she puts on her 3D glasses, seriously!

The glasses magically disappear (Ready everyone, this is where you put your 3D glasses on) and Maggie finds out that Freddy was teased as a child, abused by his foster father (Alice Cooper!) self inflicted himself as a teenager, killed his wife in front of his daughter and when the vigilante parents came a knocking with Molotov cocktails he was possessed by the Dream Demons creating the legend that is Freddy Kreuger. Well I’m glad that all makes sense.

Maggie brings Freddy through to reality (still in 3D) and have a royal old punch up using the plot device items that were confiscated at start of film, Maggie disarms Freddy and picks up the glove encouraged by Freddy to “wear it, it’s in your blood” so she does and stabs him, then puts a pipe bomb (another confiscated item) in his chest and kisses him on the check wishing him Happy Fathers day. Freddy looks into the camera and says “Kids” then boom, three 3D fish looking Dream Demon’s come flying out of him. Freddy’s Dead.

Best Kill:- After following a deaf Carlos and trying to get his attention by hilariously shouting and making noises at him constantly with no reaction Carlos has to hear things a bit louder after Freddy possesses his hearing aid and proceeds to torture him with sound in fantastic ways with an exploding finale. Brilliant. Freddy at his comical best.

Wes Cravens New Nightmare in 1994

And so finally we come to the penultimate Freddy. A nice change in idea for the franchise with Wes Craven back on board in directing and writing duties and Nancy actress Heather Langenkamp back as the star and the quality is immediately clear.

This was an interesting idea from Wes Craven, with a wide selection of old Nightmare on Elm Street actors, producers etc coming back and playing themselves in a story of how Freddy does come back.

Heather is on set of a new Nightmare on Elm Street film where a glove is being forged with blades and all. Wes Craven calls cut and we see Heather, her son Dylan and her husband Chase wandering the set where suddenly the glove prop comes to life and kills two special FX guys and as it goes for Dylan, Heather awakes to an Earthquake.

Heather is a tad uneasy and mentions of phone calls from someone sounding like Freddy, but it’s put down to an obsessed fan and so she goes to be interviewed on a talk show as it’s the tenth anniversary of A Nightmare on Elm Street where Robert Englund makes a surprise appearance as Freddy Krueger to the delight of the fans but to the worry of Heather.

Heather is approached by Newline Cinema to reprise her role as Nancy one last time as Wes is writing a new Nightmare film and her husband Chase is making the new Glove but she declines and goes home to kick her husbands arse.

When she gets home Dylan has a funny turn where he says in a freaky voice “Never Sleep Again” and so calls chase to come home but he crashes his car in a Freddy fuelled loss of control, he dies with a huge quadruple claw mark on his chest.

Heather approaches Wes for help who reveals he has dreams and writes them down to form his new screenplay and he reveals that evil has manifested itself as into a demon that has taken the form of Freddy Krueger because it’s the most familiar one and so focusing on Heather to make her weak to be able to enter the world. I think”¦.
Wes asks Heather to play Nancy one more time.

Nancy starts freaking out because Dylan is becoming more unstable and is taken to the hospital when he enters a trance. Here they try to put Dylan to sleep when Heather is taken for questioning, presumed insane, but Dylan’s babysister tries to stops them but Dylan eventually falls asleep and Freddy arrives killing the babysitter.

Dylan runs home being chased by a huge Freddy Krueger across a busy motorway and as she arrives back home Freddy has turned her home into 1428 Elm street and Heather into Nancy which releases Freddy into the real world where he takes Dylan.

Nancy follows them through to Freddy’s world by taking sleeping pills and entering through the bottom of Dylan’s bed where she faces Freddy for the final time and eventually after some more cat and mouse Nancy and Dylan get Freddy into a furnace and he burns revealing the true demon inside and as they escape the collapsing world they end up back home where a script is waiting for them from Wes with the message “Thanks for playing Nancy one last time” Nancy proceeds to read the script which is the same as the opening to this movie.

The End, well kind of as Freddy vs Jason came out Nine years later. Read the run down of that film here.

Best Kill:- Baby sitter of Dylan gets dragged around the hospital room in a homage to the original film in a brilliant revolving room set up. Classic kill.

Nightmare Elm Street 2010

In case you havent seen the trailer here it is.

And that’s Freddy Krueger done, a more comical killer and a horror icon that killed for fun making the most of each kill and using his victims mind to make creative deaths way beyond anything Jason and Michael could do. Good job Mr. Krueger.

This brings and end to my run down of all three films, following very shortly is the verdict on who is the ultimate killer. Who do you choose?

It’s that time of year again.  The pumpkins are out, the leaves are turning colors, the air is brisk and chilly.  It’s time for the spooky stories, the frightening films, the maybe not so scary but at times certainly inventive costumes and that most important element…..candy corn.  Yes folks, Halloween season is upon us once again.

My yearly tradition on All Hallows Eve is to hole up in my house, turn off all the lights and settle in to a nice good ole fashioned Horror movie.  What other way to celebrate right?  I figured this would be the perfect time to run down a list movies that fit this time of year perfectly.  Let’s run them down by letter shall we?

H - Starting with the obvious,  Halloween.  John Carpenter’s fright fest with a score so simple, it’s frightening….literally.  Laurie Strode agrees to babysit on the scariest night of the year.  Little does she know what Halloween has in store for her.

The original version still holds up and I still get goose bumps when I hear that infamous tune start to play.  One of the freakiest scenes was after Laurie thinks she has bested Michael Meyers.  We see Laurie in the foreground, and Michael laying flat in the background.  Just when we think we can take a breath, we see Michael sit up straight.  I have two thoughts that run through my head each time I see this scene. 1) Tony Moran has amazing core muscles, and 2)Why did she stick around…get out…get out of the house!  Jamie Lee Curtis was great as babysitter Laurie.  She was able to make you feel her fear and make you jealous of her pipes all in the same scene.  She didn’t earn the moniker The Scream Queen for nothin’ folks.

A – The Amityville Horror (1979 & 2005)
Starting with the 1979 version starring Margo Kidder and James Brolin as a newly married couple who find, buy and move into their dream house.  Of course the house was witness to a heinous crime and the evil that lurks there starts to wreak havoc on the poor unsuspecting Lutz family.  The standout here was James Brolin.  His transformation from loving husband and father to evil, mad husband and father is subtle, but effective.  Moving over to the remake, or rebake, I should say.  The 2005 version was rebaked to a nice medium rare.  It was easy to chew on, and I enjoyed it.  The casting of Ryan Reynold in Brolin’s role was interesting but he showed his chops and made it his own.  The real star, after thinking about it, is the house itself.  That house gives me the creeps just looking at pictures of it.  It’s freaky!  I would never go there…..ever.   The standout scene in the 2005 version is when the priest comes to bless the house.  He ends up locked in a room with a swarm of flies.  I believe his last line of dialogue is “Your house scares me”.  Buddy, you’re not joking….it scares me too.

The orignal had the stigma attached to it that the story was based on actual events.  It came out several years ago, that it was in fact fiction and the events that transpired in the house didn’t actually happen.  Both films still have the ability to leave you a bit restless.

L – The Lost Boys (1987)
Ok, so not so much a “horror” film, but it has Vampires.  And that is always a good thing.  Michael and Sam are brothers who, with their divorced mother, move to the coastal town of Santa Carla.  Things from strange to freaky when Michael gets mixed up with bad seeds of the town.   Michael finds himself walking the fine line between human and vampire and Sam tries to help get his brother back by enlisting the help of the Frog brothers. 

Comedy ensues, and vampire guts fly.  Death by stereo was invented.  And as far as I’m concerned, anything with Keifer Sutherland, is bound to rock.  This is a Vampire film made for an MTV Generation.

L – Last House on the Left (2009)
I have to go with the remake on this one since I’ve never seen the original.  I know I know, bad Tracy!  I went to see one because my Aunt called in a marker.  I drag her to a load of crap movies, so this was her pick.  I came out surprised.

After a family tragedy, Mari Collingwood goes to spend the summer with her parents at their summer home.  After visiting with a friend in town, Mari gets caught up with nasty group of people.  Violence, trauma, death, the usual stuff ensues.  Tony Goldwin and Monica Potter play Ma and Pa Collingwood and the leader of the bad guys is the stellar Garret Dillahunt.  You may not know the name, but you’ll know him when you see him.   This film has plenty of jumps and couple of parts that made my jaw hit the floor.  Not so much in the horror veins as the other films on this list, but it has just enough of that uneasy feeling to warrant a mention.

O -The Others (2001)
“I am your daughter!” Oh how I love saying that to my mom.  And she gets it, which makes it even better.  Having seen the movie with her, I pull out that line when appropriate.  The Others, starring Nicole Kidman as a wife and mother who is trying to raise her kids while her husband if off fighting in the Civil War.  Her kids have a condition where they can’t be exposed to sunlight, and loud noises bother them.  This film is typical, with the suspense and creepy factor.  I mean, the movie has Fionnula Flanagan in it.  And that woman knows how to serve up some creepy. 

There is a bit of a twist which I’m ashamed to say I didn’t see coming.  I’m normally quite good and spotting those kinds of things.  Perhaps I just wasn’t paying attention.  Anyway, if you watch it alone, with all the lights off and you start to hear noises, I would say one might be a bit unnerved.  I think I’ll call my mom right now and tell her once again that I am, indeed, her daughter.  It gets an eye-roll, but her response to this is nothing compared to her response to my next entry.

W -The Wizard of Oz (1939)
I know. You’re scratching your head thinking “what the hell is she thinking??”.  Wizard of Oz isn’t a horror movie!  I beg to differ.  This movie has been dishing the creep my entire life and then some.  A green witch hell bent on revenge!  Flying evil monkeys! Lions and tigers and bears oh my! Flying evil monkeys!  All of that is downright scary stuff.

Dorothy and her little dog get caught up in a tornado and ends up taking the yellow brick road trip of a lifetime with a couple of high maintenance companions.  You’ve seen it, you know the story.  You must also see the creepy too right?
Not to bring my mom into this again but, she hates this movie.  With a passion.  So of course, every time  it’s on TV,  I call her and tell her to flip it to whatever channel, which then leads to about 3 minutes of cursing in my ear.  Then I giggle and hang up.  It’s not nice, but it’s fun.  I watched this so much as a kid, I’ll probably never watch it again.  The thought of it creeps me out.

E – The Entity (1981)
Even though it’s been ages since I’ve seen this one, I can still recall certain scenes and they still freak me out a bit.  Barbara Hershey is Carla Moran.  A single mother who finds that the nighttime visits she is being paid, isn’t coming from a friendly, or human for that matter, source.  Carla finds herself the focal point of an entity that forces itself on her continuously.  Thinking that she is going mad, she enlists the help of a paranormal research team.  After a plan to rid Carla of her attacker goes awry, but seems to work, Carla and her family bail from the house they were living in to start fresh.  At the end Carla still experiences the attacks but with less frequency.  Pretty messed up right?  Word on the street is that this film is based on actual events and experiences of the main character. 

Given the subject matter, it’s probably not a proper movie for a youngster to watch….which is exactly what I was when I saw it on HBO.  Anything that says it’s based on fact, or actual events, or inspired by true events shines like a beacon to me.  I’m instantly curious and must see it.  Call it morbid curiosity I guess.  I don’t have a particular need to re-watch this one however.  Just the thought of it being based on fact is enough to give me goosebumps!

E -The Exocist (1973)
Growing up I never had any restrictions about what I was allowed to watch.  As evidenced by my previous entry.  The Exocist was the one film that was forbidden.  I asked and asked and begged and pleaded with my mom to let me watch it.  Every time I got a stern look followed by “ABSOLUTELY NOT!”  It wasn’t until I was 18 and legally an adult, although still living at home with mom, that I brought it home from work.  She asked me what movie I rented and I proudly stated “The Exorcist!” After enduring another stern look, she turned around and walked out of the room leaving me to my scare fest.  After watching poor little Regan turn into something evil and do some not so nice things with a crucifix, I understood my mom’s reluctance. 

I actually didn’t think the film was super scary either.  Even though I may never look at pea soup the same way again.  I guess the issue here was that since it was so forbidden, I had it built up in my head that this was the movie that I was going to lose sleep over, and I felt a little bit let down.  Several years later when it was re-released in the theaters, I went with a boat load of friends and felt the effect to a greater degree.  Seeing Regan do that crazy spider walk down the stairs on the big screen genuinely freaked me out.

N – Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
1, 2, Freddie’s comin’ for you……3, 4, better lock your door…..5,6, grab a crucifix…7,8 gonna stay up late…..9,10 never sleep again.
Freddie Kruger.  The best villain of the 80′s horror movies.  He was so much more effective than Jason or Michael Myers.  I attribute it to the fact that Freddie had a quality that the others didn’t…..personality.  Freddie was such a menacing figure, but he terrorized with panache.   And you have to give kudos to Robert Englund for pulling that off.  Freddie runs around and wreaks havoc on the kids whose parents yanked him out of the living gene pool years prior.  The twist, he’s offing these kids by way of their dreams.  Nancy is the one smart teenager who puts it all together and fights Freddie to the bitter end. 

The remake is currently in post production with Jackie Earle Haley donning the infamous striped sweater.  I think it’s a perfect fit, no pun intended.  I recently watched the trailer and got a bit excited for it, so hopefully it’ll do the original justice.  Whether or not they decide to continue on with the sequels is anybody’s guess.  I stopped watching after Dream Warriors.  It just got plain silly after that.  I was impressed with Wes Craven’s New Nightmare however.  I thought that was an interesting spin on the story.  Nightmare is a must see for anyone who digs the scary movies.  When this film came out, it was a rare occasion where you simultaneously laughed and screamed at the same time.  Good ole Freddie just had that effect on people.

Well folks, that sums up my list.  I hope I’ve given you all some ideas on what movie you’re going to watch on Halloween.  So go get your loved one, hunker down and grab a wubie, turn off the lights and put in your favorite scary movie.  That’s exactly what I’ll be doing on October 31st.  Let us know what scary movies you love and why in the comments.