“Why are you screaming? I haven’t even cut you yet.”
The line is said by a gravel-voiced Jackie Earle Haley towards the end of the full trailer for the remake of A Nightmare On Elm Street, and it’s that, more than anything, that has us crossing our fingers and hoping that our quiet optimism about the Samuel Bayer-directed film won’t be misplaced.
For it’s a line that’s nastier than pretty much anything Robert Englund’s Krueger uttered through seven Nightmare movies, and that – along with a bleak tone that revisits some key moments from Wes Craven’s original, and new material that looks genuinely unsettling – is very encouraging.
The basic story remains the same – a group of teenagers in the fictional town of Springwood, led by Nancy Thompson (Rooney Mara), are stalked in their dreams by a scarred, clawed demon named Freddy Krueger. But there appear to be genuinely new wrinkles here – Kyle Gallner’s Quentin as a clued-in teen lecturing Nancy on the perils of insomnia seems impressive – while we also like the idea that, after seventy hours of sleep, would-be victims won’t know whether they’re dreaming or awake, a twist that allows Freddy to appear at any given second.
Oh, and Haley looks utterly terrifying.
Of course, we’ve been down this road many times with Platinum Dunes, the company behind the remake of this and other horror classics like** Friday The 13th**, The Amityville Horror and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, only to be disappointed by the final product. Hopefully that won’t happen this time.
To see the full trailer for A Nightmare On Elm Street – out here on May 7 – click here.