Even as franchise revivals and 1980s nostalgia have become Hollywood's bread and butter, there's one horror series that hasn't been squeezed to diminishing returns. "A Nightmare on Elm Street," once a staple of slasher cinema, hasn't been awakened in the past 15 years and counting.
Sure, the series' influence is still felt. Both horror films like "Black Phone 2" and TV like "Stranger Things" season 4 have included dream-haunting killers in the vein of Freddy Krueger. But why hasn't the actual "Nightmare" been touched for well over a decade? Series creator Wes Craven passed away in 2015, while Freddy Krueger actor Robert Englund feels he has aged out of the role. The last "Elm Street" movie was a remake of the original, released in 2010, which recast Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy. The movie was such a disaster that it may have dissuaded other filmmakers or studios from touching the franchise and trying to cast another Englund-less Freddy.
We at /Film have some ideas for how to bring back "A Nightmare on Elm Street," as does Mr. Englund himself. In a recent interview with Bloody Disgusting, Englund said a new "Nightmare" film shouldn't try to remake the original, but rather the third film, 1987's "Dream Warriors."
"I think if they were gonna reboot it, they should probably start with 'Dream Warriors,' because it has that great opening that's sort of like 'Previously on Nightmare on Elm Street,'" Englund said. "Dream Warriors" was a more direct sequel to the original "Nightmare" than "A Nightmare on Elm Street 2." Craven returned to write the script (though Chuck Russell directed), and star Heather Langenkamp returned as Nancy Thompson. Nancy had become a psychiatrist, and the film features her working with teens in a mental hospital who are being haunted and murdered by Freddy.