14 DAY TRIAL // It may have gotten off to a rough start, but the revamped “Nightmare on Elm Street,” featuring the iconic hat-wearing slasher Freddie Krueger, is readying to make a splashing comeback. As such, Warner Bros. has just released the first teaser poster for it to IGN Movies and, by the looks of it, fans are in for the ride of their life upon release.
As we also reported, Platinum Dunes had serious issues with remaking the original film and bringing the killer back to life. However, since this was both something that fans had been asking for for years and a project that really needed to be made to introduce Freddie to younger audiences, all obstacles were eventually overcome. The result is, for now, the poster you see on the left.
Granted, the poster does not show much of Jackie Earle Haley as Krueger but, fans are saying, what’s more important than seeing his face is getting the right vibe – and that the photo does manage to do. Since this is, after all, a remake, the most familiar elements of the franchise have been used for this first material, with the stress falling mostly on the glove with knives as fingers that Freddie uses to kill his victims. There is also a faint hint of a hat and the by-now all-too-popular striped sweater, all on a backdrop of reddish light that the victims usually see in their dreams, where they also meet their end.
Earlier this year, when Platinum Dunes announced it was making the “Nightmare” remake happening, it also revealed some of the most difficult issues producers had to deal with when reimagining the horror cult classic. Among them was, of course, introducing the killer to new audiences and updating the story in such a way so as to still make his existence possible.
“If there were a child killer in 2009, it would be on the internet and everyone would know about it. The concept of the original ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ wouldn’t work. The concept of the movie is the kids discovering what happened, and the kids paying the price for their parents’ sins. What we’re struggling with is how do we have his crimes in a way where the kids can’t just type in ‘Freddy Krueger’ [into Google] and come up with his arrest record.” Brad Fuller of Platinum Dunes was saying at the time.
Somehow, they seemed to have successfully crossed this bridge already. “Nightmare on Elm Street” is scheduled for release on April 16, 2010.