A Nightmare On Elm Street (2010 Remake)

[Laylow Skidmore]

ANightmare on Elm Street is a 2010 American supernatural slasher film directed by Samuel Bayer (in his feature directorial debut), written by Wesley Strick and Eric Heisserer, and starring Jackie Earle Haley, Kyle Gallner, Rooney Mara, Katie Cassidy, Thomas Dekker, and Kellan Lutz. Produced by Michael Bay and Platinum Dunes, it is a remake of Wes Craven's 1984 film of the same name, as well as the ninth overall installment of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. The film is set in a fictitious town in Ohio and centers on a group of teenagers living on one street who are stalked and murdered in their dreams by a disfigured man named Freddy Krueger. The teenagers discover that they all share a common link from their childhood that makes them targets for Krueger.

A Nightmare on Elm Street was originally to follow the same design as Platinum Dunes' other remake, Friday the 13th, where the writers took the best elements from each of the films in the original series and created a single storyline with them. Eventually, they decided to use Craven's original storyline but tried to create a scarier film. To that end, they decided to remove the one-line quipping Freddy, who had become less scary and more comical over the years, and bring back his darker nature. The writers developed the character to be a child molester, something that Craven wanted to do originally in 1984 but changed to a child killer instead. Freddy's physical appearance was changed with the use of computer-generated imagery to be closer to that of a burn victim.

Because of the positive experiences Platinum Dunes' producers had in the area, A Nightmare on Elm Street was filmed primarily in Illinois. Craven expressed his displeasure when he was not consulted on the project. Robert Englund, who portrayed Freddy in the previous eight films, voiced his support of the remake and the casting of Haley in the role of Freddy.

Jesse is arrested under suspicion of murdering Kris and is killed by Krueger in his jail cell. As her friends die, Nancy questions everyone's connection to each other, given that none of them can remember each other before their teenage years. Nancy and her friend Quentin Smith discover that they attended the same preschool. Nancy's mother Gwen reluctantly tells them about Krueger, the preschool's groundskeeper who was accused of molesting the children, including Nancy, who was his favorite. Gwen alerted the other parents, including Quentin's father Alan, but Krueger escaped. Believing there is more to the story, Nancy attempts to track down the remaining kids from the school but discovers that all of them have been killed; only she and Quentin are left. Meanwhile, Quentin falls asleep and sees a flashback to the parents, led by Alan, hunting Krueger down and burning him alive.

As a result of their insomnia, Nancy and Quentin have sporadic microsleeps and become hypnagogic, causing them to hallucinate. To try to stop Krueger, they go to the preschool. On the way, Nancy is attacked by Krueger, during which she pulls a piece of his sweater out of her dream into reality. Quentin takes Nancy to the hospital, where he steals adrenaline to help them stay awake. At the preschool, the two find proof of Krueger's crimes, including crude photos. Krueger, now a ghost, wants revenge on the kids for disclosing his abuse. Nancy decides to pull Krueger out of the dream world like she did his sweater and kill him. Quentin and Nancy both fall asleep and are attacked.

As Krueger goes after Nancy, her cries awaken Quentin, who uses the adrenaline to wake her. Nancy pulls Krueger with her into reality. She manages to slit his neck before torching the room with his body inside. Police, however, are unable to find Krueger's remains. After Nancy and her mother return home, Krueger appears in the mirror's reflection and kills her mother, pulling her body through the mirror as Nancy screams.

In February 2009, Samuel Bayer was hired to direct the film.[7] According to New Line production chief Toby Emmerich, Michael Bay advocated heavily for Bayer because he had "the ability to capture the kind of seductive and unsettling imagery that would make Nightmare feel like a fresh, visually arresting moviegoing experience."[8] Bayer declined Platinum Dunes' offer twice but finally accepted after Bay emailed him and explained the kind of business opportunity it would be.[9]

In June 2009 interview, Craven, who directed the original movie and was not consulted for the remake, expressed displeasure with the new film.[10] In contrast, Robert Englund, who portrayed Freddy throughout the film series, felt it was time for A Nightmare on Elm Street to be remade. Englund liked the idea of being able to "exploit the dreamscape" with computer-generated imagery and other technologies that did not exist when Craven made the original in 1984.[11] Bayer believes that his film paid homage to what Craven did in 1984, but did not replicate it entirely. Bayer recognized that Craven attempted to put more meaning into his films and that the character of Freddy Krueger affected the lives of a generation of people. For Bayer, remaking A Nightmare on Elm Street was about bringing that feeling to a new generation with a new spin on the character and story.[9]

Fuller and Form likened the new film to their 2003 remake of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre but instead of a remake, they saw it as more of a reimagining.[12] The pair also explained that A Nightmare on Elm Street would have a different tone than their Friday the 13th remake. Form states: "I think a Friday the 13th movie like we made was really fun. You know, sex, drugs and rock and roll, and I think a Nightmare movie is not that."[13]

Wesley Strick was initially hired to pen a script for a new A Nightmare on Elm Street because he had impressed Emmerich with a prequel script he wrote for the 1995 film Seven. Eric Heisserer was subsequently hired to provide a rewrite of Strick's script before the film moved into production.[8] When Bayer came on board he received a script that reflected the combined efforts of Strick and Heisserer and which still "needed to be tinkered with". Bayer explained that the script goes deeper into "[Freddy] as a person [and] how he became the thing he was". Bayer expressed that unlike the Friday the 13th remake that picked the best parts from the first four films, the Nightmare on Elm Street remake was coming straight from the first film.[9]

For the remake, Freddy was brought back to his darker roots and away from the comical character he had become in later A Nightmare on Elm Street sequels. Fuller pointed out that this Freddy did have one-liners but they come from a darker sense of humor and were not intended to be as campy as in previous films. Craven's original characterization of Freddy as a child molester was used because if Freddy killed children, as in the original, it would have been easy for the teenage characters to figure out using the Internet what had happened.[15] In an effort to keep the story fresh, Heisserer developed the concept of micro-naps because the dream-reality sequences could become repetitive. The micro-nap allowed them to "blur reality and the dream world, and get some great scares".[16]

In March 2019, Heisserer had expressed his dislike for the finished product and spoke of the film's production: "On my first day on set, a crew member told me, 'In this intro scene for the two leads, we decided there wasn't enough dialogue for them at this party so we took some dialogue from page 87 and put it here'". In a follow-up tweet, Heisserer wrote "In case you were wondering, this is NOT how it works".[17][18]

Robert Englund didn't reprise the role of Freddy Krueger for the remake despite having performed the role for the eight previous films.[7] Jackie Earle Haley was cast to take over Englund's most well-known role in April 2009.[19] Initially, the studio wanted to cast an unknown for the role of Freddy Krueger, but it was Haley's performance in Little Children that impressed Emmerich enough to cast the actor against the original intentions. Emmerich explained: "Freddy is this incredible stew of malevolence and anger, but he also has a hint of vulnerability, and Jackie really has all of that and more. He just seemed completely right for the part."[8] Bayer stated that he and producers Form and Fuller managed to acquire the screen test Haley gave as Rorschach for Watchmen; after viewing it, Bayer said it "blew [his] mind", and that he knew Haley would be able to go deep and create a believable character who was a psychopath "with a burned face and a claw."[9]

Haley was contracted for three films which includes the remake and two sequels.[22] Englund agreed with the casting of Haley and that he felt Haley's physical size worked in this role.[11] Haley stated that he did not intend to have Englund's original performances influence his own and that he used the frustration of having to sit in the make-up chair for three-and-a-half hours as his motivation to get into character.[12]

Rooney Mara plays the role of Nancy Holbrook;[23] Mara was also contracted for a sequel.[24] Bayer describes Nancy as "the loneliest girl in the world".[25] Mara stated that her Nancy is different from the role of Nancy Thompson, performed by Heather Langenkamp, and described her character as "socially awkward and timid and really doesn't know how to connect with people".[25] Kyle Gallner was cast as Quentin, who forms a connection with Nancy. Gallner described his character as "a mess, more jittery and more 'out there' than Nancy is".[25] Gallner pointed out that his character is like this because of the amount of pharmaceuticals he ingests to stay awake. Producer Brad Fuller commented that Gallner brought a sense of "humanity and relatability" to the role with his compassion and intellect.[25] Other cast members include Katie Cassidy, Thomas Dekker, and Kellan Lutz. Cassidy performed the role of Kris. According to Cassidy, Kris becomes an emotional wreck throughout the film. Cassidy described her character's ordeal: "She is literally dragged through hell, having to crawl through dark, claustrophobic tunnels. She's always crying and freaking out as her nightmares of Freddy bleed into her everyday life. Kris suspects there's something that connects her with the others; she even confronts her mother about it, but no one's talking."[25]

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