A nightmare on Elm Street
I am going to write about the film A nightmare on Elm Street.
What is the film about?
The original film is set in the 1980’s, a psychopath who goes
by the name of Freddy Krueger (also known as the Springwood Slasher) murdered
several children using a glove with razor blades attached to each finger. Nancy
Thompson is the daughter of the police officer who arrested Krueger. Krueger is
on the warpath and wants revenge on Nancy and her friends so he starts stalking
them in terrifying nightmares. When Nancy’s friends start dying in their dreams
after confrontations with Krueger, Nancy realises she has to find a way to stop
Krueger.
What are the differences?
There are lots of differences between the original (1984) and
the remake (2010)
Names
The names in the remake have been changed, Nancy Thompson
(1984) is Nancy Holbrook in the remake, Rod Lane (1984) is Jesse Braun in the
remake, Glen Lantz (1984) is Jesse Braun in the remake, Nancy’s mother Marge
Thompson (1984) is now Gwen Holbrook and Tina Grey (1984) is now Kristen Fowles.
I think the names have been changed because it brings something
new and fresh to the film and the names have been much more modernised because
it was remade in 2010 and popular names have changed a lot since 1984.
Storyline
. In the original film Krueger is a child murderer but in the
remake he is a convicted child molester.
. The 2010 remake features a blogging nightmare to capture
modern day technology.
.In the 1984 version you see Nancy’s mother die twice, once when
she burns in her bed and when she gets pulled through the front door of her
house but in the remake she gets stabbed through her eye sockets and pulled
into the mirror behind her.
. In the remake Kris Fowles (Tina in the original) dreams
about Freddy killing her dog Rufus and supposedly awakes from her dream only to
find Freddy lying beside her instead of Freddy chasing her from her house into
some bin bags which turns into her bed.
. The scene where Nancy gets pulled through the water hole in
the bath tub has been replaced with Freddy’s glove appearing and then leaving
upon hearing Nancy’s mother’s voice.
I also think these changes have been made to make it more
fresh and so they can use more special effects than the original and for
example the scene with the blogging nightmare wouldn’t have existed and these
days there are lots of bloggers, especially younger people so the audience
would be able to relate with this part of the storyline.
Similarities
There are also some similarities
. In the scene where Nancy is in the bath Freddy’s hand goes
to grab her, even though the scene ends differently most of it is exactly the
same.
. In the scene in the school corridor both Nancy’s see their
best friend in the same clear body bag.
. The scene where you see Krueger coming through the wall are
exactly the same.
. Also the scene in which Nancy
(1984) freaks out in the classroom after falling asleep, the character of
Kristen (2010) also freaks out in the classroom, even though it’s different
characters it’s the same scenario.
. The scene where Tina (Kristen in the 2010) gets killed is
pretty much the same in the way she gets dragged up into the air and slashed on
her chest.
Are remakes good or bad?
Personally I don’t like remakes; some can be good depending
if it needs to be refreshed but there is just some films that shouldn’t be
touched, for instance this film. The original I feel is much better because in
the remake the CGI I feel makes it look stupid and I feel no imagination was
used when they had the opportunity to be a bit more imaginative.
Here are some reviews on the remake.
1. The real problem with A Nightmare on Elm
Street 2010 is: it's really unbelievably dull. – Ali Catterall from Film4
2. Traffics in overly familiar scare tactics,
setting up predictable false alarms and telegraphing in advance just when Freddy
will pop into the frame and utter one of his labored witticisms.- A.O Scott
from the New York Times.
3. Many people have already made the mistake
of holding this film up to the original, expecting it to be just as good, but
it just isn't. However, taken on its own, it's still an entertaining horror
film and an interesting take on the material. – Jeff Beck from Examiner.com
4. This is the worst yet from Michael Bay's
horror production company Platinum Dunes, which also brought you rubbish
re-makes of Halloween and Friday the 13th. – Nigel Floyd from Time
Out.
5.
Does
it matter that the plot is little more than a cynical, machine-tooled retread
of the 1984 original? Debut director Samuel Bayer was not hired to dismantle
the franchise but to shoot it afresh. – Xan Brooks from the Guardian (UK)
The reason why I think people have made these
comments is because maybe it was too big of a film to try and remake, everybody
knows this film and when the remake came out people may have expected too much
from the storyline and the director. But the positive comments are basically
saying that against the remake it isn’t as good but if you throw the original
out the window and concentrate on the remake it stands just as well as any
other horror film and its still enjoyable.
Why do
people remake films?
Many
people ask why remake perfectly good films? Well in my opinion there’s one main
purpose, money. If an old film has done well in the past chances are it’s going
to be made again simply because the film will already have an audience and many
of them will in fact go to see the remake.
Here is
some statistics for A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Budget
$1,800,000 (estimated)
Opening
Weekend
As you can see it
didn’t do that well in the opening weekend but that doesn’t mean there’s no
hope, in fact it actually made $25, 504,513. Not bad at
all, from that moment on wards it was known as a classic so it was typically
going to be a choice for a remake.
There
is lots of technology used in modern day films and this remake is no exception,
when you watch the original and then the remake back to back you see the
difference in quality almost as if it’s been digitally re
mastered. CGI has been used in the remake but I think it’s been used too much
and they should have used more of the techniques that were used in the
original.
The reason I
believe there is much more CGI used in this film is because modern day
blockbusters use a hell of a lot of special effects and this film is basically
trying to make as much money as possible so uses modern day technology to be
known as a blockbuster film and make a huge profit.
Here is some
statistics for A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
Budget
$35,000,000
(estimated)
Opening Weekend
As you can see the opening weekend didn’t do well either,
this seems like a pattern is occurring because overall it made $113,400,000 (Worldwide) (8 August 2010)
Marketing
The original A
Nightmare on Elm Street has a large franchise which includes a series produced
by New Line Cinema; there are comic books and a novel so there was a whole load
of money to be made off the back of the film.
In 2010 after the
remake came out the National Entertainment Collectibles Association released
two new action figures of Freddy, they also released a replica of Freddy’s
clawed glove. Also a game was released in which a young girl had to keep
herself awake using coffee, self-mutilation, cold showers and other means to
stay awake to keep her safe from Freddy.
Bibliography
The genre I have chosen to do is comedy, the reason I have
chosen this genre is because I think everyone loves a good comedy, plus
laughing releases endorphin’s which make you feel good on the inside. Comedies
are a type of genre where you can watch them over and over again and not get
bored where as if you were watching a horror film you already know what happens
and the suspense is gone but with comedies it’s all about having a laugh.
