The news of a remake can be divisive amongst fans. Some relish the opportunity to see a new take on an old favourite, especially if it updates the story for a new era or in a new language. Others worry that all the factors that made the original special will be discarded or, even worse, lampooned. The horror genre has more than its fair share of remakes, with famous franchises like Halloween and Evil Dead amongst those refreshed for a new generation. But more often than not, the remakes disappoint, and one of the biggest of recent years has been the 2010 reimagining of A Nightmare on Elm Street.

The Initial Excitement
When the film was initially announced, the immediate reaction was one of excitement, with fans keeping an eager eye on any updates released. A Nightmare on Elm Street was one of the last 80s horror franchises to get a reboot/remake and many hoped to see the stakes ramped up for a new audience. Indeed, in the original, Freddy Kruger’s crimes are quickly glossed over, giving the new version a chance to add some depth to one of the horror genre’s greatest villains. While the 1984 film had a mostly unknown cast, including Johnny Depp in his first feature length film role, the 2010 film had attracted several middle-weight and character actors including Rooney Mara, Connie Britton and the inimitable Jackie Earle Haley as Kruger himself.

And with a reported budget of around $35 million, the new version looks slicker and feels better thought out. Although for many, that’s where the improvement ends. Even those who worked on the film have gone public with their disappointment. The writer, Eric Heisserer – who was most recently responsible for the hit horror film Bird Box – has loudly expressed his disappointment that the film failed to follow his screenplay, blaming the director, Samuel Bayer, for interfering.

“I wish the script I’d written…would have been the movie…the draft that we thought was going to be shot was different in many ways, some big and some subtle. This happens a lot, but I still have memories of arriving to set and recognizing nothing from the script on the shooting schedule.”

So, Where Did It Go Wrong?
A relative newcomer, Heisserer didn’t have the confidence or the influence to push for his vision to be retained. In fact, his original screenplay did what the fans had hoped for and explored Freddy’s life and crimes, giving the film a much darker and grittier feel. But none of these elements are present in the finished movie, with the screen time spent instead focusing on jump scares, gory effects and the kind of CGI effects that hadn’t even been dreamed of when the original was filmed in 1984.

While Heisserer is entitled to his opinion, there may be other factors he hadn’t considered, which would make his attack on Bayer see short-sighted. A Nightmare on Elm Street is Bayer’s first and only full length feature film; his other directorial credits are for shorts and music videos, which may explain why some of the dream sequences seem like they’re from a heavy metal shoot. A film with a novice director and a writer with only one previous credit to his name usually would usually have a much smaller budget and very little star power attached – so what gave this film its clout?

The answer lies in the production company that commissioned the movie in the first place: Platinum Dunes, the brain child of Michael Bay, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form, three big names in the blockbuster business. And when a movie is born from somewhere other than a creative mind, it is going to have issues. Thomas Dekker, one of the stars of A Nightmare on Elm Street, opened up about how the studio envisioned the movie as a cash cow, rather than a serious artistic exploration of child abuse, trauma and survival instincts.

The Reception
Although the movie was critically panned, it did have a reasonable box office run, returning four times its budget. But it is unlikely to replicate the long-lasting bankability of the original. Since the 1980s, A Nightmare on Elm Street has spawned a never-ending run of crazy merchandise, including a toaster that burns Kruger’s face into the bread, collectors’ figurines and even an album of Freddy’s Greatest Hits! It continues to have an influence on today’s culture, with Kruger remaining one of the most popular Halloween costumes choices and appearing on a wide variety of t-shirts commonly available.

Demand for merchandise from the newest film has been limited, although the generic Freddy Kruger branding continued to be popular. One enduring tie-in that is still drawing film fans almost ten years later is the A Nightmare on Elm Street online slot game. Online slot games are given themes and brands that appeal to players in order to draw them into the games, so only the most popular films are chosen. With the remake bringing Freddy Kruger back into the main stream, it seemed a perfect skin to choose to ignite the imagination of new players. As well as themed reels, there are in-built mini games that follow the plot of the film and ask the player to keep awake and prevent Kruger from slashing their dreams…and their jackpot.

Although the remake may have flopped, it doesn’t seem to have done much damage to the legacy of the original. The franchise has already spawned several sequels, as well as cross over movies with the Friday 13th brand, and although plans for a follow-up to the new version appear to have been scrapped, there is still plenty of material available for someone else to develop further. Perhaps there is someone out there for whom resurrecting Freddy Kruger once again would be a passion project, a labour of love that would give the series the serious, modern update it deserves? From the looks of things, that’s a remake that the fans would love to see.