At the moment we have no idea what dreams may come with the new A Nightmare on Elm Street film. Other than a vague statement that the studio has purchased the rights to Wes Craven's original script. What that means for a final film is still unknown. It could be just a necessary legal rights situational need in order to even use the character or concept of Fred Krueger. Not an intention of remaking the original,yet again.
And even with the original script rights, there are so many additional questions as to what type of Freddy we will see back up on the screen. The dark monster in the shadows?The jokester? The MTV music video star? etc. etc. etc.
Which version would I like? Depends on the script. Since we are decades removed from the last appearance on screen, I think it's time to go back to the beginning. The sadistic,taunting,dark humor of the first Freddy.
I loved the evil giddiness of the first Freddy.A character so excited by it's new found godlike powers.
Imagine that, you were once a child killer....then you were burned alive by the children's parents to stop you from killing ever again....then,somehow, not only do you go on "living" ...but you can now enter the dreams of children ...specifically the children of the ones who burned you alive....and now you can not only continue to murder children...but you can make your killers suffer. Krueger must have been punching the air and doing back flips of joy when he first awoke on the other side of his death.
Kruger always appeared eager to show off his new gifts.Shove them in his victims faces to illustrate how untouchable he is in the dream. The way Freddy loved to cut and damage his own body in front of his intended victim as if to say "How do you think you could ever hurt me when I can do this to myself?" It's easy to imagine the living Fred as having been a cutter,and this is an extension of that behavior in his afterlife.
And the way he laughs at all this, mocking his victims hopes of fighting back.The expression of gleeful hate just with the actors gleaming eyes. There were not any punchlines or post coital kill puns in he first film.Just taunting ,laughter ,and anger.
Over the decades,I've often thought about what type of new A Nightmare on Elm Street movie I would like to watch. From a legacy sequel to the first film, a sequel to all the sequels(I still dream of a film where Nancy is the real Dream Master,the light to Freddy's dark in the dream world.Her helping children escape his clutches.Tripping Freddy when he chases.Pulling victims away from his grasp.),a whole new beast (a world where EVERYONE knows who Freddy is,like Santa Claus), to just random Nightmare elements. ( I've always wanted to see a spider made out of the Freddy's glove.No face,or eyes, just a backplate with eight finger knives click clack clacking,scurrying fast along the metal grating of the boiler floor.Like an Alien facehugger.
Whatever version of Freddy they try to use,whatever story they try to tell, I feel they will need to begin with a bang to set the tone for this generations A Nightmare on Elm Street. Any potential sequel will evolve from this moment. They need to illustrate this is not your parent's Freddy so as not to be so beholden to the past. To break audiences expectations. To once again put us the viewer on the edge of not being able to anticipate what happens next.
While trying to fall asleep last night after an exhausting day of care giving for my Parents, I was struck with an idea...something that would immediately show the audience things are about to get serious.
Show Freddy killing a child.
In the movies, we hear the stories of how he murdered children.But we never see his handywork. We rarely even see the grief. The main victims of Krueger's rage was teenagers. Children who can fight back.Who know to tell a creepy adult "NO".
What if the movie began with Krueger murdering a child in it's dream? It would be unsettling.
Then my thoughts took this thread a little further. The idea for this Nightmare would be that the teenagers are the ones seeking revenge on Freddy for him killing or hurting one of their siblings. Within the dream.
The teenagers listen to the children's fears. Take them serious when the adults around them do not.Become dream warriors to protect their younger brother or sister. Or avenge their deaths.
And in doing so,discover their family's secret and connection to Freddy.
I began randomly picturing scenarios that would mirror the original where one teenager tells their younger sibling that they will watch over them while they sleep.Wake them if they think something is wrong. But fall asleep and get murdered by Kruger.Only for the younger sibling to wake up next to their older brothers bloody body.
Or echo the first movie, the teenager watches Kruger kill their younger family member in the dream,waking covered in their blood.The parents think they were the killer.They are arrested.Krueger visits them in the jail cell that night. And talks the distraught,grief stricken kid into hanging themselves.
I pictured it at first looking as if Freddy was wrapping the sheet around his neck.But as Krueger speaks, and uses the image of the bloody younger sibling crying,playing on the guilt "why didn't you save me from him?""You were never there for me!" "Mommies mad at you" the reveal is that the teenager is tightening the noose.(out of his own control, or by his own hand?) And as they are at their edge.Krueger whispers "Come to Freddy" and the teenager steps forward
So as these random flashes of ideas bounced around my sleep deprived thoughts, I found myself picturing how it would all start....
FADE IN:
We see the building of the glove,closeups.
This should invoke nostalgia and even fan service cheering in it's presentation.
While gathering and constructing,the figure cuts themselves with one of the knives with the slightest touch, illustrating how sharp they are.Holds on the bubbling up blood from the cut, admiring the way it flows and trickles off their finger.
This construction would be intercut with a young child in their pajamas running,crying,scared, lost,through a dirty industrial boiler room space.
Every inch of the place looks rusted,paint peeling, unsafe to even touch surfaces.And hot.
The child is seen getting filthier the longer it stays in this place. the grime quickly accumulating on their once pristine clean pajamas (for some reason I pictured that the object on their pajamas would come back into the story later.Perhaps the object was the most favorite thing of the little kid(dinosaur-REX!!!),and later when their older sibling is fighting Freddy, they invoke the same item in their Nightmare to use to fight back in the name of their lost sibling)
We see shadows move out of the corner of
our eyes. Eyes moving,watching from the darkness.Subtlety,between steaming,dripping busted pipes and machinery.
As the audience subconsciously
cheers the completion of the glove, we counteract that momentary celebration with the actual horror with which it is intended.Once the glove is completed and slipped on for the first time,the
fingers flexing outward with a Monsters vocalized expression of both
anger and "YESSsss!" satisfaction (most likely echoed by the audience) we
quick cut to that same glove slashing down across the previously seen child's back.The gnarly sound of tearing fabric.
The blades cut through the cloth,but not quite the flesh.
The child falls to the ground,crying
They try to crawl away, kicking defensively with all their might,but shadow hands emerge from nearby darkness and pin them down.through the metal grating beneath them the child see's something looking up at them from a lower level. We don't see it, but it makes the child scream and struggle even hard to break free.Red marks form where the child has been restrained.
Looking over the child's shoulder we can
make out a silhouette of a man in a fedora hat stepping out of a
nearby shadow on the wall as if walking through a doorway that isn't there. Towering over
the helpless kid. We can not make out any distinct features.Just the
gleeful maniacal eyes enjoying the sight of their captured prey and the
thoughts of what will come next,causing the shadow to give a low laugh
We see a close-up of the kids face, eyes darting in panic.It can not see what is behind them.just feel a presence.
They continue to struggle till we see the shimmering silver of the finger blades reflecting the nearby orange light of an unseen fire (but not the whole glove,just the blades glowing,surrounded by darkness) as the monster brings one of the blades
up to it's mouth and shushs the child with a long snake like hiss "SHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhh".
The child freezes.
Only their quiet whimpering continues.
From the shadow figure standing over them
we see the four blades of the glove emerge from the darkness as if
emerging from beneath water
The gloved hand slowly reaches down towards the child's body.And with a reactive scream, a chunk of the pajamas are ripped free.Exposing the child's back whose pristine,bright,white,untouched skin almost appears to glow in the what little fire light fills this space.
Close up on the shadow figures face,we can see it's mouth as it grins and smiles excitedly. Rotten teeth exposed
The figure kneels before the child ,the knive fingers flexing and twitching excitedly,almost hungrily of their own accord.
The glove hand outstretches its fingers so we can see its hand is the size of the child's back.
It presses the finger blades to the flesh,but doesn't penetrate,just makes a dimple in the flesh
The child whimpers,completely terrified,quietly pleads "mommie"
The gloved hand moves the blades slowly down along the child's back, making red scratches,some deep enough to cause blood to trickle
Again we see the pleased,grinning smile in the shadow..and excited chuckle escapes it's mouth
The kid continues cry & cry out repeatedly for their Mother
As we see the silhouette continue to make more and more slicing motions faster & faster
We don't see the contact,just hear the screams,cries for it to stop.The squishing noises of slashed fleshThe laughter of the shadow becoming more unrestrained.There is no soundtrack,even environmental sounds slip away.We are left with just theses noises.
Camera pushes in on the silhouette face as the pace of the slashing increases
Into the darkness between the gleaming eyes and cackling mouth
The main theme music kicks in
The screen fills with blackness
As we push in, the title card of "A Nightmare
on Elm Street" in red,chunky childlike letters appears in the distance and pushes forwards into
the camera in one smooth motion until the letters fill the screen with
red
All the while,buried under this theme, we
still hear the cutting,the laughter,the crying...till the crying
suddenly stops when the letters in the title have filled
the screen red
*beat*
A flash of white
A negative of the Monsters eyes and mouth grinning
CUT TO:
A teenage girl waking up screaming,sweating,
Mother comes running to room
"Tina, you OK"
"yeah, ma,...just a bad dream"
Mother: "You ok?"...Tina nods,Mother starts to turn and leave
Tina: "Mom, wait.....can you sit with me for a minute.Just till I fall back asleep?"
Mother smiles,climbs into bed with daughter.Wipes her child's brow with a Kleenex she pulls from the pocket of her bathrobe
Mother:"Was it the same dream....about a little boy?
Tina: "Yes....they're getting worse"
Mother: "I can see that" * motions towards
four tears in daughters nightgown and trying to make light of the moment
"Gonna have to cut your fingernails or stop that kind of dreaming.One or the other"
Tina: "Mother! " but she cant help but laugh at the ridiculous nature of the statement.Her mother smiles.Tina gives a big yawn
Mother: "Lie back, mommies here. No Boogeyman's gonna get you"
Tina nestles into her Mothers embrace and starts to drift to sleep.
As she does, we hear Tina quietly whisper
"One ...two....Freddy's coming for you...
three four...better lock your door"
As the mother holds her child and
listens to these words she gets a look of horror of recognition on her face as we fade
to a bright foggy morning.
The young girls voice is joined and overtaken by the sound of other children singing the familiar jump-rope rhyme
We fade to early morning.Four children can be seen playing jump-rope in a nearby back yard. Camera turns away and moves along a white picket fence that separates the yards up to deck of a house. The same mother from the night before on the phone,pacing.Clearly troubled but not frantic.
On a nearby table sits her coffee,and a morning newspaper where we can just barely catch a glimpse of a headline : THIRD CHILD"S BODY FOUND IN THREE WEEKS
We come in middle of her conversation
Mother: "I don't know.She described the exact pajamas. Maybe she
remembered it from an old photo she saw. When she did that family tree
school project in fifth grade. No. We never told her how. Of course not. But the details
were spooky.And then there was the..." she stops talking
Her daughter steps out onto the deck,books and bag in hand.Tina grabs a piece of fruit from the bowl on the table
next to her Mom's newspaper. Notices the headline
Mom : Nancy got a late start,too, this morning. She's on her way. Did you put your sheets in the basket?
Tina: "Yes"
M: "Did you remember the library book that's due back today?"
Tina lifts book up from stack in hand
M:"Take your pills?"
T:joking "..And wiped my ass,and blew my nose.Washed it all down with a Bloody Mary... Vegetables are important part of a balanced breakfast. Geesh ,Mom, Driving me to drink with your helicopter"
After a pause,Tina asks a question
"Did you ask daddy about the medication?"
Before her Mother can answer ,Nancy arrives and comes through the gate of the white picket fence
"Good morning! Sorry I'm late"
M:"Morning Nancy"
T"Hey, Girl"
Tina gives Nancy the we need to talk look,keep it short
Nancy: "Here's that recipe you wanted from my Mom"- hands Tina's Mom an envelope
M : "Thank you"
Tina's mom starts asking Nancy questions, being nosy, but nice..How have you been? etc "So Nancy, I haven't seen you in almost two weeks,think that's a record,what's his name?"
The girls share a laugh.
The Mom keeps poking, in good humor while the girls grab bites to eat off the Mother's plate...and then as the Mother picks up a cucumber to slice she asks with the straightest of face "Banged him yet?"
Tina : embarrassed * "MOM! " shoves Nancy towards the gate for a hasty exit.
Nancy laughs . Tina's Mom is having a laugh
Calls out "You're on the pill,right?"
Tina rushes Nancy out of the gate loudly to cover whatever embarrassing question her Mom pretends to ask next
"BYE MOM!"
Tina & Nancy walk along the sidewalk under the dappled sun
Serious faces after that laughter
Tina:" I had another one last night ... how about you?"
Nancy : "kinda"
Tina: "What happened?"
Nancy: "I was sitting in a white room .No doors, no windows . And I was drawing on the floor with a box of crayons, of all things."
T:"What were you drawing?"
N: "Flowers of some kind...poppies I think...wait,whats that Stevie Nicks album you love?"
T:"Bella Donna?"
N"Yeah. I think it was those too. I had started on the nearby wall and just kept going down to the floor and circled around me
T: "Cool"
N: "Yeah,really cool is how they would blow like as in a breeze when I finished each one .....and there I was ,deep into my drawing ,you know like I get"
T:"How many times have you missed your bus stop this year?"
N"42 ,but whose counting. Anyway. I'm drawing and drawing these flowers when I suddenly sense I'm not alone in the room anymore"
Tina tenses,but keeps walking,listening
N:"I look up ,and there is a little boy sitting on the wall,just sitting on the wall
facing what is the floor for me.Scribbling with a black crayon,not
really drawing anything, but angry lines over the flowers I had made on the wall"
"I try and call out to him,get his
attention,offer him some of the many colorful crayons I have in a box
next to me,but he doesn't react"
"Then suddenly a man,like the one
from the dream I told you about last week, rises up from inside one of the black patches on the wall"
"It stares down at the boy beneath it, then stops and
looks up at me,glares right into my eyes, and presses one of its long nails to its lips to shush me as I try and scream at the boy to look out, but
nothing comes out but a puff of dust"
"The man raised its hand high above the boy.I think there were actually knives on his fingertips"
"I tried to stand up, but my legs gave out,probably from sitting for so long.And when I fell to the floor I landed in a real flower patch ,like something out of the Wizard of Oz or
something
The rooms gone . The boys gone. The shadows gone"
T:" And then what happened?"
N:" I sneezed and woke myself up"
T:"What?"
N:"No seriously, I sneezed from the flowers and woke up. Even in my dreams I can't escape my allergies"
And with that, I finally drifted off to sleep.
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