Details on a Twisted GOONIES-Inspired Reboot of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET
Now this is a crazy version of a Nightmare on Elm Street reboot that I could get behind! Before the disappointing 2010 reboot happened with Jackie Earle Haley and Rooney Mara, French filmmakers Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo were developing a version of the film that sounds like it would have been awesome. Unfortunately, New Line Cinema and Platinum Dunes went with director Samuel Bayer for some reason, and we all know how that turned out.
Bloody-Disgusting recently interviewed Maury and Bustillo and talked to them about their vision for Freddy Krueger that never happened. Their pitch is explained as a Goonies-inspired take on the franchise involving kids being terrorized by Freddy instead of teenagers.
“Our idea of a good remake is to have a new vision on the same thematics. Here it was to really use the fact that Krueger is a child molester. So the idea was to have a twisted version of the Goonies with a bunch of kids being stalked. We thought it would have been great for a remake to switch the teenagers of the original with real kids. Beside childhood is the moment in life when you are truly and deeply frightened by nightmares, when you’re not able to see the difference between reality and dreams…”
That would have been an incredibly demented movie. Can you imagine the terrifying monster of Freddy Krueger haunting and killing a group of little kids? It's such an insane idea! But it’s a really great idea as well. That’s a film that would push the boundaries and make people uncomfortable. Killing adults playing teenagers is fine, but innocent children? That’s jacked up, and that’s why I think it would have worked so well as a horror film. It would have had a shocking impact! But having that Goonies-style adventure vibe would have made it incredibly fun!
Too bad the studio and the production companies wouldn’t go for it. I imagine it was just too dark for them. Maury and Bustillo have directed a Texas Chainsaw Massacre prequel called Leatherface that will be released later this year. According to the report, it’s “absolutely insane!”