What New Line should do regarding the new Elm Street.
When it comes to tone, make Freddy be like he was in the first three movies (Without the cheesy moments of part three), but that's different to being slapstick and forced as he was in the later sequels. He had his humor in the early darker movies, but it wasn't forced or trying too hard. Even in Dream Warriors, while the one liners were fun back then, most of them (Not all) were cheesy and forced, and that's not what I want to see. Freddy cutting off his fingers, cutting himself, wearing Marge's face, using a guy as a human puppet and walking him off a building, laughing at Jesse in the mirror etc is not forced humor, but is still humor in a dark manner, which is what is needed. It's all a fine line.
That's what we (Myself at least) want, not Freddy saying "You can check in, but you can't check out", or "Now we're playing with power!" or "Bon appetite!"
Wes and Robert can easily bring the power back to this series, giving the fans one final scary movie to end on a high note. The reason the remake wasn't good, wasn't just because it was dark (Dark is GOOD), but because it was a bad movie. The style was forced, the acting was mostly average, the suspense was lacking, the soundtrack was never ending and ineffective, Robert wasn't Freddy, the redone backstory was lame, and the movie tried way too hard to cram so much in, especially rehashed scenes from the other movies. Even the title credits nearly put me to sleep, whereas the original movie's opening credits are still exciting and nerve wracking even today.
My hope, is that New Line will allow the current screen writer to write a sequel, instead of a remake, and to allow Wes to add some of his own ideas as well. I'm not saying that all of Wes's writing has been great, but he does have some very interesting ideas, better than most horror writers, and his script for New Nightmare was very strong! Wes would be able to take what's happening in the world today, and actually inject part of that into the script to give it some relevancy and importance, without it feeling just like a dumb movie.
What's funny is that while to me, this series should only have one final movie, a sequel, there's still so much life and potential left in the character and series, making it a wasted opportunity not to make a true old school sequel.
What annoys me the most, is that the producers think they have to remake everything, in order for the new generations to appreciate it. What they fail to realize is that they can actually do both, if they do it well. Basically if they want both, then they should make a new movie with remake elements, while not essentially copying anything from the other movies. Do new ideas and sequences, with new characters, and make it seem new and fresh, but then have Robert play Krueger again, keep the movie set in Springwood, and soon throughout the movie, mention or make some allusions to past characters, in a subtle way. Let a clever character unravel through their hacking skills and investigatory skills how there was a killing spree in the neighborhood 40 years back, with more killings taking place years after that etc. This lets the original fans know that the movie is a true sequel, and not a pure remake. The fact that most of the characters will be new and will be experiencing this Krueger character for the first time is enough to make it feel like it could be a remake, and all the producers need to do is to allow what I suggested, which is a nod/acknowledgement of previous characters (Only a couple of them really), and some of the well hidden history of Springwood, with Robert back as Freddy.
You do this, and what you've got is a whole new experience, with new characters, a new but old school vibe, without copying scenes from the other movies like the horrible remake did, and with the real Krueger back and some Springwood info that surprises the new cast.
Even Hypnocil could be gone, or remade and renamed...