MovieChat Forums > A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) Discussion > Why Making Freddy Kreuger A Pedophile Ki...

Why Making Freddy Kreuger A Pedophile Killed The Remake

posted 3 years ago by TMC-4 (20475)
16 replies | jump to latest

https://tvovermind.com/why-making-freddy-kreuger-a-pedophile-killed-the-remake/

Hell, Nancy isn’t all that special of a character herself, but she’s decently written, and the charisma of Heather Langenkamp really helps sell the lead character. This was the core issue of the Nightmare remake.

Since Freddy is no longer somebody we can side with, it’s up to the protagonists to get us through the film. It should be easy since audiences instantly hate Freddy for his crimes, but dear God, the main cast of the feature is incredibly boring. It’s not the actor’s fault. Rooney Mara is a two-time Oscar nominee that’s proven her talent in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Carol, and The Social Network. Clancy Brown is a legend! Kellan Lutz is…there. There’s nothing compelling about the protagonists and the film doesn’t try to develop them. The original at least pulled off the basics that established who Nancy and her friends are. But since this franchise was scheduled to continue, that would mean that Freddy would continue to win. Nobody wants the pedophile to win. I respect that the filmmakers tried to capture the original vision of Wes Craven’s story. However, it ultimately doomed the remake because we don’t care about the protagonists or villain. Why would the audience want to watch a deplorable human being slaughter a group of bland teens for two hours?

[–] TerraFirma69 (2349) 3 years ago

I can't remember, what was Freddie's crime in the original?

[–] MickyMac (3252) 3 years ago

Killing children.

[–] TerraFirma69 (2349) 3 years ago

And the motive?

[–] StinkyPoopyPants (3167) 3 years ago

He just wanted to.

[–] Mortificator (20) 3 years ago

"Freddy is no longer somebody we can side with"

As opposed to when he kidnapped children and consigned them to horror and agony by killing them with finger knives, solely for his gratifiction. Of course.

[–] StinkyPoopyPants (3167) 3 years ago

I know, that is the last thing I felt when I watched that movie. What a stupid statement.

[–] sslssg (35122) 3 years ago

In the original script he was supposed to be a molester, but there was an actual case in California while they were filming and didn't want to draw comparisons.

[–] mechajutaro (2788) 3 years ago

And the motive?

He wanted to rid the world of rationales to put out sequels to Pokemon Go

[–] April-151-CT (10210) 3 years ago

It was in the original script but Wes Craven decided to change it to killer instead because at that time the McMartin preschool case/trial was happening. So the people who made the remake decided to go with the original idea.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McMartin_preschool_trial

[–] ChipDouglas (1607) 3 years ago

Thank you. I hate how this TMC poster just loves to post BS articles as threads all the time rather than creating unique discussions.

[–] April-151-CT (10210) 3 years ago

Well, I hear what you're saying. But it's still creating a discussion amongst us even though the OP doesn't always participate.

[–] TMC-4 (20475) 3 years ago

Why do you come in here acting like I actually wrote these so-called BS articles (or assume that I'm just making crap up on the whim just for the hell of it) like it's personally my fault that you don't like the message or content?

[–] TerraFirma69 (2349) 3 years ago

It's been a long time, can you remind me - in this version he is haunting the 'survivors' of his activities, if he was a child killer in the original who were the haunting victims?

[–] April-151-CT (10210) 3 years ago

Same as in both movies. He's haunting the children of the people who killed him.

Edited to add: Another thing I should mention is in the original movie, in the basement scene where Nancy's mother is telling Nancy about how her and all the other parents in the neighborhood got together and killed Freddy and then she shows his finger knife glove to her, there's a deleted part to that scene where she tells Nancy that Nancy, Rod, Glen, and Tina all had older siblings that Freddy killed, that they were never told about. But that part of the conversation got deleted out of the movie because it really just didn't make any sense that all four of them had siblings that they never knew existed and how a whole entire neighborhood can keep that secret from them that they had siblings that they never knew about. I mean those original children that Nancy's mother is talking about had their own friends and cousins and uncles and aunts and friends of friends so it's impossible to keep a secret like that from them. So I think that was a good idea to delete that part of the conversation/storyline out of the movie.

[–] NigerGolden (67) 2 years ago

I didn't empathize with Freddy in either case although I agree that the teens are bland. What really gets me about making Freddy an opportunistic pedophile aside from his repugnance is there is nothing specific about him for him to become a haunting dream spectre. The original Freddy was on a killing spree that only stopped when he was caught so Freddy becoming a supernatural killer made sense to continue the atrocities he commited while alive. The reboot Freddy straight up changed his MO.

[–] hurricane (1964) a year ago

Freddy was a child killer in the original movie. Not somebody you were supposed to side with.

The sequels made him more comedic, and the character became iconic as the films gained popularity, of course. But I highly doubt when they were creating the character of Freddy, Wes Craven went; "Oh yeah, best make him a child killer only and not a paedo, so people can support him when he's ripping people apart."