File Under: From Rorschach to Freddy Krueger

It seems that Jackie Earle Haley who brought the Watchmen's Rorschach convincingly to life, will be playing Freddy in the remake of the Horror Classic, Nightmare on Elm Street. I hope he has time to back out. I really don't think this movie is one that can benefit from a remake, especially when looking at the others involved in the project. I think JEH can do much better for his career, than this future piece of crap.

While I'm on the topic...Why the hell do they keep remaking these great horror movies? Here is a short list of recent remakes that didn't need to be made: The Hills Have Eyes, The Last House on the Left, and Friday the 13 (not that Nightmare comes even close to these). Theses films were amazing in the first place. Sure production value was low, they were on a shoe string, but that just added to the gritty nature of these films.

I can't even imagine a modern film getting the brutality of Last House on the Left past a rating board, without catching a NC-17. The original was horrific and disturbing, as it should be. It's not a movie you want to watch very often, unless you have issues. I haven't seen the new one, I probably won't, I bet it will be all about the blood and gore and somehow miss the commentary on humanity.

Ultimately, that's what these films were, commentarys about human nature. Don't forget that Friday the 13 was actually a tale of a mother's twisted sense of revenge. Romero's entire zombie series is about human failings. The living are always their own undoing. Without these parables, horror movies are just spectator murder and a much lessor form of the craft. To be clear, I haven't evaluated the remakes, but I can't imagine they carry the weight or the message of their originals.