4/7/09 - Same Old Glove, New Old Freddy

This man is Jackie Earle Haley, and he's the end result of something I find remarkable.

He's the new Freddy Kruger in Platinum Dune's remake of "A Nightmare on Elm Street," a role pioneered and played nearly a dozen times by character actor Robert Englund. Haley is not a bad choice by any stretch of the imagination. He was the best part of "Watchmen," he's got an Oscar nod under his belt, he's obviously got some gravitas and...look at him. Nothing against the man personally, but slap a striped sweat shirt and bladed glove on him, and you've got a horror villain, no make-up required.

And while I'll see the re-make (despite the powerful feeling of "eh" I felt toward Dune's 'Friday the 13th' redeux), the passing of the role went unnoticed by a lot of major players that would otherwise be interested in the thing. Not a whisper on Aint it Cool News about the official announcement. Chud all but left it alone. Rotten Tomatoes put the story near the bottom. Keep in mind this is one of the most popular roles in horror and there's not a role this side of Indiana Jones that is tied to a particular actor, and there in lies why this is remarkable.

Englund perfected Freddy Kruger from the moment he donned the sweater and glove, and followed him from playful ghoul to wise-cracking killer back around to the meta (and underrated) "New Nightmare" to action star in "Freddy Versus Jason." And his tenure as Kruger passed without mourning in the web sites I visit, sites that have dedicated hundreds of thousands of words to the movies. Remarkable.

Earle Haley? He's fine. He aint Freddy, but he's almost a reason to get excited for the reboot. It will be interesting and odd to see a new guy in the make-up (if that's the route they go), terrorizing another group of impossibly pretty young people. But I gave a quick pause for Englund, and will send a really nice thought his way when the new film starts.

I'll leave with my favorite Englund quote when asked about what his "nightmare" would look like: "Most of my nightmares involve me forgetting my lines in a stage play."