It was late Sunday night, when the weekend’s box office totals were still just estimates, that the president of distribution for Warner Bros. threw the door open for another Nightmare on Elm Street title. “We don’t have a story yet, but this is the largest horror opening in the April-May corridor, and it just proves there’s a lot left in the franchise,” Dan Fellman told The Wrap. And of course he’s right: For any horror to draw that kind of traffic, the studio would be stupid not to bring it back.
Never mind the fact that this past weekend’s Elm Street chapter was boring. And tepid. There were scenes that almost seemed custom-tailored for a PG-13 rating…despite the fact that the whole thing starts with a very R-rated suicide. I know that Warner Bros. is wooed by the box office figures into green-lighting a 3D sequel (more in a second), but I’m more intrigued by the C+ CinemaScore ratings, which points to negative word of mouth that will surely hurt traffic this next weekend – and not to mention when it comes to any additional sequels. (More at Techland: The geek’s gift guide to Mother’s Day)
That said, the sequel machinery is revving up – with studios salivating over the chance to add 3D premiums to this gorefest. Over at Dread Central, Brad Fuller of the production company Platinum Dunes seemed to suggest that a 3D Elm Street was certainly in the realm of the possible: “I think that making the Nightmare sequel in 3D is a bigger discussion than for right here in this room. We think that 3D movies have to be designed and written as such. If Eric (Heisserer) and Wesley (Strick) came to us with a Nightmare sequel script that is for a 3D movie, we’d be fools not to make it.”
Well, given the money involved – and the studio preference – Eric and Wesley would be fools not to think in 3D.
It sounds like the director might not be back for a second film – though after interviewing Jackie Earle Haley last week, about stepping into Freddy Krueger’s shoes, I really think he’ll be back. Still, I’m conflicted: The audience I saw it with just didn’t seem that scared. And I sure wasn’t. It was more about hitting the marks than drawing outside the lines with any sense of creativity.
What did you think of the movie? Home run? More of the same? Would you line up to see Freddy in 3D?
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