1,2 Freddy’s coming for you
3….well, three more screens await you

Source: Omlete

Has everyone seen the “Newly Remade” Nightmare on Elm Street trailer?

I’m not an authority on many things, but I will go so far as to say I am a Freddy Krueger aficionado.

I’ve seen the series probably more than any other movie in my life. I remember when I was young, I had my entire bedroom covered wall to wall in Nightmare on Elm Street posters and pics from Fangoria magazine.

When I heard they were remaking the franchise without Robert Englund, and WITHOUT CONSULTING WES CRAVEN, I was pretty upset. I could handle the 700,000 remakes of every obscure franchise and cartoon known to man, but why this?

Do the Saw and Hostel type kids these days care about this sort of horror movie? Who is their target audience? Can’t they just let ONE franchise go?

When the trailer came out, I really didn’t know what to think. I’m not sure why they chose to stick so closely to some things and change others, but I begrudgingly said “Well, I’ll reserve judgment until I see more.”

When I first saw the trailer, I had a slight twinge in my gut when it MIGHT be implying that Freddy is innocent? OH NO! Seriously? I had to let it go, hoping that Freddy is just lying in order to not be burned to death.

Then…over the weeks, more and more stuff has been popping up online …and I have to say “Alright, enough.”

For example:
1. Separating Freddy from Robert Englund (who is in perfect acting shape, and would be wearing 9 layers of makeup anyway) is a really dumb idea. Robert Englund MADE the character in the original series. I know this is the most obvious complaint, and I’m not going to spend a lot of time on it.
2. What in the hell are you thinking with this makeup job? I have been reading extensively about this remake, and the makeup artists are emphatic that they wanted the mak up to be “real as possible,” it was imperative for him to look as if he was a “real burn victim.” Ok, so realism is important.
A. The friggin movie as about a child molester that supernaturally haunts people in their dreams in elaborate and sometimes comical ways. Realism is important.
B. If they were going to be totally realistic, why is his WHOLE BODY burnt, but the sweater and pants he was wearing are perfectly intact? Not to mention his hat, which to their credit, looks like it has some dirt on it.
C. Screw realism people, he’s the God of his own little underworld, he can make himself look like an ferret if he wants to. Bad Choice.
3. I can’t tell what I’m looking at…ever. He looks different in every shot, and they all suck.

4. The best part of Freddy… is the cracking wise and finding new ways to kill the kids. He was almost the Bugs Bunny of horror movies at times. So why does he sound like he has too many Skittles ™ in his mouth? “Thish whont hurtsh one litshle bitsh.” He is starting to sound like Danny Glover! When so many people complained to the studio about his lines in the trailer, the makeup artist said “Jackie studied what real burn victims sounded like when they talked because he really wanted to nail the realism.” (See 2a-b)

There are some good things:
1. There is some good lore there. There is a lot to pluck from in future movies.
2. The “Look” of it is great, it is directed by the guy who directed a lot of famous music videos, (Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana, Bullet With Butterfly Wings by Smashing Pumpkins.)
3. When I heard that Jackie Earl Haley was playing him, I actually went, “Hrm, well if you’re going to recast him, that’s not a bad choice.

In closing. Of course I’ll see it. I have to.

But I’m going in very very low…BUT I will leave enough room to be pleasantly surprised. So far, I’m not convinced.

What say you, moguls?
Do you like it?

Is VoodrewDaddy being too cynical? Am I too emotionally attached? It’s ALWAYS a possibility.

The funny thing is, I found it slightly odd that my good friend was so upset that Star Trek was being remade, because I guess I just wasn’t invested as much as I am with Freddy.

Here is the trailer to see for yourself…

-Voodrew

Earlier this week, as we all know, Notre Dame fired head football coach Charlie Weis.  Sad story for Weis right? Wrong!  As a parting gift, Weis and Notre Dame need to settle on a buyout price.  Weis has a contract through the 2015 season, and the buyout appears to be around the 17 million dollar mark. 17 million dollars to get fired? I would love for that to happen.  This got me thinking however about how many jobs I wouldn’t even consider doing for 17 million dollars, and would quit for free.

If someone offered me 17 million dollars to sort and sift through the garbage at the local dump, I couldn’t accept it.  You are probably thinking that the dump wouldn’t be that bad, but you didn’t have the same experience that I once had.  On one of my rare trips to the dump, I found myself running into a small mountain of rotten and ripped apart cow carcasses. The smell of that trip, still haunts me to this very day. 17 million for the chance to smell that again? Hell no!

The next job I thought about, is the position of an Obstetrician.  For all the men who don’t know what that is, it would be the doctor that has or will deliver your children.  I would like to apologize to my future wife for I may not be able to stay conscience during the birthing process.  I have seen movies in health class, and that was all I needed to see.  I think that the miracle of reproduction is amazing, I just don’t want to see it happen, and especially not from a front row seat.  Doc, go ahead and pull my offspring out, I won’t do it, not even for 17 million.

The last one I would for sure deny is a morgue worker.  I will openly admit that I am not a fan of scary movies and going to haunted houses, so why would I ever work in a morgue?  For far too long have Jason, Freddy Krueger, Micheal Myers, Thomas Hewitt, and that scary boat scene from the first Willy Wonka haunted my dreams.  I would be paranoid the entire time thinking that the corpses are either moving, or going to come back alive, ya zombies, not so friendly.  I wouldn’t take 17 million to sit alone with a corpse for 5 minutes let alone every night.

Other jobs I considered were a septic tank cleaner, anything to do with tomatoes, and coming on fast is the New Jersey Nets head coach job.  Charlie Weis, you can honestly retire now that you are cashing in.  I guess some people do get a reward for doing a job well….undone.  Hey on the bright side, now you can join a nice gym.

Trailer: A Nightmare on Elm Street

Perturbadora, escalofriante y aterrorizante como la primera vez que me la ví. Así parecer ser A Nightmare On Elm Street versión Samuel Bayer y producida por Michael Bay.

Ya he visto otros clásicos del terror producidos por Bay y han sido bastante aceptables. Hay rumores de una versión de The Birds de Hitchcock pero creo que sólo serán pérdidas.

Llamo la atención de este avance tan sólo porque la peli original de Wes Craven en 1984 fue miedosa, apareció Johnny Depp y fue la máxima estelaridad de Robert Englund (quién tan sólo fue uno de los alienígenas bonachones en V: The Final Battle también en 1984 y de quién sólo he visto que haya logrado recientemente un protagónico en una peli de serie b titulada Zombie Strippers!).

Pero esta peli tiene un ingrediente especial y es Jackie Earle Haley como Freddy Krueger un excelente actor que incluso fue nominado al Oscar de La Academia por Little Children (peli que tengo en remojo para otra entrada). La iré a ver por él, el director, Samuel Bayer aunque tiene en su portafolio dirección varios videos musicales, es un total desconocido para mi.

Mucha suerte entonces para Haley.

Jackie Earle Haley (Freddy Krueger)

Hey, let’s piss and moan about Freddy Krueger again, shall we? We all know it’s getting the unecessary remake treatment, we all know it won’t be the same without Robert Englund, or Heather Langenkamp, or that man who’s been in absolutely everything who played Nancy’s father. Blah blah heard it all before, no need to re-tread old ground. Consider the following image a spoiler, as it’s been revealed by NECA Toys via promotional figurine information what Jackie Earle Haley will look like under the make-up. So much for secrets. Spoiler pic following!

Ready?

Stop now, title this A California Raisin In A Jumper On Elm Street and we have a winner!

NECA ha anunciado esta semana sus primeras novedades de cara a 2010, que básicamente se reducen a sus más recientes licencias cinematográficas: Furia de titanes y Pesadilla en Elm Street. El origen. Dos nuevas versiones de clásicos que, en el caso de la primera, pedían a gritos una actualización. O no. En lo que todos estamos de acuerdo es en que un remake de Elm Street sin Robert Englund no parece, a priori, la más feliz de las ideas. Arriba tenéis al muñeco de Freddy Krueger pre-incendio violento (¿o quizá es una figura de acción de Joaquín Sabina?), pero me temo que tendréis que pinchar en este enlace si queréis ver el muñeco de Jackie Earle Haley en todo su esplendor caradepizzero, pues podría ser considerado un spoiler. ¿Qué os parece? Yo confirmo algo que ya intuí con el trailer: el nuevo Freddy tiene un aire a (y debería haber sido interpretado por) Tom Waits. Tendremos que esperar hasta el próximo mes de mayo para ver hasta qué punto acierto o me equivoco.

You’re a hateful, socially-inept, charmless, morally spineless, cowardly, free-loading, Skeletor-faced, spunk-brained, king-sized loser of a limp dick. You’re a cock, you’re a tosser, you’re fat-arsed chair glosser. You make me sick.

Admit it. Reading that paragraph made you reflect on what an atrocious cunt you are. Experiment in cold-reading over. It’s ok. I’m not singling you out. The rest of us are scum too:  mankind is lots of tiny bits of scum floating towards other bigger clumps of scum to form a planet-sized ball of scum hurtling towards death, the biggest scum of them all, apart, perhaps, from life. One bloated rotten putrid scum together. Listen to Jeff Lewis’ East River song and this might somehow seem like a wonderful, magical thing. But it isn’t. It’s awful. And if you think differently you’re deceiving yourself like the self-deluding skin-sack of rotting scum that you are.

I’m especially scummy. I know this because I’m the target of a campaign of vicious bile-bombings by Charlie Brooker. Brooker has made my scummyness absolutely clear. The other day he verbally and physically assaulted me. Last night, he repeatedly kicked me in the face – I bled profusely, turning a snow-white pavement from the old Trebor Mr Soft adverts into the river of blood from the Shining. He didn’t say anything, mind – just raised an eyebrow, shook his head and walked off.

I’ve never spoken to Charlie Brooker. I don’t know him. Like every other respiring liberal, I love his column and Screenwipe and even the show he did on Channel 4 when it didn’t have Frankie Boyle and Josie Long on it making me want to fry slices of my own left-hemisphere, like a lonesome Hannibal Lecter, with the hope of making speech recognition an impossibility. But that’s as far as it goes.

See: Charlie Brooker is the Freddy Krueger of vicious satire. He’s terrorising my dreams. I’m not sure how he does it or why, but it appears he won’t stop until he’s successfully pummelled my self-esteem into submission.

So ok, it’s my sub-conscious doing a poor imitation of Brooker through a limited lens of uncreative swearing, with an eccentric bad vigilantism borrowed from The Punisher. But I’m convinced he’s got something to do with it. I walked past him in Clapham the other day, holding hands with a woman who looked like/was Konnie Huq, off of the new Aids adverts. It might not have been her, but the two are permanently associated in my mind after he made her do this. Whatever, she looked slightly ashamed. To be fair, we were gawping at them like drooling newborn infants unable to control our eye movements. But then CB looks like a grumpy Mount Rushmore president coming at you in real life: his head is all massive and granitey. With the added Huq-factor, there was plenty to involuntarily gawp at.

Mainly though, we were gawping cos we’d successfully, though accidentally, summoned Brooker like an evil comedy genie. Moments before he appeared, conversation had randomly turned to a loud discussion of his TV output. Coincidence? I’m pretty sure I said his name at least 3 times: anyone familiar with the Candyman films will know this is enough to invoke an evil spirit. Upon revealing himself, Brooker looked a bit angry (presumably because we’d rudely extracted him from the dark netherworld in which he usually dwells). I suspect it was at this point he used his nefarious powers to enter my subconscious, where he’s been stalking me ever since.

So: does anyone know how to stop a bilious dream satirist? Burying him in ground consecrated by Holy Water would seem like the obvious way to go, but I’m happy to consider other suggestions.

A NECA divulgou a primeira imagem do boneco do novo Freddy Krueger (interpretado por Jackie Earle Haley), do remake de A Hora do Pesadelo. Quando o trailer do filme foi lançado, fui um dos defensores das mudanças no visual do personagem e muitos daqueles que críticaram inicialmente, agora mudaram de ideia. Veja abaixo a imagem e tire suas próprias conclusões.

Mais realista e com cicatrizes mais detalhadas e menos fantasiosas como do original, afinal os anos passaram e hoje é possível recriar perfeitamente o rosto de uma pessoa queimada.

O blog vai acompanhar e publicar qualquer novidade sobre A Hora do Pesadelo, que estreia em 16 de abril de 2010

As fans recently learned, the Nightmare on Elm Street Reboot stars WATCHMEN’s Jackie Earl Haley as the new Freddy Krueger, taking over from Robert Englund, whose absence is surely going to weigh heavily on audience’s mind no matter how good Haley’s performance. Besides a brief glimpse in the trailer, it’s been unclear just what the new Freddy would look like. And the truth, revealed by Figures.com via NECA, is here in this upcoming Freddy Figure!

It’s definitely a difference, but I’m thinking I like it: over the years, the Freddy Krueger ‘brand’, as it were, has become a true cult hero, but also a bit of a joke as he takes on unlikely foes and becomes more and more ridiculous. The new Haley Krueger definitely has a stranger stare, less of a smile and a creepier, more realistic burn-victim look, which makes him at once more accessible and more horrifying. Of course, it’ll come down to the acting in the end and as we’ve already seen from a number of shows, JEH isn’t low on talent. We’ll just have to wait and see.

But while we’re on the topic, here’s
a link to our selection of non-JEH Freddy Krueger figures from NECA. They’re all awesomely detailed and you should definitely pay special attention to the newest item, a 12-inch deluxe Freddy in real fabric clothing: lift his shirt up to reveal the souls of his victims in his chest!

Si hace unas semanas os mostrábamos como podría ser el aspecto de Freddy Krueger en el remake de “Pesadilla en Elm Street” que esta preparando la Platinium Dunes, esta vez gracias a la compañía NECA, especializada en recrear los personajes de las películas en figuras, nos adelanta lo que será el aspecto final de Krueger.

El estreno esta fijado para el 30 de Abril del próximo año y la figura tras el salto para el que la quiera ver.

Quem foi adolescente entre o final da década de 80 e início da de 90, sem dúvida se apavorou com o figurão Freddy Krueger. Pois ele está de volta.

Depois de dirigir os dois filmes de Transformers, Michael Bay resolveu dar uma de produtor e é o responsável pelo remake de A Hora Do Pesadelo, a ser lançado em 2010. Freddy está de volta para aterrorizar novos adolescentes! veja trailer abaixo.

Pelo visto o roteiro segue a mesma linha, mas a face tostada do monstrengo está “renovada”. No trailer oficial (acima) não dá pra ver muita coisa, mas empresa NECA, que produzirá os bonecos licenciados da franquia, divulgou uma foto do personagem. Já dá pra ter uma boa idéia de como será. Clique aqui

Dile Hola a Freddy

Figures.com ha posteado como se verá el nuevo Freddy Krueger para la línea de juguetes de terror de NECA. Esta figurita está basada en el remake de “Pesadilla en la Calle del Infierno” (Nightmare on Elm Street) la cual saldrá el 30 de abril del 2010.

El rostro aunque a primera vista mis instintos dicen que no es el Freddy Krueger que yo conozco, me da gusto de que se asemeja muchísimo a las cicatrices hechas por un incendio. Definitivamente tengo la corazonada de que nos van a contar como los padres se abalanzan sobre Freddy y lo incineran en las calderas tal y como se ha descrito en las películas anteriores. ¿Me pregunto si también pondrán la escena de la múltiple violación a su madre?. Cientos de locos abusando de una pobre mujer para dar como producto final a uno de los asesinos más carismáticos del cine.

Dicen que al menos dos de este tipo de figuritas estarán en el estreno de la película lista para que las compremos y también ya comenzaron a trabajar en los juguetes clásicos para conmemorar su 25avo. Aniversario de la franquicia de Pesadilla en la calle del Infierno.

Los actores de esta película (dentro de muchos más) son: Jackie Earle Haley, Rooney Mara, Kyle Gallner, Thomas Dekker, Kellan Lutz, y Connie Britton Star.

The trailer for the new Nightmare on Elm Street trailer didn’t really show Freddy’s face – turned out the effects were still being worked on but they had said they’d done a lot of research regarding burn injuries.

Now Figures.com had this photo of Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy and we can now see that he does look a little different to the original. Definitely a more burn victim look.

I think it will work in the film. What do you think of Freddy’s face?

so i think i’m gonna try to start blogging every day from now on. so i apologize in advance if some of these are not as exciting as others.

today i took out the trash, cleaned the bathroom sink and went grocery shopping. (see, this is why i dont post every day lol.)

tonight my friend mike is coming over and we’re gonna have a horror movie marathon. he has seriously every horror movie known to man, it’s so awesome. he also has an authentic freddy krueger glove. we might go out for a midnight walk too if it’s not too cold.

The following is an excerpt from an actual conversation between Conrad Noir and Marco Sparks last night. Yes, this is what they’re really like…

Marco Sparks: So, you’ll never believe this dream I had the other night…

Conrad Noir: I don’t know if I’m really up for a conversation about your hopes and dreams, man.

Marco: Well, when I say “dream,” what I really mean is sweaty, dread-dripping nightmare.

Conrad: Oh yeah? Shit. Nevermind. You know I’m all ears for that. Shoot.

Marco: Well, I’ll tell you about the nightmare in a second, but first let me tell you about my Saturday night…

Conrad: Always a catch, isn’t there? Shit. Okay, tell me about your Saturday ni-

Marco: It was awesome. But then, later on, I was just trying to go sleep, right? And it’s late, I don’t remember the time, but late. So I turn on the TV and put it on mute, just wanting some flickering light and alpha wave manipulation in the room. Or something.

Conrad: Sure, sure. Perfectly normal.

Marco: So then I lay down on the bed. The room I’m in though, there’s no remote. Or, if there is, fuck if I know where it is.

Conrad: Oh, yeah, man’s constant struggle.

Marco: Right, so I’m stuck with whatever the channel is because, well, I’m lazy.

Conrad: I feel that.

Marco: In this particular case, it was A&E. The former Arts & Entertainment channel.

Conrad: “Former” being the operative word.

Marco: Seriously. Airing that late evening/early morning was a seeming non stop marathon of CSI: Miami episodes.

Conrad: Wow. Ouch.

Marco: Ouch is right. And let me tell you, I could not sleep with that on.

Conrad: How do you mean?

Marco: Every five seconds they cut back to a shot of David Caruso! Constantly! And let me tell you, Caruso has two emotional speeds on that show. The first: Putting on his sunglasses. The second: Taking them off again. People could be on fire, running around screaming, bits of their skin melting off or whatever as creatures of the apocalypse commit homicides or devour souls or just what have you, and Caruso’s cool as Fonzie the whole fucking time.

Conrad: That seems accurate with the little bits of it I’ve caught occasionally.

Marco: Also, it’s freakishly bright. Like, too bright and dayglo for even Miami.

Conrad: Okay.

Marco: It would not let me sleep! I turned over, looked at the flickering light patterns on the wall, like some kind of twisted variation on Plato’s Cave and I felt like Caruso was picking me up from the airport and driving me straight to madness!

Conrad: Caruso’s like that.

Marco: This is the guy from NYPD Blue to subjected America to his ass. Why would you want to see this man’s ass?!

Conrad: Or Dennis Franz for that matter.

Marco: Well… obviously. But, so I lay there, squeezing my eyes shut. But it was no good, man. I knew that Caruso was in the room with me. Putting his fucking sunglasses on. Or worse.

Conrad: Worse?

Marco: He could’ve been taking them off again…

Conrad: Okay, so this was the nightmare?

Marco: Oh, no, this was real. Deadly real. Eventually I must’ve passed out from all the stress of his ontological torture and when I woke up, of course, A&E was still on, right?

Conrad: Yeah, of course.

Marco: So, the sun is shining through the window, birds are chirping little songs and I’m a little tired, but I’m breathing a sigh of relief. I’m all like, “Thank God, it’s morning, I made it. I survived!”

Conrad: This is going somewhere bad, isn’t it?

Marco: You bet your goofy ass it is, my friend. Because there on the TV…

Conrad: Yeah?

Marco: Motherfucking Chris Daughtry was on the TV. Somebody was actually interviewing him!

Conrad: Ugh. Gross.

Marco: Exactly! Why would anyone want to interview that fucker? Why is he on the TV? Why did my day have to start with these violent images? It was like… last night I couldn’t enter the domain of sleep and now… Now I can’t be awake with this in the world!

Conrad: I feel like I need a drink now.

Marco: Me too. From just, you know, reliving that traumatic experience. From being the plaything of the sandman.

Conrad: So what was the nightmare?

Marco: Oh, the nightmare. Yeah, sorry. That was last night. I was like in a room, but I wasn’t. I was like “the camera” or whatever. Anyway, there was a little boy and he was trapped in the room. No windows, yet there was moonlight slipping around. And he was sleeping like a little shit does and then goblins crawled out of the cracks in the walls and out from under the bed and cut off his eyelids or something.

Conrad: Damn. I like that. I mean, that’s seriously creepy.

Marco: Yeah, it was something. When I woke up, I knew you’d love it.

Conrad: You were right. And goblins, you say? Wow. Goblins. That part is especially wild. People don’t throw around the word “goblins” all that much anymore.

Marco: Let me tell you something about goblins, my friend. Something you may not know. Something very few people may actually know.

Conrad: Do it.

Marco: Goblins, man. They’re no joke. They’re fucking scary, and they’re fucked up. And they will fuck you up. You understand me?

Conrad: Yes, I believe I do. But let’s talk about something important now. Let’s talk about me and my dreams. And my nightmares.

Marco: Take aim and fire away, baby.

Conrad: So, you know, I’ve been taking melatonin a lot lately, right?

Marco: Cause you can’t get your hands on ambien, right?

Conrad: Yeah, sorta. I got tricked into trying to go all natural, which is a sham. Whenever in doubt, just go with hard drugs.

Marco: Put that on a t-shirt.

Conrad: Don’t tempt me.

Marco: But I feel you. I have several friends who don’t realize they’re becoming recreational vicodin addicts, which is cool, cause this is America and shit. But I can’t do that stuff anymore. It gives me freaky nightmares. I mean, genuinely freaky nightmares. Like, where the goblins show up and tell me I’ll have erectile dysfunction for the rest of my life and or will be forever locked in a mortgage I can’t afford.

Conrad: As long as you’re not longer dreaming about Avril Lavigne, you’ll be fine.

Marco: I’ll have you know: That was a very special time in my life.

Conrad: Anyway… me. And my nightmare.

Marco: Do it.

Conrad: So, I guess you’re supposed to take melatonin only so much, right? Until it stirs up your… well, I don’t know. Something. Some kind of chemical. I’m not a trained doctor or anything. But you take it short term, you get some rest, you move on.

Marco: Gotcha.

Conrad: But I keep taking it because it gives me juicy nightmares. And I’m a horror movie fan.

Marco: I remember that you were a Freddy guy more than a Jason guy.

Conrad: Exactly! Anyway, so the one I had last night… Wowza.

Marco: Oh?

Conrad: Oh yeah. So I’m like wandering around in this fucked up, dark version of Chuck E. Cheese’s, right?

Marco: This already sounds terrifying.

Conrad: Oh, it was. Believe you me. It so was. And there’s all these fat, sweaty white people around me.

Marco: Your ultimate nightmare.

Conrad: My ultimate daymare, you mean. But there they are. And there’s famous gross white people there too. Like Jeffrey Dahmer.

Marco: I remember that Peanut used to date a guy who looked like Jeffrey Dahmer. Man, I hated that guy.

Conrad: Me too. Well, Dahmer, anyway. But he was the guy who, later on I discovered, didn’t belong in the dream. But there was other famous people too. Like Mary Kay Letourneau. And Roman Polanski. And Joey Buttafuoco. And Debra Lafave. And Pete Townshend. And Bobby Fisher. And Gary Glitter!

Marco: Oh shit. You were at a child molester convention!

Conrad: Exactly. By accident, of course. Once I realized what was going on, I was like, “Oh shit, I gotta get the fuck outta here!”

Marco: Shit. I hope so.

Conrad: So I take off for the door, right? But right as I get to it, I notice the little bulletin board listing who all the speakers are going to be at this thing.

Marco: So, it was like a proper convention then? With speakers and talks and things?

Conrad: Yes! Terrifying, right?

Marco: Very.

Conrad: So I’m running my finger down the board, just looking at all the famous names. I remember that R. Kelly was on there, of course.

Marco: Right. Yeah. “Age ain’t nothing but a number,” after all.

Conrad: And then I get to the end. The keynote speaker.

Marco: Ooh, this is going to be good, isn’t it? Who was it?

Conrad: I’m not bullshitting you here. It was Jon Gosselin.

Marco: Oh… wow.

Conrad: I know, right?

Marco: Yeah. Wow. Eeesh.

Conrad: But, whereas everyone else had their name and like a title of what their speech was going to be about or whatever, after his name… there was just one word. One single word.

Marco: What was it?

Conrad: It was simply… “Gangsta.”

Marco: Oh. My.

Conrad: Uh huh. It shocked me away. And I sat there, in my bed, just catching my breath from the sheer intensity of the thing. And I just whispered it back to myself. “Gangsta.”

Marco: Wow…

Conrad: Yeah, I know.

Marco: Yeah.

Conrad: Yeah.

Marco: Yeah, uh… let’s talk about something else, okay?

The Last Freddy Movie was over 6 years ago (Freddy vs Jason) and Now the Evil Child murderor is back in a Remake of the First (origionally in 1987).

More Details will be revealed……………..

Bom galera o Halloween já passou, muita gente já curtiu festas sobre esse tema que nada  tem a ver com nossa cultura, mas que sempre acaba se fazendo presente nos finais de Outubro principalmente por motivos comerciais.

Escrever sobre games de terror em épocas perto da comemoração do Halloween ou em uma sexta-feira 13 é bastante oportuno ou clichê. Mas aproveitei o embalo e também o fato de ter terminado a pouco tempo o excelente Silent Hill 3, para escrever um pouco sobre os games de terror, o gênero chamado “Survival Horror” que é composto por games que tem a intenção de assustar o jogador, assim como filmes já fazem a muito tempo.

Muitos gamers mais novos podem achar que o gênero de games  Survival Horror surgiu com o lançamento de Resident Evil em 1996. De fato  Resident Evil  foi um game que marcou, teve grande popularidade ajudou a definir um gênero de jogos. Porém o mundo dos games começou a explorar o tema “terror” desde o começo da década de 1980, ainda no Atari 2600, ou apenas Atari  nós brazucas.

A idéia desse especial é mostrar vários games que surgiram em diversas épocas  com objetivo dar sustos  e ao mesmo tempo entreter os jogadores. Então é hora conferir a primeira parte desse especial e encarar uma viagem por cemitérios,criptas,mansões esquecidas, cidades abandonadas e se preparar para encarar zumbis, vampiros , demônios e mais um monte de criaturas das sombras.

Produção: Wizard Games

Lançamento: 1983

Plataforma: Atari 2600

Pois é , embora os games de terror só tenham recebido uma classificação própria na geração 32 Bits ,  fato é que desde o Atari 2600, os fabricantes aproveitam para lançar games explorando esse segmento. Na minha pesquisa para esse especial , descobri coisas que nem esperava e uma delas é o game Haloween, lançado em 1983 para o Atari 2600, o jogo é baseado no filme homônimo de 1978, que tinha como destaque o assassino Michael Myers. O jogo foi produzido  pela Wizard Games, uma divisão da Wizard vídeo, empresa que possuía os direitos de distribuição em VHS das séries Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Massacre da Serra Elétrica) e Halloween.

Claro que com o crescimento da indústria de games e o Atari 2600 em alta, os  nossos amigos da Wizard Videos não poderiam deixar de capitalizar em cima do público que assistia aos filmes e o logo criaram um divisão da empresa para produzir jogos baseados nos filmes. Sim !  Mais de 20 anos atrás empresas já tentavam lançar games baseados em filmes e o resultados em geral  são como os de hoje,  games de medianos a ruins.

No jogo  você assume o controle de uma garota que trabalha como babá  e terá que salvar crianças que estão espalhadas pelas salas de uma casa, antes que nosso amigo serial killer Michael Myers acabe com elas. O game segue desta forma até que jogador perca todas as suas vidas, pois como vários games do Atari, a dificuldade aumentava e o game seguia infinitamente, assim como o clássico enduro.

Quando o jogador era pego, a garota tinha sua cabeça cortada e ficava com o corpo correndo e jorrando sangue (Sim a violência está nos games desde os primórdios!).

Por aqui o jogo foi chamado de Sexta- Feita 13(????????).  Não entendi como  colocaram o título dos filmes de Jason no game de  Michael Myers. Mas enfim, devido aos “incríveis gráficos” do game, não faria diferença se fosse Michael Mayers, Jason Voorhees, um carregador de mudanças ou qualquer mané de vestindo um macacão cinza.

Engraçado que mesmo nos Estados Unidos o game foi lançado de forma bastante sem vergonha, pois nem ao menos uma ilustração do game havia no cartucho, apenas havia  um papel escrito “Halloween” em um pilot cor de abóbora.  Mas sério a embalagem do game tão era safada  que parecia até aqueles DVDs/CDs que todo mundo já comprou no camelo pela grande oferta de 3 por R$ 10,00.

Porém havia também uma  versão que possuía capa, embora depois de muito analisar não conseguir entender  do que se trata a imagem na capa do game, se alguém tiver uma idéia pode falar.

Mas brincadeiras a parte, o game até que funcionava bem para época que foi lançado, tinha a inconfundível trilha sonora do filme e também por ter uma das primeiras cenas de violência da história dos games e explorar o tema terror.

Review do Angry Video Game Nerd

Sweet Home

Produção: Capcom

Lançamento: 1989

Plataforma: NES

Agora vamos falar do game que segundo Shinji Mikami, foi a fonte de inspiração para o projeto  Resident Evil, no game o jogador assume o controle de 5 personagens vão até a mansão de um famoso pintor para fazer um documentário  sobre sua vida e  suas obras de arte que permanecem no local, mas acabam sendo pegos pelo espírito da esposa do pintor e aí que começam os problemas para os personagens.

O game apresenta uma visão aérea  é possível escolher  entre vários personagens, cada um com uma habilidade distinta que ajudará o jogador a encarar as dificuldades do game , como a enfermeira que carrega kits médicos que ajudam a curar o seu time ou ainda a menina carrega uma chave especial que pode abrir diversas portas especiais, os combates são feitos por no estilo RPG, por turnos com o jogador podendo selecionar opções como atacar , defender e fugir.

Interessante as semelhanças entre Resident Evil e Sweet Home, o fato de ambos passarem em uma mansão no meio da floresta, aqueles “loads safados” disfarçados de cenas de portas abrindo. E  claro zumbis também aparecem nos dois games, interessante  ver como  a Capcom quase 10 anos após o lançamento de Sweet Home usou muitas influências desse game antigo em Resident Evil , que foi o game qual definiu e popularizou o gênero Survival Horror.

Sweet Home nunca foi lançado fora do Japão, por isso quase ninguém conheceu o game, ainda mais aqui no Brasil. Mas se tem curiosidade vale a pena pegar um emulador de NES, pois hoje não é difícil encontrar uma ROM de Sweet Home traduzida para inglês.

Dê uma olhada em como é o game

Sexta- Feira 13

Produção: Galoob

Lançamento:1988

Plataforma: NES

Se games baseados em filmes de terror estavam ficando populares nosso amigo Jason, o apreciador de grandes facas afiadas não poderia ficar de fora disso. Pois se Michel Myers tinha um game, porque o assassino de Cristal Lake também não teria um? Toda a ação do game acontece no acampamento do Lago Cristal, morada de Jason, onde o jogador deverá andar por diversos caminhos do parque para salvar seus amigos do afiado facão de Jason.

O game tem uma jogabilidade 2D, dividida duas partes,em  uma delas em que o jogador anda  por várias trilhas do acampamento do Parque Cristal  procurando chalés onde possa resgatar seus amigos de Jason. Essa parte lembra um pouco o clássico Ghosts and Ghouls, porém com gráficos mais coloridos. Já a outra parte da jogabilidade acontece  dentro dos chalés onde a visão muda para as costas do personagem e o jogador resolve pequenos quebra cabeças antes de enfrentar Jason.  O jogo foi considerado por muita gente na época bem difícil, destaque para as aparições extremamente apelonas do Jason que muitas vezes surgia de repente e com uma velocidade 10 vezes maior que a de seu personagem.

Video

Nightmare on Elm Street

Produção: Rare

Lançamento:1990

Plataforma: NES

Nightmare on Elm Street é o título original de  “A Hora do Pesadelo”, série de filmes criada por Wes Craven, que tem como vilão e principal personagem o  vilão Freddy Krueger, imortalizado pelo ator Robert Englund.

Bom, se Michel Myers e Jason Voorhees tinham seus jogos,obviamente  Freddy Krueger como ícone de filmes de terror da década de 80 também deveria  também deveria ter o seu.

O game colocava o jogador na pele de um jovem que deve  encarar Freddy, para sair do pesadelo . O game tem a jogabilidade voltada para o gênero plataforma e ação porque é necessário ser bastante preciso nos pulos, principalmente para recolher os itens que muitas vezes ficam em lugares difíceis de alcançar e para terminar as fases era necessário coletar todos os ossos de Freddy espalhados pelo local. No início você conta apenas com socos para encarar  inimigos como aranhas gigantes, ratos, morcegos, esqueletos e zumbis , mas com o passar do game o jogador pode conseguir power ups que podem transformar seu personagem em feiticeiro ou ninja para tentar facilitar as coisas.

Nightmare on Elm Street mostrou alguns conceitos interessantes como em fases dentro das casas do rua Elm onde se sua energia , chegasse a zero o game iniciava o modo pesadelo, onde os inimigos mudavam e a fase ficava bem mais difícil, tudo bem que algo semelhante já havia sido feito em Castlevania II: Simons Crest, outra característica interessante era o fato de até 4 pessoas poderem participar das partidas.  O game tem alguns problemas principalmente ligados a falta de precisão nos saltos e poder muito ruin de encarar os inimigos sem os Power ups.  Mas caso tenha um emulador de NES no seu PC vale a pena dar uma conferida no game e encarar mais um pesadelo de Freddy.

Video

Alone in the Dark

Produção: Infogrames (Atualmente Atari)

Lançamento 1992

Plataformas: PC , MAC , 3DO

O primeiro game desta série é considerado o pioneiro do gênero survival horror por ter características como cenários pintados e personagens em gerados em 3D. Ok os personagens eram feios pra caramba, mas lembrem-se, estávamos em 1992 com PCs 386/486, então isso pode ser considerado um grande feito.

A história conta que Jeremy Hartwood cometeu suicídio na Mansão Decerto na Louisiana, você assume o controle de Edward Carnby, um detetive particular e Emily Hartwood , sobrinha de Jeremy , para tentar descobrir o que aconteceu  e desvendar os mistérios do local. Durante o game vários elementos  que se tornaram populares com Resident Evil e viraram padrão estão lá, como criaturas quebrando janelas, inimigos surgindo de repente, itens encontrados em um lugar e utilizados em outro lugar distante, câmeras colocadas em lugares estratégicos, além da parte sonora que funcionava muito bem, colocando músicas tensas nos momentos onde surgiam as criaturas.

Primeiro Alone in the Dark era baseado nos livros do escritor H.P Lovecraft e ainda teve duas continuações produzidas pela mesma equipe da Infogrames Alone in the Dark 2 que embora tivesse gráficos melhores,  não foi muito bem recebido pela crítica e por jogadores por causa de seus problemas de jogabilidade, principalmente com o sistemas de câmeras ruin.  Já Alone in the Dark 3 manteve os mesmo gráficos, porém com o game mais fluído e com mais velocidade, mas com poucas inovações apenas repetindo o que já havia sido feito nos episódios anteriores da série.

Alone in the Dark mais tarde ainda teve o episódio The New Nightmare lançado para PS1 e PS2 e uma nova versão chamada apenas Alone in the Dark, que foi lançada para PS3, X360 e PC, mas falarei dessas versões em outra oportunidade.

Vídeo

Isso aê , essa foi a primeira parte do especial galera, espero que tenham curtido e podem postar pra dizer o que acharam,  até a próxima.

In this corner we have one sick dude. So sick he was burnt alive by people who hated him. He took Michael Jackson’s style and said “ok that’s cool, but what if I wanna cut $#^%.”  In the Black fedora, knifey glove, and bad skin we have…Freddy Krueger!!!

In this corner a man of many parts…Literally. Upping Freddy by one hand.  Black hair, pale complexion, and no possible way of masturbating.  We have Edward Scissorhands!!!!!!!!!

5.04: The postmen have called truce with the bosses, and will be doling out the mail uninterrupted between now and Christmas. Well they’ve a backlog to clear I suppose, but what about all those postal novels that now won’t get off the ground? They’ve barely had time to rattle off a limerick. The decline in support for industrial action is playing merry hell with the nation’s creative excursions. Perhaps I should go on a sympathy strike.

5.41: If there’s one thing that isn’t conductive to things poetic and muse-courting, it’s Google’s commemorative Sesame Street birthday graphics. I know I’m being curmudgeonly, but it’s 5.41 in the morning, and there’s some gawky puppet grinning idiotically between the letters of the Internet’s chief information finding tool. It’s the search engine equivalent of a Freddy Krueger film; I think the furry critter’s real, but he’s starting to come after me in dreams. Hackers in my readership, please start laying puppet poison. Meantime I’m only doing searches if heavily armed with candles, prayerbooks, garlic, amulets, holy water.

6.50: The end of the planning phase is drawing near. A couple more days should do it, though I’ve left a few gaps in the tricky spots along the way: elephant traps to snare me while I’m lumbering through the long grass of the narrative jungle. Soon time to tool up with shotgun and pith helmet.

Today’s Film: A Nightmare on Elm Street

Hit Theaters on November 16^th, 1984

Directed by Wes Craven

Notable Stars: Heather Langenkamp(Nancy Thompson), Johnny Depp (Glen Lantz), Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger), John Saxon (Lt. Thompson)

Here is a link to A Nightmare on Elm Street’s IMDB page

My Rating – ****1/2 (out of a possible 5 stars)

Synopsis:  Nancy Thompson and her friends are having trouble sleeping. A mysterious man with knifes for fingers is haunting their dreams. Nancy may be the only one that can stop the creepy, badly burned stranger, before it’s too late.

An Icon of our Generation?

It’s hard to imagine a world before Freddy Krueger. What must the first audience to watch “A Nightmare on Elm Street” have been thinking when Freddy’s knifed fingers first slashed across the screen, reflecting shimmering light and the fear on his victims’ faces? Was this unlike anything anyone had ever seen? Were people shocked? How has our view of nightmares changed since the creation of Freddy Krueger?

As a child I remember thinking that the Freddy movies where the ultimate horror films. As an adult, I’m impressed by the unique ground they cover and by their villain. No other villain can compare to Freddy Krueger. He is perhaps most terrifying in this first installment. In this film, Wes Craven presents him more as a boogeyman who we never get to spend a huge amount of time looking at. Plus, this is our first time experiencing the character of Nancy Thompson. To this day, I feel she is the only nemesis who was ever really worthy to beat Freddy one on one. Most other “Nightmare” heroines are poorly acted and badly written. But not Nancy.

A Brilliant Formula

A brilliant horror movie, like “A Nightmare on Elm Street”, tries to create the most authentic main character possible so that the audience feels like they are experiencing his/her’s realistic anxiety and fear. To further heighten this experience, certain horror films follow a very successful horror movie formula. In this formula, a horror film must strive to make the main character feel completely isolated and thus in greater danger. This is accomplished by removing three sources of comfort and support that exist in most everyday people’s lives. Take away our ability to rely on (1) god, (2) our mother, and (3) our friends, and we fall apart. The absence of these three staples leaves the main character, along with the audience, feeling totally alone. And then the true fear begins.

Your Mommy Can’t Help You…

Let’s break down how Wes Craven creates true fear in “A Nightmare on Elm Street”, using this same formula. First, Wes Craven destroys Nancy’s ability to turn to her mother by making her mother an alcoholic, mess who refuses to deal with the tragedies surrounding her daughter. Nancy’s mother was one of the parents who helped kill the mortal Fred Krueger. In a way, what is happening to her daughter is her fault. Imagine not being able to turn to the person who gave birth to you when something this horrible is happening.

Please, God…

Craven includes a few references to religion & God in his film. Tina calls out “Please, God” at one point. Freddy laughs this off and it becomes obvious that God won’t be saving anyone’s life in this movie.

Freddy haunting Nancy (1984)

In another scene, my favorite visual in the film, Freddy pushes himself through the wall above a bed Nancy is sleeping in. He knocks a crucifix off the wall, symbolizing that Jesus can’t keep Freddy from entering our lives either.

Friends to the End…

Finally, Wes Craven separates Nancy from her friends in three ways. First, they are unable to help each other because they are being killed off one by one by Freddy. Second, as the film progresses the audience witnesses several missed opportunities for the teenagers to talk about their dreams and learn from their common experiences. But, they try to pretend that Freddy isn’t real and this places a wedge between them and their ability to help each other. Lastly, sleep itself does a pretty good job of separating us. The true terror of Freddy Krueger is that he gets you when you sleep, and no one can stay awake forever. In one scene, Nancy attempts to rely on Glen, but he lets her down and falls asleep when he is supposed to be keeping watch. Nancy and the audience are left completely alone against Freddy Krueger.

The Original Ending

I’ve heard that Wes Craven had a totally different ending planned for this film. Originally Nancy defeats Freddy and gets her friends back. Basically, it is the existing ending to the film, minus the last 3 minutes where Freddy pops back up.

I’ve always been disappointed in the existing ending. As I’ve heard, Wes Craven admits in interviews he is also disappointed. Craven’s original ending was way better. Nancy is his only character that truly listens and learns throughout the film. She is a strong and resourceful heroine. In the end, she takes what she has learned and defeats Freddy. It turns out the seemingly indestructible Freddy has a weakness, and Nancy discovered it. She does what she was supposed to do, so she should win!

In the template for a properly structured horror film she would be rewarded for her hard work. This IS an expertly crafted, uniquely visual, properly structured horror film. But, as is so often the case, the money, the suits and the production company stepped in and broke the correct pattern. The kids get screwed in the end so that we will keep opening our wallets to see the sequels. No fault to Wes Craven, however. He did his job. And it is his vision, his directorial brilliance; his actors’ solid performances and good writing that have made this film stand the test of time as one of the classic horror greats!

Bottom Line:

“A Nightmare on Elm Street” delivers in all the ways a horror film should. There’s the appropriate amount of blood and gore, coupled with excellent performances and a solid script. Children are taught that dreams are filled with rainbows, cartoon characters and pleasant, talking animals. But in the world of Wes Craven, dreams are actually nightmares where your life is on the line and you may never wake up. Many horror characters have the ability to haunt our dreams, but none as menacingly as Freddy Krueger. One, two, Feddy’s coming for you…

Freddy Links

For those of you who are not already aware, there is a remake/re-visioning of “A Nightmare on Elm Street” set for theatrical release on April 30^th, 2010. It seems like all classics are being remade lately, doesn’t it? No new ideas I guess. Anyway, this remake looks pretty cool so I wanted to provide you with links so you can check it out yourselves. Sweet Dreams, Gentle Reader…

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) IMDB page

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)- New Movie Trailer @ Apple Movie Trailers