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It has been over 20 years since Robert Englund made his last appearance as Freddy Krueger on the big screen in 2003’s Freddy vs Jason. However, there are many who wish that the actor could make one final appearance as the knife-fingered dream demon, and that has spurred a huge surge in interest in the oft-forgotten behind-the-scenes documentary, Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy, which was originally released in 2010. Now, though, the feature-length documentary has found a home in the Tubi Top10, and outperformed many big blockbusters also available on the platform.
For any fan of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, Never Sleep Again is the ultimate restrospect of Wes Craven’s groundbreaking horror saga that clocks in at just under four hours and covers the entire franchise from the 1984 original through to the heavily criticized 2010 remake. Directed by Daniel Farrands and Andrew Kasch, the documentary is narrated by “final girl” Heather Langenkamp, and builds an in-depth picture of the Elm Street story with looks at archival footage, storyboards, and a deep dive into Craven’s original motivation for making the original film.
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More than 100 cast and crew members, including Englund, Craven, Renny Harlin, and even producer Robert Shaye, provided interviews for the extensive and comprehensive history of the iconic and often imitated horror saga. What is more, the documentary delivered the goods it advertised, with critics scoring it a perfect 100% and audiences not far behind with 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. Essentially, those missing that Freddy magic don’t need to look much further than this epic and lovingly compiled bible. Now free to stream on Tubi, it looks like many have been taking up the opportunity while it is available.
The Problem With ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’s Future
New Line Cinema
Casting aside the insufferable constant issues of rights, who owns what, and who can make money from which characters, the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise has languished in a hell of its own making thanks to one big problem – Robert Englund is Freddy Krueger.
Many of the most iconic horror figures, such as Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, Leatherface, have the luxury of having no problem recasting the actors playing the parts because they are hidden behind masks and often don’t speak. Freddy Krueger is as much Robert Englund as Indiana Jones is Harrison Ford and Luke Skywalker is Mark Hamill. They could be recast, but the new actor will always have a massive cloud hanging over them in the form of their predecessor.
This was partly the reason why the 2010 Nightmare on Elm Street remake starring Watchmen star Jackie Earle Haley flopped. As well as other failings and attempts to redefine what is already a perfectly rounded character, the problem is that Haley was not Englund, and even though he tried to make his version of Freddy his own, it simply isn’t what fans wanted.
It is inevitable that at some point in the future, someone will attempt to revive the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise again, and if he gets his own way, then that could well be Jason Blum and Blumhouse. However, whoever takes on the task is going to have to be prepared to face a real trial by fire to get the franchise out of purgatory.
Source: FlixPatrol
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