Give Jackie Earle Haley a chance to win you over

Ya know… I am really getting sick of all these people saying that the new A Nightmare on Elm St. is gonna suck because Robert Englund is not in it. Yes, people, he is the epitome of Freddy Krueger. He is an amazing actor with a great personality and the perfect demeanor to play Freddy. That being said, he is not playing Freddy, Jackie Earle Haley is!

Jackie Earle Haley is getting so much crap about how he will never live up to Robert Englund. I really hope he doesn’t take it to heart. I am sure the late, great Heath Ledger heard the same thing about Jack Nicholson’s Joker, and look what he did. Now like I said, Robert is classic, but that Freddy is dated. In the last couple of movies Freddy became a parody of himself. I want the scary Freddy back, like in parts 1 & 2. Come on, when he busts out of Jesse’s body and tells the kids at the party “You are all my children” that is absolutely terrifying!!! But it all went downhill after that.

I am really looking forward to the “reimagining” of another classic. These are not remakes!! Friday the 13th, (of which I am a HUGE fan of the franchise) was a great take on the original and I can’t wait to see where the Jason franchise is going this time. I was pretty pumped up about Nightmare on Elm St.

But the comments from producer Brad Fuller’s blog on May 18th got me really hyped:

“So last night was one that I won’t forget. We’ve been shooting in Chicago for two weeks and I’ve got some great stories to tell, but last night was the first time we filmed Freddy - the first time that we saw Jackie with all his wardrobe and make-up.”

“It was insane.”

“Jackie is playing to role with incredible intensity. His Freddy doesn’t tell jokes, he is simply terrifying. His make-up is so awesome - obviously there will be elements that you all know so well, but there have been advances in make-up and he truly looks like a burn victim.”

“It is challenging to have a normal conversation with him because he looks so scary. And if that’s not enough, he talks with his hands a lot and at one point he pointed to me with the glove and it was terrifying.”

So please everyone give Jackie Earle Haley a break!

Let him give back the Freddy we all want to see.

Please scare me again!!!

Thanks to Horrorbid for these images.