Advertisement

Nightmare On Elm Street Reboot Make-Up Artist Blasts Film’s CGI Abuse

The recent announcement of a new, second reboot of ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ has prompted reflection on just where the 2010 version went wrong - and most seem to agree one of the key problems was the new-look Freddy Krueger.

Studio Warner Bros and production house Platinum Dunes may have picked the right man for the job in Jackie Earle Haley, fresh from his scene-stealing turn as the psychotic Rorschach in ‘Watchmen’ - but the heavily redesigned make-up, clearly intended to make this new take on Freddy stand apart from Robert Englund’s iconic turn, ended up robbing the character of all his personality.

- Nightmare On Elm Street Reboot Announced
- Gory Comic-Con Trailer For TV’s Ash Vs Evil Dead
- Friday the 13th TV Spin-Off Confirmed

Now, the film’s special make-up FX artist Bart J Mixon - who had also worked on earlier entries ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge’ and ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: the Dream Master’ (which, not for nothing, feature two of the best Freddy make-ups) - has discussed where things went wrong on the reboot, and he pins the blame squarely on the abuse of CGI.

Mixon tells iHorror, “I thought the make-up looked pretty good when Jackie left our trailer. It looked more like a real burn victim, less monster-ish and more realistic.

“The plan was always to have digital put a few holes in specific places, adding depth that’s impossible with a head under there. But the trouble with a lot of digital guys is they have to screw with stuff.“

Mixon claims this got worse in post-production, at which point the digital department “were pretty much out of control and were able to talk who ever into letting them screw up the make-up by adding senseless holes all over his face.

“I don’t think they even matched from one shot to the next, and by the time we were into our last batch of re-shoots Andrew [Clement, special prosthetic effects designer] was having to alter the appliances to match the changes digital had made in the make-up.

“Crazy. I don’t think Freddy looks bad in the movie, but he looked much better before digital got their pixels on him.”

Few fans would disagree that the overabundance of sub-par digital effects was one of the big problems with the ‘Nightmare’ reboot - but worse than that was the feeling of it all being a bit arbitrary, directly recreating that which went before in a bland, soulless fashion. Mixon feels similarly.

“Like most remakes or reboots, it is sort of a waste of time. I thought Jackie was a great choice for Freddy, and I like the fact that he towers over the children, but they are bigger than him as adults.

“But any scenes that are direct copies of what was done in the original just fail to improve in any way over the original.

“Maybe by the time Freddy is going to Hell and Jason is going into space it IS time to start over, but try something a little different. At least the ‘Friday [the 13th]’ remake combined the first three movies into one.”

Given that the newly announced ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ reboot promises to disregard the 2010 take - doubtless with a recast Freddy and a redesigned make-up - it seems the producers of this new take (which is back in the hands of original studio, Warners subsidiary New Line Cinema) are well aware the 2010 version hit wide of the mark.

We look forward to seeing how things develop on the next Nightmare…

- Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters 2 Gets Director
- Frank Grillo Returning For The Purge 3
- Latest On Universal’s Mummy Reboot

Picture Credit: Warner Bros