Comic-Con: Details And Reactions From Nightmare On Elm Street Footage And Panel; Englund Cameo Rumors Denied

By David ChenJuly 24, 2009 12:45 pm EST

Filming on the new A Nightmare on Elm Street wrapped two weeks ago, but for the throbbing crowds at Comic Con, the makers of the film cut together some trailer-like footage, shown today in Hall H. Hit the jump for a description of some of the footage, and some details about the new film.

The opening sequence depicts a bunch of people running after Freddy, screaming, and clearly extremely pissed. Freddy locks himself inside a warehouse, insisting that he is not to blame for what they are after him about. The crowd throws in a can of gasoline into the warehouse and after a fiery explosion, we see a shot of Freddy running out in slow motion while on fire.

What follows is a series of quick shots, intercut with slow motion, featuring people trying to get out of nightmares or the real-life effects of those nightmares. The best part of the Nightmare movies has always been the disturbing imagery and concepts of the nightmares themselves, and this film looks no different (For example, there is a girl sitting by herself in a bombed out classroom, and a woman standing alone in a hallway in a clear, plastic, bloody body bag). We get some atmospheric and moody shots of Freddy, dragging his knives alongside various objects, and then the trailer concludes with a dark and brief shot of the side of Freddy's face as he's against a wall. Mysterious and disturbing.

With the involvement of Brad Fuller, this footage felt a lot like Nispel's Friday the 13th footage, shown here last year: Beautifully-lit, crowd-pleasing, and featuring plenty of spectacular jump scares and memorable shots.

Here are some other details that were revealed about the film during the panel:

Despite the glimpse of how Freddy got his scars in the footage we were shown, the makers of the film emphasized, "This certainly isn't an origin story. We're creating our own mythology based on Wes Craven's story. There's a little bit of it, but I wouldn't say we're bogged down in it."

Robert Englund is NOT going to make a cameo in this film, although he does support it.

One member from the audience remarked that there is a great deal of nudity and weed in these producers' movies, and asked how much to expect in this film. The response? "This movie has the smallest amount of weed of all of our movies, but there is a little bit of it in there. We try to take a look at what's important to our story, and we try to maintain a few of those elements, like weed"

There was a sequence in the footage we were shown that looked like the bedroom scene in the original Nightmare on Elm Street. Despite some similarities, this will not be a remake. According to one of the producers, "I think [Director Samuel Bayer] wanted to tell a different story. Things will be familiar, but I don't think people will feel like it's the same story at all."

Andrew Clement designed the new Freddy. According to Jackie Earle Haley, "I always felt like if I tried to go out in the world wearing the make-up [without the costume]...I think people would have thought it was real. I think it's scarier, I think it's more disconcerting and alarming."