Nightmare On Elm Street’s Reboot Needs A Forgotten Robert Englund Twist

screenrant.com:

While the 1989 Robert Englund horror movie Phantom of the Opera is far from perfect, the period slasher did use a clever twist that a potential Nightmare On Elm Street reboot could revisit. While Robert Englund is best known for his role as Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare On Elm Street movies, that is far from the actor’s only major role. Just recently, Englund appeared as Victor Creel in Stranger Things season 4 (the villain of which was, fittingly enough, heavily indebted to Freddy Krueger).

However, not all of Englund’s efforts in the genre have been so successful. While a handful of the actor’s outings have been dubbed «enjoyably trashy» by critics, Englund’s horror output includes as many unfortunate misfires as it does success stories. That said, one of the more regrettable movies in the actor’s back catalog, 1989’s gory R-rated retelling of Phantom of the Opera, did provide a surprisingly thorough blueprint for how a potential Nightmare On Elm Street reboot could revive the franchise.

Related: Nightmare On Elm Street’s Worst Franchise Flaw Wasn’t A Mistake

Although the action of The Phantom of the Opera opens in contemporary New York, the very loose adaptation of the legendary musical soon pulls off an ingenious twist that transports viewers back to Victorian England. The rest of the movie takes place in 1885 London, where Phantom of the Opera mixes Nightmare On Elm Street’s supernatural slasher horror formula with a story of tragic, doomed love and a Faustian bargain. It is a messy movie, and reviewers weren’t wrong to call Phantom of the Opera a missed opportunity upon its original release, but the Robert Englund vehicle’s best twist still offers a clever route forward for theNightmare On Elm Street franchise.

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