Summary
- Mike Flanagan's range of horror projects, from The Fall of the House of Usher to The Midnight Club, showcases his versatility.
- The Midnight Club proves Flanagan's ability to handle teen horror with pathos, a quality lacking in some Nightmare On Elm Street sequels.
- Flanagan's potential A Nightmare On Elm Street reboot faces a challenge in recasting the iconic character of Freddy Krueger.
Although Mike Flanagan’s movies and TV shows underline his range.
There is Flanagan’s Stephen King adaptation, The Life of Chuck, which will see the director return to his favorite author’s back catalog. Flanagan’s version of King’s The Dark Tower series will follow that adaptation, and this immense undertaking could prove to be the director’s most ambitious project yet. Beyond these two, there is Flanagan’s Exorcist movie and the director’s Christopher Pike adaptation, The Season of age. Flanagan’s earlier Pike adaptation also proved that the director is uniquely suited to one of the few franchises that hasn’t reached out to him. Conveniently, Flanagan wants to work on the series.
Forget Friday The 13th – This 40-Year-Old Horror Franchise Needs Mike Flanagan More
While many hope Mike Flanagan will save the Friday the 13th franchise, there's another horror saga that needs him more so it can succeed again.
The Midnight Club Proves Mike Flanagan Is Perfect For A Nightmare On Elm Street
Flanagan’s Teen Horror Bonafides Were Proven By Netflix’s Hit Series
Flanagan itted on X (formerly Twitter) that he would love to work on A Nightmare On Elm Street, director Wes Craven’s slasher franchise about a dream-invading serial killer. Flanagan responded to fan art that added his name to a poster featuring Freddy Krueger and wistfully implied that he wanted to work on the series. The Nightmare On Elm Street franchise has been dormant since 2010’s disastrous reboot by director Samuel Bayer, but Flanagan seems like an odd choice for the series. Despite the critical popularity of his output, Flanagan is known for a more thoughtful, reflective brand of horror than Krueger’s slashers.
Like A Nightmare On Elm Street, The Midnight Club centers on a group of troubled teens who are pursued by a malignant supernatural entity.
However, Flanagan’s underrated Netflix show The Midnight Club proves that he is secretly suited to the job. Like A Nightmare On Elm Street, The Midnight Club centers on a group of troubled teens who are pursued by a malignant supernatural entity. Although The Midnight Club is more moving than Craven’s slasher, it shares its basic plot structure with the iconic horror movie. Both A Nightmare On Elm Street and The Midnight Club see their teenage heroes racing against time an attempt to uncover a shadowy conspiracy that is related to the darkness trying to take their lives.
The Midnight Club Has Something A Nightmare On Elm Street Is Missing
Mike Flanagan’s Teen Horror Has Pathos As Well As Scares
Despite their similarities, The Midnight Club has something that many movies in the Nightmare On Elm Street series sorely lack. Namely, there is an element of pathos in Flanagan’s underrated Netflix show that is missing from most of the slasher series. Nightmare On Elm Street: Dream Warriors was a clear inspiration for The Midnight Club, with both stories centering on a group of mismatched teens stuck in a treatment facility bonding over their shared trauma. This sequel, along with 1994’s reboot New Nightmare, proved that a level of tragedy truly elevates the scares of the slasher series.
In its weakest moments, the Nightmare On Elm Street series is a delivery system for Freddy Krueger’s corny one-liners and outlandish forms. It is fun to guess what gruesome contortions Freddy will go through next, but the heart and soul of the best movies in the series are its teen protagonists. Flanagan’s The Midnight Club understands this implicitly, and the show’s horror is deeply poignant since its young heroes feel well-rounded and believable. The darkly funny Fall of the House of Usher proves Flanagan can pull off the franchise’s sillier kills, but The Midnight Club highlights his insight into teenage emotion.
Mike Flanagan’s A Nightmare On Elm Street Reboot Faces A Problem
The Slasher Franchise Would Struggle To Recast Robert Englund
Unfortunately for Flanagan, even his considerable talents would struggle to reckon with one issue that stalls A Nightmare On Elm Street reboots. Freddy Krueger’s original actor, Robert Englund, is now 77 years old, so it would be tough to see him playing a janitor. England eventually needs to be recast but, like 2021’s Candyman reboot, the slasher revival would struggle to pull this off since the legendary actor is so closely associated with the role.
It is hard to see how Flanagan could go about replacing Englund’s Freddy without letting down fans.
Jackie Earle Haley’s 2010 take on Freddy Krueger was a complete failure, and the Watchmen star is an acclaimed actor with decades of experience. As such, it is hard to see how Flanagan could go about replacing Englund’s Freddy without letting down fans. A Nightmare On Elm Street’s Freddy Krueger is central to the franchise’s appeal. As such, the director would need to find a way to keep his original actor around while also incorporating a new star in the role. While The Midnight Club proved Mike Flanagan has the right voice for A Nightmare On Elm Street, this issue could still hold up the director's reboot.
- Cast
- Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Amanda Wyss, Jsu Garcia, Robert Englund, Charles Fleischer, Joseph Whipp, Lin Shaye, Joe Unger, Mimi Craven, Jack Shea, Ed Call, Sandy Lipton, David Andrews, Jeff Levine, Donna Woodrum, Shashawnee Hall, Carol Pritikin, Brian Reise, Ash Adams, Don Hannah, Leslie Hoffman, Paul Grenier
- Runtime
- 91 minutes
- Director
- Wes Craven
- Writers
- Wes Craven
- Franchise(s)
- A Nightmare on Elm Street
- Studio(s)
- New Line Cinema
