While a “Nightmare on Elm Street” reboot that brings back the “Last Girl” from the original film, Nancy, might work, the film will need to avoid the increasingly common, deeply annoying slasher. Modern slashers prove that a reboot of “A Nightmare on Elm Street” could work in 2022, since this subgenre is still clearly attracting viewers, judging by the box office success of many recent hits. However, the revival of the subgenre brings with it a new set of cliches that are apparently designed to infuriate long-time fans.
The initial slasher boom of the 1980s led to many films in which promiscuous young women were brutally murdered and virgin heroines survived, as a result of which film theorist Carol Clover identified the phenomenon of the “Last Girl” trope in 1990. The 1990s provided films in which the characters now knew the rules and conventions of horror films, but still became victims of masked killers. Now the latest series of slasher reboots has spawned a new cliche.
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After the success of “Halloween 2018”, the reboot formula of this slasher was plundered by the producers of numerous major franchises. However, new slasher reboots are now being criticized for not using enough, ignoring or completely excluding their original heroines. Thus, if the series “A Nightmare on Elm Street” brings back Nancy from “The Last Girl” from the original film, Heather Langenkamp, she should be at the center of the plot of the film. “Halloween Kills” and “Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2022” have earned criticism from fans for ignoring their returning horror heroines, while “Scream 6” is already slated due to the franchise’s failure to bring back Sydney Neve Campbell. As a result, Nancy’s role should be substantial enough to justify including her character in any potential reboot of A Nightmare on Elm Street.
Why It’s Hard to Get Nancy Back for the “Nightmare on Elm Street” reboot
Of course, the “Nightmare on Elm Street” reboot bringing Nancy back isn’t necessarily as easy as it might seem. First, the character was canonically killed off in the 1986 film A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, and since this film is arguably the most beloved part of the franchise among longtime viewers, rethinking this story may prove unpopular. In addition, Langenkamp has already returned as the heroine of the franchise before, having played a fictional version of herself in Wes Craven’s trip movie “The New Nightmare” back in 1994. the movie, and any new reboot of “A Nightmare on Elm Street” will be hard to beat this clever conceit.
However, a reboot of “A Nightmare on Elm Street” with the original heroine in the title role may still work. The original villain of the series can still return, as evidenced by the roles of Robert England in 2022 in season 4 of “Choose or Die” and “Very Strange Things”, which means that Nancy can reunite with her old enemy on screen. This potential reboot could have been successful if the project had focused on the duo, instead of publishing Nancy’s reappearance only to sideline her, as earlier slasher reboots were blamed for it. However, it remains to be seen whether the “Nightmare on Elm Street” reboot will arrive in time to capitalize on the current trend of retro slashers.
