Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

Fango got a chance to speak with Kyle Gallner, the young actor from THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT (out on DVD and Blu-ray from Lionsgate next month) who is currently squaring off with Freddy Krueger in the remake of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. He’s playing Quentin (described as the equivalent of Johnny Depp’s original NIGHTMARE role) in the film, which is being directed by Samuel Bayer and targeting an April 16, 2010 release date from New Line.

“We’re a little over halfway done shooting,” Gallner tells us of NIGHTMARE, which we last reported on here. “It’s a very different role in a very different movie from HAUNTING. I show up to work one day, and all of a sudden I’m face to face with Freddy Krueger and running for my life. It’s a cool experience.”

Gallner confirms that Quentin “would be the equivalent of the Johnny Depp character from the first one,” i.e. the boyfriend of heroine Nancy, played here by Rooney Mara. He adds, however, that the conception of his part is quite different. “The movie kind of relies on these two antiheroes, me and Nancy,” he explains. “We’re definitely not your average horror-movie heroes. Quentin is rather confused and definitely has problems going on outside of the nightmare world, and Nancy does as well. There’s some cool character stuff going on that will be interesting for people to see. They’re two different people [from the first NIGHTMARE’s protagonists]; I’m not in a cutoff football jersey. But there are also definitely going to be some shoutouts to the original—a couple of lines and shots and stuff that people will see and go, ‘Oh yeah, there it is.’ A few of the iconic shots from [Wes Craven’s] movie are definitely going to appear in ours as well.”

Despite what some might expect from a 21st-century NIGHTMARE reboot, the actor says that the horrific dreamscapes won’t be completely reliant on digital trickery. “I don’t think there’s going to be a ton of CGI,” he says. “Sam is a very visual director, so he’s doing a lot with great lighting and camera tricks. It has a very specific feel and tone to it, and most of that will be due to really good makeup and camerawork and that kind of thing.”

The key makeup effect, of course, is Freddy himself, played by WATCHMEN’s Jackie Earle Haley, whom Gallner describes as “great, and a really nice guy” off camera. “It’s kind of funny to be hanging out on set, he’s sitting in his chair in his Freddy face and we’re chitchatting away, and then you get on set and all of a sudden he turns it on. As soon as he does that, he’s a completely different animal, and it’s genuinely creepy to do scenes with him. There was one scene I did with him the other night where we were just face to face, and it was pretty unnerving. I actually got creeped out. His makeup looks terrific; it’s definitely Freddy.”

And Gallner adds that this Krueger will hark back to the sinister, straight-faced monster he began as, rather than the jokester he became in the later sequels. “It’s played a little straighter,” the actor says. “I mean, there are still going to be some throwbacks to the other films—you’ve gotta keep a couple of the one-liners—but for the most part, it’s going to be a little more real, a little more raw. I believe it’ll be more disturbing than the original.” Look for more comments from Gallner on his many fright features (including the upcoming JENNIFER’S BODY) at this site soon, and keep your eyes here and on the pages of FANGORIA magazine for more on the new NIGHTMARE!

Fangoria