What did you think of the new Nightmare On Elm Street? (semi-spoiler) And recent remakes of 80s horror in general?

I think they did a great job of mixing the old 80s cheese feel with the current trend of horror. In horror movies now, it’s nearly all about the startle or the jump; something jumping onto the screen so suddenly and quickly it’s a flash, with a big bang in the music. The 80s took the big moments more slowly and built up the moment more and didn’t rely on the startle factor.

But this movie used a great combination of the old music and new music, remakes of old scenes/shots with new back story, and a little bit of 80s cheese and the 80s style gore but also a good deal of the “startle” factor of late.

Unlike, say, Rob Zombie’s remake of Halloween, which was just a display of unnecessary gratuitous vulgarity and typical Rob Zombie sexual content/“white trash” focus and really wasn’t true to the feel of the original Halloween at all.

Or, the remake of The Exorcist a few years ago. The original Exorcist was a phenomenal mix of gore, psychological fear, supernatural, religious threat, and it carries well as it ages. The remake had absolutely not one shred of the feel or thrill of the original.

Your take? I’m interested because my best friend and I are very loyal to 80s horror and tend to really be disappointed in the heart of remakes that are more like independent movies, rather than another part of the classic.

I know The Exorcist isn’t 80s, but you just can’t talk about horror and exclude it