Not content with being established as horror’s newest wunderkind through the trio of Host, DASHCAM, and recent Stephen King adaptation The Boogeyman, director Rob Savage also has the distinction of being responsible for a movie science named as the scariest ever made.
Sinister held the top spot for a while, but the filmmaker’s universally-acclaimed terror Host ended up stealing away the top spot when the Science of Scare experiment sought to use technical methods to determine which feature film could be named as the undisputed top dog.
That’s an impressive achievement, and while Savage has plenty of options on the table when it comes to picking and choosing his next projects, he admitted to ComicBook that resurrecting A Nightmare on Elm Street would be the dream.
“The one that comes to mind straight away is Nightmare on Elm Street. I’m sure it is for most horror directors. I know there’s a bit of a rights issue there, so I don’t know if Nightmare on Elm Street is going to continue anytime soon. That kind of horror storytelling that plays in that plays in that surreal dream space. It terrified me as a kid and I haven’t really seen anything come close that plays in that space of not being able to trust what you can see and that space between waking and dreams. I love that as a sandbox to play in and it’s up there with my favorite franchises.”
It’s been 20 years since Robert Englund last played the iconic character, and 13 since Freddy Krueger last made his presence felt onscreen, which is an eternity considering just how often the genre’s biggest brands are rebooted, rehashed, and reinvented.
The estate of the late Wes Craven has been soliciting pitches, and anyone with a soft spot for A Nightmare on Elm Street would almost certainly be on board for Savage being the one to dust it off and slap it with a fresh coat of spooky paint.