Really Surprised!

Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

Boring

The 2011 film that started it all for the Krueger: Tales from Elm Street series! After opening with Krueger (Roberto Lombardi) taunting a victim, the scene changes to Freddy handcuffed in an interrogation room. Lt. Thompson (Shawn Parr) arrives and tries to coax Freddy into confessing. Something Freddy would NEVER do! Eventually, Freddy gets the upper hand and Thompson loses his cool and is dragged out of the room as Freddy continues to taunt him! The film looks a bit grainy (I assume by design), but the acting is amazing and fits neatly into the canon of the original series. Amazingly, I don't see Englund and Saxon when I watch this. I see two actors giving such a believable performance that all I see is Krueger and Thompson.Apparently, the Krueger series is so influential now that there are fan films of this fan series! That "Confessions" movie borrows heavily from these films and even has their Freddy say "pretty please" right before a detective is dragged out of the room! They also copy shots of Krueger in a park, a kid on a swing, Freddy slinking along a wall and more.Not to mention there's an "author" who posted excerpts from his "original" Elm Street prequel book (Razor's Edge?) on Facebook recently that lifts dialogue not only from the original series, but from Blinky Productions Krueger series! I guess Chris and Roberto should be flattered as they were the first...

I'm always a little bit leery of fan films that deal with film franchises that I adore. With that being said, you can imagine my trepidation when I ran across Krueger (A Tale From Elm Street) that deals with one of my all time favorite franchises, A Nightmare On Elm Street. I'm happy to say that writer / director Chris R. Notarile manages to not only capture essence of Freddy Krueger but tells a pretty interesting story in the process.This short tells the story of a very much alive Freddy on his first day after being captured. He's being questioned by Lieutenant Thompson. This is beginning of the story of how Freddy got out of prison only to be burned alive by the parents of the Springwood kids.Robert Lombardi does a great job as Freddy Krueger. It's tough to ever see anyone other than Robert Englund don that red and green sweater, but Lombardi pulls it off. This is before Fred is burnt so that makes it easier. Lombardi manages to invoke enough Englund where you can still see the character is in there. With an icon like Krueger there needs to be some link to the original which is here for sure.Shawn Parr as Thompson does well too. He's got less source material to play off of, but I believed his angst in talking with Krueger and certainly believed just how upset he was toward the end of the film. Also, love the nod to Lethal Weapon with the "chair on the throat" interrogation thing. Big fan.While there is a kill in this film, its an off screen kill which I appreciate. As I've said in the past I have a hard time watching children be harmed so I'm glad Notarile made that choice. What I will say is that little Gracie De La Rosa played her part to perfection.Krueger (A Tale From Elm Street) does an amazing job of tying itself back to the source material. Not only are we dealing with characters that we know from the original film (Krueger, Nancy and her dad) but Notarile gets the "look" of that original film and uses music and sounds effects from the original to perfection. I'm not well versed in the legalities of re-using those materials in fan works, but I was actually surprised to "hear" so much of A Nightmare On Elm Street in this film. Very cool.While tying your film back to the source material can be a great thing, it can also lead to some bad choices. There were a couple of times here where when I sat back and thought about it, things didn't make much sense. A couple of times, Freddy talks about dreams. He says, "In your dreams a-hole," and "I'll be seeing you in your nightmares!". Thompson at one point says, "I'm going to light you up myself!" While I appreciate the foreshadowing of Freddy's demise in the original back story, the references to dreams took me out a bit. At this point, the characters don't know Freddy's going to die and certainly don't know that he's going to be able to come back and haunt children in their dreams.With that small negative behind us, this is an outstanding film. It's won't be much for non NOES fans, but if you're a fan of that franchise this is a strong recommend. It runs just over 10 minutes and will leave you wanting more.

Krueger (A Tale from Elm Street) (2011) *** (out of 4) Filmmaker Chris R. Notarile has several credits under his name but here recently he decided to make a trilogy of horror films in loving memory of three of the most famous killers from recent horror history. This film here is obviously an homage to Wes Craven's A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET and is actually a pretty good little gem. The film starts off in 1972 as Freddy Krueger (Roberto Lombardi) has murdered yet another child and now is being interrogated by Lt. Thompson (Shawn Parr). Thompson wants Krueger to admit to the child killings but Freddy has his own way of handling things. At just 10-minutes there's really not enough time to stretch out everything in order to connect it to the events in the first movie but it comes pretty darn close. I can't see how any fan of the Craven film could be disappointed with this thing because it certainly has more imagination than the recent remake and the majority of the original film's sequels. What I enjoyed most were actually the performances, which isn't what you'd typical say about a low-budget film like this. I thought both men were quite good in their roles and especially the small touches in playing the roles that were done by Robert Englund and John Saxon in the original film. I really thought Lombardi nailed Freddy's little bits perfectly and especially that voice at the start when he's about to kill the girl. On a technical level the film is certainly well-made and the director deserves a lot of credit for making the film look as good as it does.

This short film, even though it's mainly just about Krueger's Police Interogation after a quick teaser opening, is LEAPS and BOUNDS better than that horrible steaming pile of crap remake that Platinum Dunes/New Line/Warner Bros. had the poor taste to release last year. I've watched this over 2 dozen times already. The framing, lighting, coloring & angles add a unique degree of tension to what would normally be a boring tit-for-tat questioning session. But it's the performances that make this so enjoyable and re-watchable. Shawn Parr delivers an unbelievably believable Donald Thompson that I personally believe would do John Saxon proud. And Roberto Lombardi SHINES as "The Springwood Slasher", Fred Krueger! If a remade Elm Street franchise SHOULD be built around a single actor taking over the Freddy reigns from Robert Englund, it NEEDS to be done with Roberto Lombardi! I had absolutely NO problem envisioning him as Freddy from the first time he's in frame! He's got "IT", simply put. The guys who made this should be given the keys to the franchise from Warner Bros. and BEGGED to make a prequel/reboot/remake/WHATEVER that's actually WORTH watching!