Great synopsis! Your analysis made "Freddy's Dead" a lot deeper than many people realize. A lot of the information about the design and direction of the movie that you laid out I probably had in my subconscious, but I never consciously pieced it together to form the final conclusion that you did. Honestly, from a production standpoint, I believe "Freddy's Dead" is arguably one of the most "complete" films in the franchise, alongside the original and part three. The story may be questionable in terms of entertainment, but the movie knows what it is, what it wants to do, and does it. The other sequels, aside from 3, felt rushed and lacked that sense of completeness.
Funny how the "reboot" concept has evolved... I remember Batman Begins and The Amazing Spider-Man being referred to as reboots back in the day (because they disregarded the Tobey Maguire / Burton & Schumacher films and presented a new version of the character and world). But what does that have to do with Scream 4, which styled itself a reboot, but didn't disregard any previous continuity at all? Is there a relationship to 'requels' or 'legacy sequels,' which ignore some but not all previous continuity?
Yes, that Batman Begins version of the reboot is why I'd associate reboots with the early 00s, and the form has certainly morphed into something much more ambiguous since then. Scream 4 seems to be drawing on the subgenre's history of using sequels as "reboots" (like Jason Lives and Halloween 4 do). I take requels as the logical conclusion that follows from treating sequels as "reboots" and having "remakes" like Friday the 13th (2009) that seem more like sequels by stealth. If it is of interest, I say more about those ideas, especially in relation to Scream 4 and Scream (2022) in my book The Metamodern Slasher (out in paperback early next year!) : ) ~
That was a quality essay / video . Consider me subbed .
....and subbed. Excellent work.
Great synopsis! Your analysis made "Freddy's Dead" a lot deeper than many people realize. A lot of the information about the design and direction of the movie that you laid out I probably had in my subconscious, but I never consciously pieced it together to form the final conclusion that you did. Honestly, from a production standpoint, I believe "Freddy's Dead" is arguably one of the most "complete" films in the franchise, alongside the original and part three. The story may be questionable in terms of entertainment, but the movie knows what it is, what it wants to do, and does it. The other sequels, aside from 3, felt rushed and lacked that sense of completeness.
Can we please get this guy some more subs
gooning
Funny how the "reboot" concept has evolved... I remember Batman Begins and The Amazing Spider-Man being referred to as reboots back in the day (because they disregarded the Tobey Maguire / Burton & Schumacher films and presented a new version of the character and world). But what does that have to do with Scream 4, which styled itself a reboot, but didn't disregard any previous continuity at all? Is there a relationship to 'requels' or 'legacy sequels,' which ignore some but not all previous continuity?
Yes, that Batman Begins version of the reboot is why I'd associate reboots with the early 00s, and the form has certainly morphed into something much more ambiguous since then. Scream 4 seems to be drawing on the subgenre's history of using sequels as "reboots" (like Jason Lives and Halloween 4 do). I take requels as the logical conclusion that follows from treating sequels as "reboots" and having "remakes" like Friday the 13th (2009) that seem more like sequels by stealth. If it is of interest, I say more about those ideas, especially in relation to Scream 4 and Scream (2022) in my book The Metamodern Slasher (out in paperback early next year!) : ) ~
There was a little kids cartoon of Freddy that I remember!