Superhero horror movie The New Mutants is set to be the final entry into Fox's X-Men line, and draws inspiration from A Nightmare on Elm Street 3. It's been a long strange trip for X-Men movies, beginning with director Bryan Singer's original film released back in 2000. Fox would go on to produce twelve films in total, with New Mutants appropriately set to be the thirteenth. Among those titles were three Wolverine standalones, two R-rated Deadpool movies, and several attempts to try and fix what had become rather broken continuity.
Soon though, the Fox line of X-Men movies will officially ride off into the sunset, thanks to the purchase of Fox's film and TV assets by Disney last year. New Mutants will serve as Fox's last mutant hurrah, although it certainly wasn't planned that way. Director Josh Boone's film originally completed principal photography in 2017, long before the Disney/Fox sale was even on the horizon, but various release delays and conflicting reports of reshoots led it to become the first X-Men movie under the auspices of Disney.
While Boone had previously revealed that New Mutants was inspired by films like The Shining and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, during an on-set interview in August 2017, the director revealed another prominent influence: A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors.
New Mutants Was Influenced By Nightmare On Elm Street 3
I’d say biggest influences for this movie were [One Flew Over the] Cuckoo’s Nest, The Shining and Dream Warriors. Yeah, I do love Dream Warriors. I love the first one as well, but this is very much a rubber reality horror movie for the first 75% of the movie and then it becomes something else. But yeah, it really follows the logic of those early Wes Craven movies and all that.
It makes sense that a movie with the plot synopsis of New Mutants would be influenced by A Nightmare on Elm Street 3. New Mutants sees five youngsters just becoming aware of their powers and how to use them being held against their will inside a secret facility. Dream Warriors saw a group of teenagers plagued by dreams of Freddy Krueger all committed to a psychiatric hospital, and while there they united and discovered their own special powers that could be used to battle the Springwood Slasher. One aspect New Mutants would do well to emulate is the likeable camaraderie between the Dream Warriors, which made them easy to root for, and ensured audiences became invested in their survival.
The big difference between the two is that A Nightmare on Elm Street 3's Dream Warriors had a clear antagonist that spurred their alliance in Freddy, while it's still unclear exactly what villain the New Mutants will be facing off against. It's also important to note that while these comments from Boone were just recently released, they were given during a set visit in 2017, and it's not clear if the repeatedly delayed final cut of New Mutants will reflect what Boone said back during filming. Either way, it's definitely not a bad idea to be inspired by Freddy's best sequel.
