Nightmare: Return To Elm Street is a series of fan made trailers that look great, but again prove Robert Englund is the only Freddy Krueger. A Nightmare On Elm Street was pitched by creator Wes Craven to every major studio, but they all turned it down as they didn't think a slasher movie revolving around dreams would be appealing to audiences. It was eventually shot on a low-budget with New Line Cinema, soon becoming a huge success and turning villain "Fred" Kruger into a horror icon.
The Omen star David Warner was an early frontrunner for the role before Robert Englund was cast, who would return for seven sequels, a TV show, and countless guest appearances in music videos or talk shows in the years that followed. Unlike other horror favorites like Halloween's Michael Myers, where a new performer often stepped into the mask with each passing sequel, Freddy was defined by Englund's performance. New Line tried to recast with a stuntman for A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge, but when he proved stiff and unnatural on camera Englund was quickly rehired.
The part was again recast with the great Jackie Earle Haley for 2010's A Nightmare On Elm Street remake. While Haley's performance was far from the worst thing about this reboot, his take on Freddy lacked the menace and dark humor Robert Englund brought. Nightmare: Return To Elm Street is a series of fan-produced trailers that pitch a reboot of the franchise, where a man's daughter is killed by Freddy and when he's accused of the crime, he must literally face a nightmare from the past.
While fan films can vary wildly in quality, Nightmare: Return To Elm Street is impressive in several ways. It features some great visuals from director Domonic Smith, such as Freddy's razor finger playing a record, and features an intriguing angle to continue the series from. While its obviously not the fault of the filmmakers, Return To Elm Street also highlights one major problem with continuing the franchise - the lack of Robert Englund.
Nightmare: Return To Elm Street mostly keeps Freddy - AKA Mr. Pizza Face - to the shadows, but the few glimpses it shows of him are underwhelming. Like the remake, it displays the issue of continuing without Englund, since it's really hard to see anyone else in the part. Of course, this is inevitable since the actor retired from the role - outside of a small cameo in a 2018 episode of The Goldbergs - and he's suggested Kevin Bacon could be a good replacement. Nightmare: Return To Elm Street is an impressive fan short in many ways, but it shows there's still only one true Freddy.