A Dark Knight on Elm Street: Discursive Regimes of (Sub)Cultural Value, Paratextual Bonding, and the Perils of Remaking and Rebooting Canonical Horror Cinema

Abstract

This chapter analyses A Nightmare on Elm Street as a remake of the 1984 film and a reboot to the Elm Street franchise. Part of this rebooting entailed establishing a complex authorial identity for the film, aligning it with Christopher Nolan’s work with the Batman reboots and Wes Craven, whose own status as auteur had changed since directing the original Elm Street film. Further, Proctor shows how paratexts situate the reboot as a return to the scariness of the original Elm Street film, disavowing the later more comic films in the series, in such a way that likewise aligns the reboot with Nolan’s Batman films.