The details of Freddy Krueger’s ratty red-and-green sweater and knife-tipped glove will look extra horrific when A Nightmare on Elm Street, Wes Craven‘s 1984 slasher classic, arrives on 4K UHD just in time for a spooky season re-watch. To mark the occasion, io9 got to speak with its stars, Heather Langenkamp (who plays smart yet sleepy final girl Nancy Thompson) and Robert Englund (the dream demon himself), about their experiences making the film—and whether they’d be willing to get back in character again.
Cheryl Eddy, io9: Which scene in A Nightmare on Elm Street do you think will benefit the most from the 4K UHD upgrade?
Robert Englund: Here’s the thing. What we have to remember—and it’s difficult for me because I always wanted to be a movie actor—I always imagined Nightmare on Elm Street playing in a movie theater. But most of our fans discovered this film as part of the video generation. So they saw it less than perfect. Their memories of it are less than perfect. They have great memories of sharing it with mom and dad, or a stepdad or a step-mom, or brothers and sisters, you know, fresh from the video store, running home with a copy. But a lot of them also saw old, dog-eared copies that had been lying around in the bookshelf for a while or passed around the dormitory. This is an opportunity to see this better than Heather and I’ve ever seen it. To see it absolutely pristine and enhanced, you know, ultra high def 4K. I just had this experience with the old Alfred Hitchcock film Rear Window; it was mind blowing to see it in my living room, that perfect and wonderful. And I’m so looking forward to this. And there’s some new stuff [in the “uncut” version, included in the remastered release along with the theatrical version], right?
...
A Nightmare on Elm Street hits 4K Ultra HD on Digital October 1; it will be available on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play, Fandango at Home, and more. The Blu-ray 4K UHD arrives October 15. The 4K UHD remaster includes both the theatrical and uncut versions; the latter features eight additional seconds of unrated footage.
Other previously released special features included are as follows, according to a Warner Bros. press release:
- Ready Freddy Focus Points
- Commentary with Wes Craven, Robert Englund, Heather Langenkamp, Ronnie Blakely, Robert Shaye, and Sara Risher.
- Commentary with Wes Craven, Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, and Jacques Haitkin.
- Alternate endings
- The House that Freddy Built: The Legacy of New Line Horror
- Never Sleep Again: A Nightmare on Elm Street
- Night Terrors: The Origins of Wes Craven’s Nightmares
the latter features eight additional seconds of unrated footage.
Confused about eight seconds of footage being a selling point, but intrigued nonetheless.