Earlier than Jason And Leatherface, One other Horror Icon Led His Personal Unusual TV Sequence – SlashFilm – The Imperial Wire Insider

It wasn’t all that way back it felt like legendary slashers have been having an enormous revival on the massive display screen. “Halloween” (2018) was a smash hit that kicked off a complete new trilogy for Michael Myers. “Kid’s Play” obtained a remake in 2019. Netflix even gave “Texas Chainsaw Bloodbath” a particularly bloody legacy sequel in 2022. Now, although? Leatherface, in addition to a number of different slasher icons, are making the soar to the small display screen.

Final summer season, it was revealed that a number of events have been within the combine for the “Texas Chainsaw Bloodbath” rights. The mud has firmly settled, and A24 has emerged because the winner. It is losing no time attending to work bringing Leatherface again, both. In accordance with Deadline, JT Mollner (“Unusual Darling”) is heading up a “Texas Chainsaw” TV present for A24, with Glen Powell (“The Working Man”) additionally producing. Plot particulars are beneath wraps and no community or streamer is hooked up but however, curiously sufficient, the studio can also be mentioned to have a film within the works along with the collection.

In any case, it means one more famed slasher is headed to TV. Not solely is that this taking place as we communicate, however A24 can also be bringing “Crystal Lake” to Peacock based mostly on the “Friday the thirteenth” franchise. However many years earlier than Leatherface and Jason Voorhees made their mark on the world of tv, one other legendary slasher had a TV present. The killer in query was none aside from Freddy Krueger, and the present was “Freddy’s Nightmares.”

Lasting for 2 seasons launched from 1988-1990, “Freddy’s Nightmares,” aka “A Nightmare on Elm Road: The Sequence,” got here on the peak of Freddy Krueger’s reputation. Wes Craven’s “A Nightmare on Elm Road” grew to become an enormous hit in 1984 and took off like a rocket from there.

The present wasn’t Freddy-centric, however Robert Englund did reprise his function to host it, not in contrast to the Crypt Keeper from “Tales from the Crypt.” The pilot episode was truly directed by Tobe Hooper, of “The Texas Chain Noticed Bloodbath” fame, which served as an origin story for Krueger. In the meantime, the collection itself was an anthology specializing in totally different spooky tales within the city of Springwood, Ohio (extra particularly, on Elm Road). A younger Brad Pitt even starred in an episode of “Freddy’s Nightmares.”

“I did that present as a result of they gave me my directing guild card. I directed a number of episodes, in order that’s how they lured me onto it,” Englund defined in a 2014 interview with Every day Dread. The actor additionally revealed that additionally they obtained into some hassle as a result of the present was supposed to air late at evening, however that is not the way it shook out:

“We have been instructed we have been going to be a late evening TV collection, however the truth is we have been syndicated early night in lots of markets. We obtained in quite a lot of hassle as a result of our present is actually nasty and violent, in order that harm us a little bit bit, and we solely made it to 44 reveals.”

The entire thing was, total, a bit unusual, because it had subsequent to nothing to do with the “Nightmare” films, save for the pilot, however was clearly capitalizing on Freddy’s reputation on the time. It did not want Freddy, but it solely existed due to him, actually.

The notion of bringing a giant slasher film franchise to TV was, on the time, a novel thought. Regardless that it did not final lengthy, and despite the fact that “Freddy’s Nightmares” is not ranked up there with the likes of “The Twilight Zone” when it comes to all-time nice horror anthologies, it was one thing Freddy Krueger had that his different contemporaries in his chosen horror sub-genre did not have for a very long time.

That has very a lot modified in recent times, although. Syfy and USA Community introduced “Chucky” to TV for 3 seasons, with the present saying farewell after season 3 wrapped up in 2024. The distinction, on this case, was that the collection was instantly linked to the canon of the “Chucky” films, which nonetheless stays distinctive amongst this new film-to-TV slasher icon pipeline. Miramax additionally landed the TV rights to the “Halloween” franchise in 2023, however updates on that venture have since been few and much between.

Even MTV aired three seasons of a “Scream” TV present starring Willa Fitzgerald from 2015-2019, though that was additionally largely disconnected from the flicks. Now, Leatherface will quickly be becoming a member of the rising checklist of slashers who’re making the soar from full-length options to episodic adventures.

What form that takes nonetheless stays to be seen, however “Chucky” proved this may be completed whereas additionally satisfying followers alongside the best way. “Freddy’s Nightmares,” if nothing else, took a quite distinctive path in bringing that franchise to a brand new medium. It is admittedly laborious to think about Leatherface internet hosting a horror anthology collection set in Texas, so we will safely assume A24 will take a special strategy.