LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Krueger as performed by Robert Englund first tore his way into the movie-going psyche 26 years ago in the first "Nightmare on Elm Street." That film, under the directorial reins of Wes Craven. The new "Nightmare" is helmed by music video director Sam Bayer. He feels that the dark threat associated with the Krueger character was diluted by the numerous sequels of the first one.

"Sometimes, creatively, I think franchises need to be re-invented and Freddy had become a bit jokey . a vaudevillian kind of character; I don't know how much he scared people any more," Bayer says. "So there's a 're-boot' element of what we've done with this movie. I want to scare a new generation of people with this movie and I want Freddy Krueger to be what I feel Wes Craven intended him to be, which is a real bogeyman, because I want it to be really scary," he says.

Former child star Jackie Earle Haley straps on the razored gloves in the role of Krueger in the new film. Haley considered the role with some trepidation. "This was Freddy Krueger," Haley said. "When I was considering this a voice in my head kept saying 'how can you not play Freddy Kruger?'

Haley says his goal was not to make Krueger sympathetic, but to make him truly frightening. "What I embraced was the bogeyman. To me Freddy has always been this serial killer. That's what he's always represented to me [and] I was just truly embracing the bogeyman in a campfire story."

The handsome and hapless young victims in "A Nightmare on Elm Street" include Kellan Lutz, Thomas Dekker, Katie Cassidy and Kyle Gallner. The screenplay is by Wesley Strick and Eric Heisserer and this new "Nightmare" is produced by "Transformers" director Michael Bay.