Nightmare on Elm Street in Space

It's a pretty well established rule of thumb that any time a horror movie franchise has relocated to outer space, that's the indicator the you're about done. That's not to say that good horror movies can't take place off Earth, but when a franchise that stayed within one location moves to the upper atmosphere, that's when it tends to jump the shark.

A prime example is the fourth entry in the Leprechaun series. The series was kind of goofy from the get go, but as one would expect, this was an indicator that they were out of ideas. It's amusing to note that the movie was literally called Leprechaun in space. Sadly, it wasn't written in all caps as it should have been.

A more well known example is Jason X. This movie not only relocates the mongoloid serial killer from his home base in Camp Crystal Lake to outer space, but in the future. This too was a pretty terrible movie. The hologram scene is gloriously laugh-worthy, but overall it's a stinker.

What surprises me is the fact that Freddy Kreuger has never gone to space. The series got progressively goofier and goofier so the shift would not have been as drastic as it was in other series. More importantly, Freddy's not that difficult to get into outer space.

Think about it, he haunts people's nightmares so it wouldn't be too out of place for a group of astronauts to have their dreams invaded by the pun spouting killer. Sure, it's not Elm Street, but I never understood why Freddy stuck to that neighborhood specifically. After he went after the families involved with his death, he became a killer who killed for the sake of it. If he does feed on fear, why wouldn't he want to expand his power base by spreading fear to people outside of his neighborhood.

I doubt it will happen now since they're rebooting the series with a more serious tone. I'm sure the Freddy in space..I'm sorry I meant IN SPACE!!! would've been a terrible movie, but at least it would've made more sense than the other horror movies that moved into orbit.

Now, if the franchise did move into space, the title A Nightmare on Elm Street wouldn't make a whole lot of sense. Like they did with Freddy vs. Jason, they could just call it Freddy IN SPACE!!! If you need some tie to the other movies, you could have one or more of the astronauts come from Elm Street. Said character would also be convenient for exposition purposes.

I'd rather they didn't go that route though, mostly because it would be interesting to see a group of people who literally have no idea what's going on try to fend off this monstrous being.

Many have said (and it's hard to argue with the idea) that Hollywood is out of ideas. As such, an idea like this isn't beyond the realm of possibility. Unlike the other franchises, this one would actually make a modicum of sense and wouldn't come completely from left field.. It would be pretty bad, I'm sure of it, but it could be fun and that's what horror movies need to bring in from time to time. I can't guarantee it would be a money making blockbuster, but I'm sure it would be an entertaining time at the theater.