Nightmare on Elm Street: The Premiere-ining...
Tonight was the premiere. The Grauman’s Theatre popcorn still tastes like fifty-year old styrofoam (which if you can believe tastes worse than brand new styrofoam),
SEE! Everyone hated it.
but at least I didn’t lose out like I did at “The Losers”. The first person I saw was Boo Boo Stewart from “Eclipse” and I only know about him because he was my niece’s transition fixation between the Jonas Brothers to Justin Bieber. For a space of time it was Boo Boo this and that. His handler was leading he and his sister to the theater and he was trying to stop for popcorn but she was rushing him along still. I thought he was going to get something so I called out to him (calling someone Boo Boo is so strange) and he told his handler, “Hold on.” He was ready and happy to talk to anyone. I told him congrats on his career and the opportunities opening up for him. He thanked me and he stood there like I was going to ask him for a picture, which I would’ve had my purse not been in my seat.
Then I called my niece to rub it in her face.
Saw Chi McBride, took a crappy picture on my cell phone because cameras weren’t allowed but everyone still brought them in, but was careful when using them. Two teens asked to take a picture with him so their father took the pic. Or attempted to-it wouldn’t work.
Chi: You’re taking the picture and you don’t even know what you’re doing! (To the kids) Tell your dad he doesn’t know what he’s doing.
He was charming the room, he’s a charmer and funny. Afterwards one of the kids, who had to be about 12 or 13-years old, just stuck his hand out and had his head tilted to the side a bit like, “You are awesome.” The kid was impressed.
I went back inside and waited and waited for the film to start. Saw Derek Meaks who played Jason in “Friday the 13th” (also directed by Samuel Bayer)-they were both taking pictures with fans inside. I went back out to the lobby to see if I saw Kyle G when he walked in.
He being His Royal Fierceness Thomas Dekker. ::I bow my head in reverence:: This boy…this boy is my male Amber Rose. I don’t know exactly it is he does, but I’m all for it. He came in with a woman and a guy-I think the woman was a friend and the guy just a studio suit or maybe his publicist; hell the woman may have been his publicist---and he strolls in a fitted black suit and calls out to them, “I’m going to the bathroom, but I need a Diet Coke and popcorn.” And I just wish I could convey how he sounds (and I wish I was there when he found out it was Diet Pepsi. Oh, I bet someone got the stinkeye). I’m not saying Dekker is gay, but he’s theatrical (and maybe bisexual or gay). He is what would’ve happened if Bette Davis and Quentin Crisp had a child. It was with that utterance that I knew I found my male Amber Rose. Dekker sounds like he chain smokes Parliaments and knocks back Gin. If Dekker wasn’t an actor (and singer), he’d probably be some New York Club Kid, but not the trendy sites, oh no, boho for Dekker completely. He is His Royal Fierceness.
I waited for him to come out of the men’s room so I could get a picture, but he was dragged over to talk to some suits. I only caught bits and pieces but they were talking about doing press and Dekker laughed and said, “We need to get Jackie and Kyle here.” I think he was saying how he wasn’t doing well in interviews. I waited some more but Dekker was itching to get inside the theater so he tells one of the guys, “I’ll see you after this!” and just darts off and the guy said to one of the other guys, “That means he’ll see me tomorrow.” And I just thought, “Yes! He is that friend you invite places and you’re waiting for two hours and they’re calling promising you they’ll be there and then at the third hour they show up for 15 minutes just to show their face and dart off to another party because there’s always something going on in that person’s life. That’s Dekker. He got things to do. Fool probably left right afterwards to go to the American Apparel across the street from the theater to get his shopping on. So no Dekker pic for me, but the memory of being in the presence of the HBIC is good enough.
Went back inside saw Kevin Zegers, told him I loved “Frozen” and that it was creepy. He said “Cool”, glad I enjoyed it. He loved making it. He does still kinda look like Ian Somerhalder.
See!
After the film I saw Clancy Brown, who plays Kyle’s dad in the film. I made my way to the men’s room and sure enough who did I see?
KYLE!
(notice the Third Winchester, Jake Abel in the background. I was standing outside not more than two feet from him and I wasn’t sure if it was him or not and by the time I realized it was, he was on the phone and headed back inside the theatre so I thought it was a shame that I didn’t get a chance to take a picture and when I pulled the pics off my camera and there’s Lesser Winchester, photobombing)
He comes out the bathroom and he’s standing there as if debating where to turn and I approached him just as some suits called him so he’s looking both ways and I say, “Sorry, go ahead.” And he said, it was fine or it’s okay and he turned back to me. I asked if I could take a picture and he said, “Sure.” So while I’m getting it ready another person called out to him and he responded and when he turned back to me I had my camera ready and he did a little startled take, like “Oh, right, picture.” I told him he had a legion (Get it?!) of “Smallville” fans and that it seems like every day I read he’s being cast in something, it’s great. That made him laugh and he said, “Yeah”, but in such a way like I could tell, “He really doesn’t know what to say.” Very, very, very nice and sweet natured , but he seemed so thrown by all the attention. It was sweet.
Security started telling people to move outside and he saw someone he knew, thanked me and then told the woman, “I think we have to go.” I followed them out and there were fans standing outside and they began running up to him and asking for pictures and autographs. Bart got fans, ya’ll!! It was really great to see someone so deserving of all that attention (and he has second billing!) After five minutes or so he ducked back inside and Dere Meers ended up showboating and hanging out with fans.
I went to the other side to see if I could see His Royal Fierceness but saw Kevin Zeger again. Some girls thought he was Ian Somehalder. I felt vindicated.
Know who else I spotted? This Ginger OG Courtney Gains, AKA Malachai from “Children of the Corn”. His friend was taking a bunch of leftover Freddy hand-stands so if you see them on Ebay, that’s probably who the seller is.
*Saw Michael Bay and I didn't trip him for that craptastic "Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen."
The film itself, I didn’t care for. Hate to say it. I readily admit I have a bias because for me, “The Nightmare on Elm Street” movies, along with the “Child Play” films were my brand of horror. Those were Fisher Price horror films that gave me enough of a taste of the horror genre so that I could not like a complete fraidy cat with my friends. I didn’t think NOES needed to be remade and after watching the remake, I don’t think, I know it should not have been remade.
Samuel Bayer direction of “Friday the 13th” was completely fitting for that film. The beautiful sleek shots juxtaposed against the horror of what was happening in the woods was just a great contrast. But with NOES, he does the same thing and for a film that deals in nightmares, the dark dreamscapes of these teens, it’s so jarring. It’s too sleek. And that’s just the aesthetic, that’s bad enough. The worst thing however was that it’s not scary. It’s not even fun. At times it felt ponderous. There were maybe only 3 scenes where the audience reacted. The script is threadbare and the biggest mistake IMO is that the writers focus more on the mystery of these dreams than introducing the audience to the characters. Without that introduction, it’s hard to invest in the tension because you don’t really care about these people. Other than Kyle who we love on general principal.
And I know that in subsequent outings, Freddy was nothing more than a killing jokester, but at least there was something there. I think Jackie Earle Haley doesn’t really bring anything to the character and that’s a shame because the reason why there were so many NOES is because Freddy is a so wonderfully wicked. Haley is just playing Freddy as Rorshach with massive burns. Kyle, as usual, is fantastic.
But that’s just my take. I thought “Paranormal Activity” was boring too and I know people who were terrified by it, but whereas people were reacting wildly around me, not so at NOES. Behind me a woman said, “This is too predictable.” And sadly, it is.
Great interview with the ONLY Freddy as far as I’m concerned, Robert Englund talks NOES and other stuff.
Some Old Hollywood @ Grauman’s
Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward for eternity
Marilyn Monroe’s handprints which are filthy probably because everyone is placing their hands there
George Reeves-Superman
The King and I
~Oh and these are the pictures of Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony I managed to take at the “Back-Up Plan” premiere.
Jennifer taking a picture with a wheelchair bound fan
Skeletor on break from battling He-Man
