Ten years ago, artist and filmmaker Nathan Thomas Milliner released his Nightmare fan film The Confession of Fred Krueger, which was very well-received. Today, he's spilling the beans on the unmade sequel idea he had. Below is his Facebook post in its entirety.
Yesterday someone shared the poster from my fan film “The Confession of Fred Krueger” and it sparked a lot of traffic on a horror movie fan group page. A lot of people hadn’t seen it while others suggested others see it.
I was surprised at how positive it was. Only two comments were on the negative side. One simply saying, “NAAAHH” which I take as “No, not interested.” And another saying it was probably AI Crap. This coming from the slew of AI generated “movie posters” of films that do not exist flooding our feeds. Though anyone who looks at my poster and can’t tell it’s hand drawn is questionable as most AI stuff looks very similar and anything but hand drawn.
But one question was about an extended cut or sequel.
While there was cut footage of mostly Freddy walking about town, just walking or sometimes on the hunt—there were no deleted scenes. Nothing of substance was left out. Just random b-roll.
A sequel was written. After Confession came out and caught fire for a bit, I was influenced to do another. I was also motivated by two other factors: Wanting to see Kevin playing Freddy again but also wanting to give Todd Reynolds who played Sergeant Doyle in the film a meatier role. Todd and I had worked well together on both Volumes of Blood and Confession and I thought there was more to say about his arresting officer who had beaten Freddy up a bit.
So I wrote “Fred Krueger is Dead.” A line said by John Saxon in the 3rd film. Referring to the fact that he, his wife Marge and the parents of the Elm Street children burned him alive and buried his bones in the trunk of a caddy at the auto junk yard.
The film was at its heart, a blend of “12 Angry Men” (a classic play and film taking place in a room where jurors argue over a verdict of an inner-city teen accused of murder) and the finale of Lady Vengeance (A South Korean film, the third installment of Park Chan Wook’s revenge trilogy—Oldboy being the second and best known—where the wife of a child killer who served his time for him invites the parents of his victims to torture and execute him if they wish to).
Fred Krueger is Dead takes place in 1974 solely in the boiler room where there is a smaller room connected through a door. In the boiler room are Lieutenant Russell, Sergeant Doyle, Marge and Donald Thompson and the parents of the other Elm Street Children: Kristen, Rod, Tina, Glenn, Jennifer, Taryn, Kincaid, Will and Phillip.
The bulk of the film focuses on them debating, arguing and even physically fighting over whether or not this is right or wrong. If their vigilante justice is justice or flat out murder. Can they live with it? Can they keep it a secret? You have people from all manners of class and status. You have kind-hearted people, god fearing people, criminals in their own right and blood thirsty people. They point fingers and play the blame game. All of these clashing personalities and temperaments coming together to decide what to do because they HAVE HIM!
Fred Krueger sits tied to a chair in the adjoining room. Russell periodically goes in to talk to him. Doyle comes in and they argue over if this is their duty as law officers or if they are crossing a line.
They of course do decide to kill him. But how? When they face Fred, he isn’t afraid and he isn’t quiet. Fred unleashes a lot of hurtful, stabbing things to them to make them see that THEIR negligence, arrogance, self-importance and the way the world treated him are to blame. He revels in telling them what he did and why. He gets his shots in, makes his deep cuts with one of Freddy’s most useful weapons—his voice. A weapon few classic slashers ever had.
It was a good script and would have been fun to make.
But I chose not to for many reasons.
1. I made the film I wanted to make with Confession. I had wanted to see THAT STORY told on screen since 1988. I did it. It was done. To make more felt like possibly a chance at trying to keep the attention train rolling. People were hyped and it felt good but was I making another because I needed to or because it was an easy attention grabber? Did it NEED to be done?
2. Cost and organizing. I paid for the first film out of pocket. No crowd funding or anything and it was made for practically nothing. Eliminate hotel rentals and the production budget was around $800. I could have done a crowd funding for the sequel with the eyes that were on Confession but I didn’t want to do that. I didn’t want the other fans to fund it for me. Just my personal feelings at the time.
The organizing would have been problematic. I would have needed STRONG actors. It was a script that demanded GREAT acting and it would also have needed many rehearsals. It was like a stage play. A lot of characters going back and forth at one another. One weak link or poor performance and it all came down. That would take time and money. And again, it just felt unnecessary.
3. Tom Dunbar passed away. At this point I’d never make it because in honor of Tom, I’d never recast him. Tom was one of the film’s biggest cheerleaders and supporters.
4. Lastly, I never intended to be a fan film guy. I don’t have any issues with good filmmakers making good fan films but it comes with a stigma whether they are professionally done or not. People criticize you just for doing one. They tell you to think of something original. They paint you as someone who can’t. At the time I made Confession, I had published multiple original comic books and had made 3 original films. After Confession I made 4 more original films. I have at least 4 original scripts waiting to get made and endless other ideas. Confession was written for fun and because it was a prequel I always wanted to see since I was 12 that we were never getting. It was made because David, Kevin and I wanted to make something together right after VOB and I thought Kevin would be a great Freddy.
I made Star Wars: Hand of the Empire because I was asked to help out as it was a tribute to a 16-year old boy who lost his battle to brain cancer. The goal was to dedicate it to him and raise money to donate to the children’s hospital who cared for him. And that’s what it was and that’s what we did. We gave the money to the hospital in his memory. Many local artists have of their time and talents making it. I was happy to do so.
Now all of these reasons are my personal reasons. Not saying they are the right or wrong ones but that’s why we never got the sequel.
Would I love to have “Fred Krueger is Dead” in my filmography? Yes. I think it could have been really good with the right casting and budget and execution. But I don’t regret it. I have made other projects I am just as proud of and enjoyed making.
Here's the poster he made for the comic version of the sequel.
And you can check out the original fan film here: