Movie Info
Movie Name: A Nightmare on Elm Street
Studio: Platinum Dunes
Genre(s): Horror
Release Date(s): April 30, 2010
MPAA Rating: R
I like to draw!
The children of Elm Street are suffering nightmare and they are getting increasingly violent and disturbing. When Kris (Katie Cassidy) is killed in her dream, Jesse (Thomas Dekker) is accused of the murder, and Nancy Holbrook (Rooney Mara) realizes they have all been dreaming about a man named Freddy Krueger (Jackie Earle Haley). Nancy and her friend Quentin (Kyle Gallner) learn the truth about Freddy and what he did to them as children and how their parents (Connie Britton and Clancy Brown) dealt with him. Freddy Krueger is coming for them and won’t stop until their dead.
Directed by Samuel Bayer and produced by Michael Bay, A Nightmare on Elm Street was a remake of the classic 1984 horror-slasher film of the same title. The movie was met with mostly negative criticism from fans and critics. The film features the first new Freddy since the series’ beginning in 1984.
Just slash her and get it over with.
A Nightmare on Elm Street’s remake has a much darker approach to the Freddy Krueger’s story than the comedic approach that especially peppered the films of the series after Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge. This movie reminds viewers that Freddy was a pedophile and not just a creepy guy in a fedora and red and green sweater who cracks jokes. None of the previous films really dealt with the fact that Freddy had even known the children of Elm Street that he was killing (but just that their parents just killed him).
Despite the darker turn and some better visuals, the movie just doesn’t seem as scary as the first A Nightmare on Elm Street. The jumps are just not shocking, and if you saw the first movie many of the deaths echo the first deaths. The end of the film gets kind of sloppy with and uncovering that Krueger did molest them (there was some doubt for a bit) doesn’t really add much…Freddy kind of goes out poorly.
My claws are scrape-y
Jackie Earle Haley isn’t the worst choice to play Krueger. He actually auditioned for the original film allegedly for the Johnny Depp role. He is a rather creeping looking guy, and the makers decide to go for a more realistic burn victim look than the classic Freddy. Haley played Rorschach in Watchmen and pretty much just did his Batman Begins voice for Freddy. I was a bit disappointed in the overall performance since he is generally a good actor.
A Nightmare on Elm Street was pretty unnecessary and Michael Bay kills another series. I understand the “need” to reboot the series since Robert Englund is growing out of his Freddy role (he’s 60+), but I wish it had been done a different way. After this film, the franchise once again seems dead in the water like the Friday the 13th series (I actually liked that remake).
Related Links:
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989)
Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)
