Genre
Horror
Director
Samuel Bayer
Country
USA
Cast
Rooney Mara, Jackie Earle Haley, Kyle Gallner, Katie Cassidy, Thomas Dekker, Kellan Lutz, Clancy Brown, Connie Britton, Don Robert Cass
Storyline
The spectre of Freddy Krueger (Jackie Earle Haley) hunts the children of those who murdered him, stalking and killing them in their dreams.
Opinion
Oh dear god why. Why on Earth did anyone think the original "A Nightmare on Elm Street" needed a remake? Or why did anyone think this thing would have made a decent horror flick? Seriously this new "A Nightmare on Elm Street" is a real and atrocious nightmare that is a tremendous slap in the face to the definition of horror movie.
Being a remake, I cannot help myself but compare the two films, starting of course from the best parts, which basically is the entire original film. One of the greatest thing about the original was the story. It was original because who would have thought of creating a child murderer that hunts people in their dreams? And that idea was at the same time terrifying. And it was actually solid, which is a lot considering the type of film it is.
Some of the sequels have been able to do that, so it wasn't a mission impossible. This version, however, not only doesn't have a solid plot, but that tiny plot is also very incoherent. Not to mention all the plot holes they managed to fit into a single film.The other great thing about the original was the characters. Nancy was a badass, such a strong female character and a heroine because for once instead of letting the creep kill her, she found back, and she kicked his ass. The other one is Freddy of course. I don't know how it is possible, but in 2010 the filmmakers managed to make a so less scary, and menacing Freddy. I'm not only talking about the poor characterization, but also about the goddamn awful makeup. It looks like he was wearing a rubber mask for god's sake.
And how about the CGI? It can't even compete with the original's camera work. No wonder Robert Englund didn't take part to this. Sure, he was in the awful sequels too, but this is nothing near the sequels. And don't even get me started on the cast. I'm speechless.
I have to admit, I was absolutely stoked when JEH signed up to play Kruger, as I thought after seeing Watchmen that he was spot-on casting.
ReplyDeleteSadly, he's about the only thing this production got right. Mired in insipid writing, some terrible CG and a decidedly atrocious lighting design, this remake is, as you say, dreadful.
That said, I CAN see how this franchise could have been really strong. As a concept it's incredibly powerful, and the Kruger design and visual aesthetic is still the best of all the slasher/horror screen villains. I think where a modern version needs to go is directly into the all-out gore-porn territory. Instead of the campy, slightly silly "we don't believe we can be killed in our dreams" plot device, make the film as utterly terrifying as possible solely with the characters. Jump scares and crashing sound design will only carry a scary film for so long, eventually you need to back that up with quality characters (which this film didn't have, despite poor Rooney Mara looking utterly flummoxed the entire way through...) Cast off the silly jokes, which was an aspect of the original films that doesn't hold up well IMO, and give Freddy license to go for the jugular.
Oh, and enough with the modern reboot origin films, please Hollywood.
Amen to that!
DeleteI didn't think it was THAT bad, but it does pale in comparison to the original. You touched on what I think is the biggest problem. It totally falls down in its portrayal of Nancy. And yeah, Freddy wasn't quite what he needed to be.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I probably have a very low opinion of this because of the original, but with such a great film it's not possible to watch this remake and not make comparisons.
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