A Nightmare on Elm Street
Movie Review
"A Nightmare on Elm Street"
Review by Eric D. Snider
Grade: D
Rating: R
Released: Friday, April 30, 2010
Directed by:
Cast:
If you get right down to it, "A Nightmare on Elm Street" is a movie about people trying not to doze off. Having just watched it, I know how they feel. OH SNAP!
There was no reason to remake the 1985 slasher classic, of course, except that "Halloween" and "Friday the 13th" had already been remade, and why not finish the set? But surely it could have been done with greater care than is evident here. The idea of a villain who stalks you in your dreams is inherently creepy -- or, rather, it ought to be. Leave it to the remake wizards to vacuum all the terror out of something as easy as that.
In the town of Springwood, Ohio, some of the local teens are plagued by nightmares in which a melty-faced, razor-fingered maniac named Freddy Krueger (Jackie Earle Haley) harasses them. It is established that whatever Freddy does to you in your dream happens in real life, too. So, for example, if Freddy gives you a wedgie, you'll wake up with a wedgie. Or if he slices you in half with a machete, your sleeping body will be rent in twain by an invisible force.
Among the nondescript teens so tormented are Quentin (Kyle Gallner) and Nancy (Rooney Mara), who are both brooding and dark anyway. Somewhat lighter, though still morose, are Kris (Katie Cassidy) and Jesse (Thomas Dekker). Oh, and Dean (Kellan Lutz), but don't get used to him being around.
Look, I'm not going to mince words. Some of these characters die. What's disappointing is that not one of them dies in an interesting fashion. Freddy mostly employs traditional methods such as stabbing and slicing, and everyone's dreamworld seems to be a boiler room, the kind where there's always lots of clanging and steam and whatnot. Everything that happens, ever, to anyone, is accompanied by knife-sharpening sound effects and bursts of "scary" music. This is Scary Movie Making 101, and first-time director Samuel Bayer (he made music videos before this) may be required to repeat the course.
Does it need to be said that the screenplay -- written by Wesley Strick ("Cape Fear," "Arachnophobia") and rewritten by Eric Heisserer (his first film credit) -- has the characters speaking only the most generic dialogue? And that the characters themselves have no discernible personality traits? And that there are no real "protagonists," per se, only characters who manage to not get killed? This does not need to be said? OK.
What the film does get right is Freddy Krueger. The later sequels in the original franchise turned him into a joke, a one-liner-dispensing fraud without an ounce of scariness. The new Freddy gets back to basics. Played with malevolent glee by Jackie Earle Haley, this Freddy is good and creepy, the way nature and Wes Craven intended. Too bad he's trapped in a nightmare of his own: a movie devoid of wit, originality, inspiration, or suspense. Wake me up when they come out with something new.
Grade: D
Rated R, some harsh profanity, a fair amount of blood and violence
1 hr., 35 min.
Copyright © Eric D. Snider.
This work may not be transmitted via the Internet, nor reproduced in any other way, without written consent from Eric D. Snider.
This item has 9 comments
April 30, 2010 at 7:58 am
The byline for this review on your main page, though meant to play on the premise of the Elm Street franchise, reminds me instead of Bayer's video for Green Day's 'Wake Me Up Before September Ends'. While commonly ADD-afficted, music-video directors can also be great stylists, and it's a shame that those of them who aren't David Fincher end up helming trash without the integrity of promotional music clips (though Armond White would beg to differ on Fincher).
However, though it wouldn't be Bayer's fault, I'd bet the dialogue in this reboot is just as bad as the young lovers' patter in the Green Day video, without the benefit of a sunlit Evan Rachel Wood.
April 30, 2010 at 11:07 pm
Mmm, a music video director and "producer Michael Bay." Count me pretty far out.
May 1, 2010 at 8:39 pm
This movie was not boring and to be honest was the best remake out there compared to Halloween/Friday the 13th/Texas Chainsaw etc.. How much better did you all want it to be, all the Freddy movies had this same vibe but this one is just more modern and don't forget again it is a remake (REMAKE). I enjoyed this film and hope it opens the door to a new series of Nightmare movies without all the cheesy one-liners and corny vibe they were given. Yes I do miss Robert Englund as Freddy but this new one as said is much creepier and alot more interesting. You cannot tell me this is the worst Freddy movie of all-time after A Nightmare on Elm Street part 2 and Wes Cravens New Nightmare (FYI Robert Englund did not play the main Freddy in New Nightmare either), those two will forever go down in my book as the worst ones yet.
May 2, 2010 at 6:10 pm
ANOES 2 had a bad Freddy??? :S
I don't know how many more bad remakes I can take...
May 3, 2010 at 1:13 am
@Jim..."ANOES 2 had a bad Freddy??? :S"
I am not sure who you are commenting to or questioning but if it was to me about ANOES 2 I never said it was a bad Freddy just saying the movie and plot was boring to the fullest. It was the sequel you loved to hate but had to watch, so for any Freddy fan that was one if not the worst ANOES followed by Wes Cravens New Nightmare and runner up Freddys Dead The Final Nightmare. Does not matter though to me I am a Freddy fan all the way and still love all the movies and any movie based on him.
May 4, 2010 at 1:37 am
Edit: Wes Cravens New Nightmare Freddy was played by Robert Englund and go figure this whole time I always thought it was someone else. The movie though was still not that great but again enjoyable.
May 4, 2010 at 11:01 am
At Least Jackie Earle Hayley got it right. I love him in Human Target. Poor man, to be stuck in such a bad movie.
May 4, 2010 at 1:39 pm
I thought it was more of a "C" myself; not really great, but not the worst thing in the world (that goes to last year's Friday the 13th travesty). The dialogue was a little suspect, but I've grown up in the age of jump scares so they work for me. Jackie Earl Haley also did a great job and I'm pretty sure this would have sucked a lot more if anyone else (with the exception of Crispin Glover) had taken over the role.
I agree with Ghostel: it's definitely one of the better horror remakes so far...but that's not really a compliment.
September 19, 2011 at 3:02 am
I actually saw Part 2 and 4 before the original, and while I love them both, they don't compare to Part 1 in terms of scariness. I remember actually being surprised as a kid when I finally saw it by how unsettling it was compared to its sequels, which turned Freddy into an anti-hero. I consider it Wes Craven's best film by far.