A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
Directed by: Samuel Bayer
Written by: Eric Heisserer, Wes Craven, Wesley Strick
Starring: Jackie Earle Haley, Kyle Gallner, Rooney Mara, Thomas Dekker

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2010

I can honestly say i have hardly anything to say about this, i don’t even believe i actually watched it, thats how much of an effect it had on me! For 90 minutes this went on, and barely a thing happened! Did i miss something? A terrible remake that has zero the amount of brilliance Cravens version had. The cast are all, well, a bit crap really, not one stood out for doing anything. The new paedophile route (i can’t even spell the fuckin word!) is a sick joke which has clearly been added to make things more disturbing considering people thoughts on the subject. A bad move because whereas the original Freddy, even tho he did bad things and deserved what he got, you couldn’t help but side with him because as a horror icon, he really was THAT good. Seeing our new Freddy around the Elm Street kids was uncomfortable to watch, and even for a horror, i felt this new direction was purely added as a cheap gag to turn Freddy into something horrible.

What was the point? Keep him as a child killer, as he always was. Anyway, i am struggling to make my point here so i shall move on. This film aint scary, although there were a few unsettling moments, but they were helped out by a sudden loud burst on noise rather than actually being scary. The girl being thrown around her bedroom was good, in fact it was kind of fun, but it was such an iconic scene in the original that it was never gonna look better here. I just couldn’t get on with the cast here as i could in the first one, and i really could not have given two shits about any of them, and this made it hard to feel any sense of terror or dread. I felt the makers had tried too hard here to make a more darker film, both in tone and in Freddy himself, and it just didn’t work. All the fun of the Nightmare on Elm Street series has been sucked out of this one and that’s the makers biggest error. If they had made another sequel, then maybe this would have worked and they could’ve started a new direction that way, but by remaking it, and badly as well, the bold move of changing things hasn’t worked and feels forced.

There are some good points. Some of the deaths were pretty cool, and the odd unexpected scare was actually quite clever. The main good point here, is Freddy himself, but its a mixed bag of good and incredibly bad! Jackie Earle Haley is clearly having the time of his life, but i’m just not sure about that voice. Its a little too strong, and overpowers all the other sounds and so sounds false. Some of what he says doesn’t feel natural for him at all, and takes away any believability. I did enjoy his rather sinister laugh, and i loved the way he rubbed his scissor fingers together. He is no way better than Englunds version, but i was quite impressed. A totally new looking Freddy too, which i did struggle with for quite a while. Haly has done a great job in a shit film and if anything can make me want to watch the sequel, then its him.

All in all, i didn’t like this at all, and i didn’t like the new direction of Freddy’s history. I didn’t like the cast at all, and i didn’t really get scared and while some of the deaths were quite cool, non had any lasting effect. And that’s how i sum up this film, there is zilch lasting impressions, nothing will stay in your mind and nothing stands out, it just plods along for 90 odd minutes, never really goes anywhere and half the time i didn’t even know who Nancy was! I knew who Freddy was tho, and he at least made the film watchable.

Rating:

[pt-filmtitle]A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)[/pt-filmtitle]