A Nightmare on Elm Street (USA, 2010) - Color, Director(s): Samuel Bayer
MPAA Rating: R
[UK: 18]
Approx. 95 min.
Z-rating: 5 out of 5 stars
B-factor: 2 out of 5 stars
A full remake of the original, this movie follows a bunch of teens in high school plagued by nightmares of a man with a burnt face that has been keeping them up at night. One teen in particular, who is eating at a diner in a failing attempt to stay awake, becomes the first (onscreen) victim of Freddy. (Although this appears to be a suicide in reality) At the funeral is where some of his friends notice pictures of them playing together as children, although these friends don't have any recollection of having been friends before high school. While trying to piece together their history, the kids of Elm Street are being picked off one by one in their dreams.
While staying loyal to the storyline of the original, I can now understand the decision to replace Englund as Freddy... despite the outraged fans. The fact that they replaced him with Jackie Earle Haley (Rorschach from Watchmen) was an absolutely GENIUS decision!!! I think that Freddy is infinitely scarier if you can imagine being haunted by Rorschach.... in your nightmares... *shivers*
Nudity: None that I could really remember....
Gore: This movie was very bloody (as expected) but surprisingly wasn't too visceral. American Horror films tend to have more graphic/shocking violence in an attempt to make the squeamish look away. This remake relied more on setting a creepy tone rather than shove a pile of guts in your face. Kudos for that!
Awesome: Very. So I finally got around to watching this remake (all while expecting it to most likely be a dud) and was pleasantly surprised to find how much I really enjoyed this film. I think like most other fans of the original Nightmare on Elm Street, I was quick to dismiss this remake because of the decision to cast another actor in the role of Freddy instead of going with Robert Englund whom we've all grown to love. I also noticed a scene in the trailer that was in the original (where Freddy comes through the wall at Nancy) but was remade completely in CGI. Now, we all know how much I hate and despise bad CGI... so I put off seeing this movie for a long time.
What I really liked about the film was the fact that they made him actually CREEPY rather than the original Freddy's character, which got more and more silly with each sequel that was pumped out. This new Freddy, despite already being scary because he's also Rorschach, is a much darker and more serious Freddy. He says creepy things like how the brain functions for 7 minutes after the heart stops beating. This new Freddy seemed to be more genuinely creepy to me, with his raspy voice and twisted laugh.
What I didnt like about the film was how the lights would flicker to signify they had crossed over into a dream. The original was really good because they blurred the lines of reality with the dreamworld so well that you couldn't tell when the characters were sleeping. This and the bad CGI were probably my only two complaints about this remake.
Interestingly enough, what got me interested in seeing the remake was the fact that Mortal Kombat released Freddy Krueger as a downloadable character. Check out this quick Vignette (that I thought was pretty hilarious!):
After seeing that, I HAD to watch the remake to see why they put the new Freddy Krueger on the game instead of the old one. I have to say, I'm quite impressed...
