A Nightmare on Elm Street Review

Well yet again Michael Bay has gotten his hands on a beloved, classic, and iconic horror franchise and has decided to remake it for today's generation, and the final verdict is...

Eh.

To start off I wanna say how big of a fan I am of the original, Wes Craven created a killer with one of the most unique gimmicks in horror movie history and created one of the best villains of all time in the form of Freddy Krueger. Sadly, like most horror franchises sub-par sequels turned Freddy into a one note boogy man, a wise cracking bad guy that went from brutally stalking and slashing his prey to locking them inside a video game to kill them. So when it was announced that the Freddy in the remake would go back to his roots I became very optimistic. But I always said it wall hinged on who they cast as Freddy and getting former Rorschach Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy was damn near perfect casting.

Sadly perfect casting can only go so far.

Much like Bay's previous remakes, this Nightmare was just too damn cookie cutter. None of the scares were really all that scary or original and for the most part the film relied on violence and jump scares to get the feel across. The film does a good job of keeping Freddy in the shadows and making him a villain we hate and fear, but Freddy is the only thing about the film done well.

As I stated in a previous blog, one of Wes Craven's strengths as a writer/director was that he got you behind his main characters, you liked his heroes and hated his villains. In this one none of th e characters are really all that interesting or likable. We Chris, who is upset that her boyfriend is having nightmares and ignoring her, then we have Chris' ex-boyfriend who is upset that Chris isn't with him, then we Nancy and the emo kid who as crush on her, who are both upset because.... they're emo?

But yeah, all of the characters are really flat and just kinda mope through the movie. And as for the acting, well its like the rest of the movie: eh. I don't know who the actress was that played Nancy and I won't make an effort to because I really didn't care for her at all. Nancy just looks bored the entire movie; even when she meets Freddy for the first time she looks bored to death! I would be a little concerned if a scarred man with claws came after me but oh well.

Jackie Earle Haley dominates in this movie as always, he keeps Freddy's sardonic humor but injects it with much more menace. He also shines in the flashback sequences and really gets you to feel for the guy and think that maybe Freddy was innocent after all ( a major mystery of the film). Haley definitely worked overtime to make up for the rest of the lackluster cast (except for a underused Clancy Brown) but sadly one extremely talented actor can't make up for a film full of sleep walkers.

But yeah Elm Street isn't as terrible as people have been making it out to be,but it isn't good. Sadly most modern horror films seem to be like this, all style and no substance. As far as remakes go, Friday the 13th and Texas Chainsaw Massacre were fun in a fast food kind of way, but it seems like they didn't even try with this one, which is sad because this could have been something truly special. I would hope that after this Hollywood would leave the remake craze alone but since it made money in its first weekend I seriously doubt it.