Remakes get a bad wrap, but I'm always very interested in watchig them to see the slight positive changes made to an already successful original film. With A Nightmare on Elm Street 2010, there is some good and some bad.
This remake tells the same story we have seen before. A group of parents burned Freddy Krueger alive after he killed their children and got away with the crimes due to a technicality in court. Years later, he has returned to kill the remaining children/teens on Elm Street. We meet Kris who is dealing with seeing her boyfriend being the first victim after he appears to slash his own throat. She tells her friends about some dreams she's had of a disfigured man which they can relate to having similar dreams of htheir own. Eventually after a few more murders, Nancy and her boyfriend Quentin start researching who the man is and discover it's Freddy Krueger. A man who not only killed some children but also sexually assaulted them as well. Nancy and Quentin find out that they too were victims of the assault. Can they beat Freddy in the dream world or will they be killed by the nightmare man?
I didn't dislike this remake as much as many people I know did. This movie kept things very dark and grim much like the original 1984 which was a good idea. We don't need to see a comedic Freddy running around if Englund isn't in the role. Jackie Earle Haley is an eerie version of Freddy with some really good burn makeup as well. There are some decently done dream sequences and death scenes which make this more than watchable.
I'm conflicted with what I see as a major flaw. The flaw is that we are missing Robert Englund as Freddy. The conflicted part is that Jackie Earle Haley didn't do a bad job as the psychotic killer. But when you have someone as good as Englund for over 20 years, it's hard to say that Haley was just as good because he wasn't. The writing also didn't allow for Krueger to be the somewhat likeable villain he was in the original films. Not only are the one liners removed, but the writers of this remake add that Krueger is a child molester and not just murderer. This makes his character even more cringe worthy and puts me off to be honest.
Another flaw I had was with Rooney Mara as the lead Nancy and not Katie Cassidy who played secondary character Kris. Cassidy may not have fit the look of Langenkamp from the 1984 film, but she put in a much stronger performance in this film than Mara did. I found Mara's version of Nancy to be extremely distant and cold to the happenings around her. The level is disinterest never changed with her performance whereas Cassidy put in a raw and emotional part (albeit a very tiny part).
This 2010 retelling of the classic A Nightmare on Elm Street isn't all that bad. It has some really good jump scares and a few pretty gory scenes. A major setback is that Robert Englund should have been Freddy and a few choices when it came to the story needed to be tweaked a little. Very competent horror movie though.
7/10
This remake tells the same story we have seen before. A group of parents burned Freddy Krueger alive after he killed their children and got away with the crimes due to a technicality in court. Years later, he has returned to kill the remaining children/teens on Elm Street. We meet Kris who is dealing with seeing her boyfriend being the first victim after he appears to slash his own throat. She tells her friends about some dreams she's had of a disfigured man which they can relate to having similar dreams of htheir own. Eventually after a few more murders, Nancy and her boyfriend Quentin start researching who the man is and discover it's Freddy Krueger. A man who not only killed some children but also sexually assaulted them as well. Nancy and Quentin find out that they too were victims of the assault. Can they beat Freddy in the dream world or will they be killed by the nightmare man?
I didn't dislike this remake as much as many people I know did. This movie kept things very dark and grim much like the original 1984 which was a good idea. We don't need to see a comedic Freddy running around if Englund isn't in the role. Jackie Earle Haley is an eerie version of Freddy with some really good burn makeup as well. There are some decently done dream sequences and death scenes which make this more than watchable.
I'm conflicted with what I see as a major flaw. The flaw is that we are missing Robert Englund as Freddy. The conflicted part is that Jackie Earle Haley didn't do a bad job as the psychotic killer. But when you have someone as good as Englund for over 20 years, it's hard to say that Haley was just as good because he wasn't. The writing also didn't allow for Krueger to be the somewhat likeable villain he was in the original films. Not only are the one liners removed, but the writers of this remake add that Krueger is a child molester and not just murderer. This makes his character even more cringe worthy and puts me off to be honest.
Another flaw I had was with Rooney Mara as the lead Nancy and not Katie Cassidy who played secondary character Kris. Cassidy may not have fit the look of Langenkamp from the 1984 film, but she put in a much stronger performance in this film than Mara did. I found Mara's version of Nancy to be extremely distant and cold to the happenings around her. The level is disinterest never changed with her performance whereas Cassidy put in a raw and emotional part (albeit a very tiny part).
This 2010 retelling of the classic A Nightmare on Elm Street isn't all that bad. It has some really good jump scares and a few pretty gory scenes. A major setback is that Robert Englund should have been Freddy and a few choices when it came to the story needed to be tweaked a little. Very competent horror movie though.
7/10