Hollywood has chosen its next remake victim: Freddy Krueger and the Nightmare on Elm Street series. The first warning signs were in the opening credits where you saw that the story was based on the characters created by Wes Craven (not written or directed by him) and then that it was produced by Michael Bay and his Platinum Dunes production company (the guys behind all those other horror remakes: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Amityville Horror, Friday the 13th, etc).
To me, the movie assumes you already know the story as it rushes through the plot and brings up scenes from the past films so we’ll quickly summarize it. A Nightmare on Elm Street tells the story of a group of teens who are tormented by a fedora topped striped sweater wearing clawed man. At first they don’t realize it, but slowly they figure out that they are all experiencing the same dreams and nightmares. One by one they start dying in their dreams and have no idea how to stop it…only how to slow it down by not going to sleep. While they’re awake they try and uncover the clues they discover while they’re sleeping. Eventually they figure out that they’re all linked in an unmentionable cover-up.
It seemed like this re-imaging of the classic film was more of a drama than a horror. The only scary parts are when they purposely move things quickly on the screen and make loud noises to startle you. There is also a lot of continuous camera movement which is meant to keep you uneasy. You aren’t really scared of the story or Freddy himself…I doubt many children are going to have sleepless nights because of this version. Instead, this movie gives you a lot more vision into the story behind the iconic figure through flashbacks and the inquisitive kids. I did like that they did this but it went way too fast as if they were telling us what had happened rather than letting us discover it with the characters in the story.
If anyone saw this movie without seeing the originals, I doubt they would be able to recite the classic rhyme or appreciate the twisted killer that Freddy Krueger is. Instead, they would just know a revenge story of a guy who probably would’ve been caught by Chris Hansen on To Catch a Predator. Whether you’ve seen the original(s) or not, you won’t be too disappointed in what this movie has to offer and you’ll probably jump out of your seat a couple times or cover your eyes. This is probably the most gory of all the films and with the technological advancements, it has a lot of visually pleasing effects.
A Nightmare on Elm Street is a decent addition to the series and pays homage to the original. Basically, you should go rent the original right now and then wait for this one to come out on DVD and rent it too…unless you have something better to do, like dream dream dream. I miss Wes Craven.
Tags: A Nightmare on Elm Street, Christian Stolte, Clancy Brown, Connie Britton, Freddy Krueger, Jackie Earle Haley, Julianna Damm, Katie Cassidy, Kellan Lutz, Kyle Gallner, Lia D. Mortensen, Rooney Mara, Thomas Dekker
Matthew Fong created advancescreenings.com and is the lead contributor. He watches every type of movie and will try almost anything twice. You can follow him on twitter here: @matthewfong
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