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.
Posts Tagged ‘Katie Cassidy’
REVIEW: A Nightmare on Elm Street
Thursday, April 29th, 2010WonderCon: The Warner Brothers Panel (The Losers, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Splice, and Inception)
Tuesday, April 6th, 2010Warner Bros didn’t tell anybody who or what they were talking about at WonderCon until their panel started. They let us know that we’d get to hear about The Losers, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and a little known movie called Splice. For the first 2 films, many of the cast showed up to answer questions and for Splice and a surprise at the end, Inception, the directors came out to talk about the projects. Warner Brothers also gave everybody in the audience a swag bag which contained a Losers bag, Nightmare on Elm Street shirt and key chain, Splice t-shirt, and Inception t shirt and top. Let’s get on to what I saw….
The Losers
You may not know a lot about The Losers yet, but you will. The footage that they showed looked great and for me, Zoe Saldana sells the movie on her own. I guess for women, they have Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Chris Evans. They showed us a fight scene between Aisha and Clay, Zoe and Jeffrey’s characters which have a love/hate, intimate/cautious relationship. The director, Sylvain White said that he believed it was a new benchmark in boy girl fight scenes and I agree with him. Not only was it action packed, it was hot and steamy. There are very funny scenes and great visuals to accompany them: think big guns and bad asses carrying them. Jeffrey Dean Morgan commented that it’s like a throwback to the Die Hards and Lethal Weapons…good comedic action.
I hope the back and forth dialogue during the panel gives a glimpse of what to expect from the movie because it was awesome. The group of actors they pooled together seemed to have great chemistry. Jeffrey Dean Morgan was the leader, taking charge. Zoe was the badass hot chick and commented He (Jeffrey) wears a suit; I don’t wear much of anything. When asked how she felt about being the only female in the main cast she said that she feels very comfortable around men. Chris Evans is the Hacker/IT Guy with a high IQ and he’s surely solidifying his spot in the comic book era of movies. Columbus is the heart of the group and kept referring to his character as the black MacGyver. Oscar is cougar who is the silent quit guy who is just like him in real life. Columbus said his new nickname was Juanny Depp. Sylvain said they were a crazy group of kids and fun to film and it really looks like it – from the panel and the footage they showed.
The Losers attack on April 23, 2010.
A Nightmare on Elm StreetA Nightmare on Elm Street may be the first actually scary movie in quite some time. It’s obviously a remake of the classic horror film which sequels have fallen to the wayside. However, the remake is said to be more dark and serious like the first film. The biggest story in this film is that Jackie Earle Haley is replacing Robert England as the iconic Freddy Krueger. Jackie said that he tried not to incorporate the last Freddy but tried to find a way to play the character where there’s still something familiar for the fans but where he was also able to call it his own. He tried to get into the mind of Freddy Krueger by studying serial killers and realized he was beginning to watch slasher films. He had to stop because Freddy isn’t a serial killer he’s a boogie man…so that’s what you’re going to see in the film. Thomas Dekker, who plays Jesse in the movie, said that remakes and reboots are a tricky subject but Jackie replied that with the visual effects and technology of today, they can show us things that we haven’t seen yet.
A Nightmare on Elm Street dreams come true on April 30 2010.
SpliceYou probably haven’t heard of this film but if you’re into sci-fi…especially genetics, you will. Splice is about two scientists who decide to take genetics a step further and mix together human DNA with animal DNA to create a new organism. It’s a creature film with social commentary which will go into touchy subjects we haven’t been exposed to yet. The scientists get too attached to the science and once the creature becomes its own…things begin go terribly terribly wrong. It stars Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley as the scientists and the story begins with them in the lab. They escape with the create to a home where they take it as their own child acting as parental figures until the creature, dren (nerd backwards), escapes. The film was made completely independent and took about twelve years. Vincenzo Natali, the writer and director, started writing the film back when Dolly was cloned and then began filming with they made the embryo in the UK so science has been catching up and evolving with the films vision which is kind of scary.
Splice busts out the lab on June 4, 2010.
InceptionTo everybody’s surprise, Christopher Nolan showed up to present his next film: Inception. Not a lot is known about this film but he presented us with an extended trailer which gave us more hints to the plot. From what we saw and what Nolan said, Inception is a heist film where a group of individuals who can construct dreams access the subconscious and extract documents and sensitive information from people. It looks like an amazing and epic film…it’s sure to be this summer’s biggest blockbuster in my opinion. Even though the film was described to be more personal, it was filmed in seven countries and takes us on a journey both physical and mental. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio and it looks like he will be training Ellen Page to join the company which infiltrates your dream. Look out for this film!
Inception comes out on July 16, 2010.
WonderCon is one of the country’s best comics conventions featuring guests and events for comics, movies, video games, and other popular media. This year, WonderCon had presentations by such Hollywood studios as Disney, Warner Bros., Sony, and Lionsgate.Visit WonderCon’s Official Website
