A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

Starring: Jackie Earle Haley, Rooney Mara, Kyle Gallner, Katie Cassidy, Thomas Decker, Kellan Lutz
Directed by: Samuel Bayer
Rating: R
Genre: Horror, Thriller
2010

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A group of teenagers living on Elm Street begin to have dreams about a disfigured man (Jackei Earle Haley). One by one, they are killed in their dreams. The surviving scenes fight to uncover the truth about the murderer.

Review:

Tim: I feel like I've always been kind to Freddy Krueger. None of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies have been very good, but I've always given them the benefit of the doubt. Once again, I find myself liking a ANOES movie more than I should. This is a franchise that has seen some tough times, and following similar reboots/remakes of Halloween and Friday the 13th, this film tried to jumpstart a stalling franchise. I actually think this one might have worked better than most, even if I didn't love the final result.

Compared to the remakes of its contemporaries, this film benefited the greatest from the advances in special effects technology. One of this franchise's greatest strengths has always been the phantasmagoric dream world our protagonists find themselves in. The special effects help to make that nightmarish world even more of a reality. Technology helped the visuals in this film greatly. The impact of advanced CGI would impact films like Friday the 13th significantly less than a film like this.

I also thought the casting helped the film. While this movie still suffered from the practically nameless characters mowed down by Freddy, the film also tried hard to give us a reason to care about at least some of them. That helped immensely. Casting Rooney Mara as Nancy was a great choice. Mara isn't a big star yet, but she definitely has some acting talent. I think she'll turn into an impressive actress, and her performance here was quite strong. She connected with the audience and gave us a reason to care. That helps.

I also loved the casting of Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy Krueger. Inheriting the iconic role from Robert Englund probably wasn't easy, but it was necessary. Englund turned the role into a bit of a joke. The script called for too many awful one-liners, and Englund's performance oftentimes went too over-the-top. Haley plays Krueger significantly more sober and restrained. It makes for a scarier villain. The movie does give Krueger a few "humorous" one-liners, which worried me, but these were thankfully kept to a minimum. I liked Haley in the role- it was nice seeing some fresh blood in the part.

The film felt far too similar to the original movie. I wish that rather than just remaking the film, the producers really tried to create something new and unique. Rather than just giving us a repackaged version of the same old story, I'd like to see a new interpretation. I will say that I appreciated how Freddy's backstory was handled. I thought the film did a good job of portraying Freddy's demise. The movie bravely portrayed him in a more gruesome light, and I thought these scenes helped us to better understand his character.

While A Nightmare on Elm Street did a fairly decent job of rebooting the franchise, the movie as a whole still doesn't deliver to the extent we'd like. This is not a good movie, which is a major disappointment. I will say that the movie did enough right to warrant a sequel, but I feel pretty certain the sequel would represent the typical huge drop in quality. I liked this movie more than the previous year's Friday the 13th remake, but I still wasn't a fan.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge, Wes Craven's New Nightmare, Scream trilogy, Halloween, Friday the 13th