A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

A Nightmare on Elm Street(2010) is the remake to Wes Craven's 1984 horror classic.

The original and I go back a LONG way. This came out when I was 7. I'd seen previews for it but didn't really get it. At that point, I'd seen a few of the Friday the 13th movies and this didn't look anything like that. Our movie theater was a one screen deal back then. You know, the old fashioned way. The reissue of Pinocchio was playing and it would immediately be followed by the adventures of Freddy. My mom had taken me to see Pinocchio and I somehow convinced her to stick around and watch Elm Street after. Definitely an odd double feature but I guess that's what happened with only one screen. Anyway, the movie begins with shots of Freddy assembling his claw glove. I think I got about 2 minutes into it before deciding that it wasn't for me, after all.

At some point the following year, Elm Street made its way onto VHS. We didn't have a VCR at the time but my aunt and uncle did. My cousin Derek is a bit older than me so he was allowed to rent it. Somehow, I managed to get there just in time to watch it. Finally. I don't remember many of my thoughts regarding it at the time, but I knew it scared the shit out of me. I still look back at those days fondly. Movies these days just don't have that same effect on me. The real world is infinitely scarier than anything that can be thrown on the big screen. At any rate, after years of success, the Elm Street series came to an end with 1994's Wes Craven's New Nightmare. Prior to that movie, the Freddy character had become a parody of itself. Rather than being dark and frightening, the character would always have some type of silly one-liner before offing his victim in some bizarre way. Ultimately, they watered it down so that they could bring Freddy into the mainstream. It worked but ultimately did so at the expense of the franchise.

Some 26 years after the original, comes the latest remake from Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes production company. I had high hopes for this one, given my love of the original. How would it fare?

First off, the story is mostly the same. Teenagers in the small town of Springwood are dying. Many of them are afraid to go to sleep, citing nightmares of a burned man with knives for fingers. As opposed to the original, this one focuses on two main characters, Nancy and Quentin. In doing this, they essentially weaken both characters. It was fun watching Nancy evolve from terrorized girl to heroine in the original. Here, there really isn't anything to evolve into. The leads here are played by Rooney Mara and Kyle Gallner. Mara is bland as hell. I know the character is supposed to be suffering from sleep deprivation, but it looks as if she's sleeping through her performance. If they were desperate to have a Mara girl in the cast, they should have gone with Rooney's older sister, Kate. She's easy on the eyes and is a pretty good actress, to boot. As for Gallner, I've seen a lot of him lately. He's tolerable as an actor but he has a look that just makes me want to punch him in the face. Repeatedly. Freddy is played by Jackie Earl Haley. To me, that's the only bit of casting that really worked. Haley is typically pretty solid and he works here as the new Freddy.

The filmmakers took a classic and, for the most part, updated it in all the wrong ways. Instead of genuinely creepy moments, this thing is packed with jump scares. While I am amused by watching my wife jump out of her skin, 95 minutes of jump scares isn't what the Elm Street has been about.

Overall, I really can't recommend this one. As much as I wanted to like it, I found it to be utterly forgettable. If you have to see it, it can certainly wait until it hits video.