Review: A Nightmare on Elm Street
Posted by Rodneyon 30. 04. 2010in Headlines, News Chat, Reviews
Thanks for checking out our spoiler free A Nightmare on Elm Street review
Genre: Horror
Directed by: Samuel Bayer
Staring: Jackie Earle Haley, Kyle Gallner, Rooney Mara, Katie Cassidy, Thomas Dekker, Kellan Lutz, Clancy Brown
Released: April 30th, 2010
THE GENERAL IDEA
A remake of the 80s horror classic, this movie follows the lives of a group of highschool students who are tormented in their dreams by the same nightmare. The nightmare is a supernatural serial killer who wears a glove with bladed fingers, out for revenge on the children of the parents who brutally caused his death.
THE GOOD
The character acting in the movie is actually pretty good. There were no outstanding “that person is horrible” kind of thing. And they all perform scared and tormented really well.
The movie is all about Freddy, so lets go there. He looks GOOD. Its not the same, and the personality is different, but its good. The burns look like burns. Up close you even see gaps in his skin showing charred and severed tendons underneath. He is horrific looking which works. And the voice is good, and he still has the “one liner” snark while he is tormenting and killing his victims. I thought Freddy himself was done EXTREMEMELY well.
The effects for the most part were very well done. Invisible hands throwing people around the room looks effective and not like they were on wires. Most of the time I believed people were getting hurt.
The biggest concern over the remake is that they would demystify Freddy’s past by showing too much of what really happened. I will not spoil how its revealed but it is effective and does not take away from Freddy’s history at all. I wont say what’s changed, but it all works.
There are a lot of nods to the original with scenes like the claw in the bathtub, and it generally follows the same plot and story with some minor changes that don’t ruin everything.
THE BAD
Some of the effects were so poorly thought out that it detracts from the effect. In one scene a boy “stabs himself in the neck” with a knife (Freddy in the dream) and then proceeds to pull the knife across his neck. Physically it cant work the way he does it and it ruined the effectiveness of this shocking scene. That and when someone gets blood splattered on his shirt… the blood shouldnt move around. Honestly, is it that hard to splatter blood on ONE shirt and just wear it?
There are some logic holes in the film. The scene in which Freddy’s death happens is in a dream. Freddy controls the dreams, so it made no sense that he would choose to reveal this to that victim at that time.
OVERALL
This is a fitting film in the Nightmare series, however its not IN the Nightmare series. The measuring stick by which this film will be graded is more often than not be set against the original. And I think this was better. Its not perfect, but neither was the original.
I give Nightmare on Elm Street a 6 out of 10
The reason Freddy showed his past was to show his victims what they had done to him, and what was the source of his hatred towards them.
Huh. You’re giving this a lot more credit than most critics.
I won’t be seeing this in theatres, but I suppose I will watch for it on DVD then.
Thanks for the review, Rodney! Fine work as always
You’re joking, right?
Yes, the little nods to the old Elm were fine and dandy. So what? Is that all the film has going for it?
You’re joking, right?
“The character acting in the movie is actually pretty good. There were no outstanding “that person is horrible” kind of thing”
I don’t know if that was a joke, but I’m laughing my butt off. Anyone who thinks Rooney Mara was even close to good in this junk is nuts; the bland as always Thomas Dekker is talking cardboard. While not as horrid as last years Friday or Halloween sequel, this does come really, really close to being a waste of time.
I had high hopes for this movie, and I found it lacking. Only redeeming quality is the better makeup on Freddy (Jackie Earl Haley) and the line “What are you screaming for? I haven’t even cut you yet”
3 out 10.
That’s not a joke.
It was all bells and whistles.
I thought Freddy’s faced look other worldly. Humorous, not disturbing.
The scare tactic’s bag O’ tricks where re-used, over and over again.
Acting, whatever. Some parts, I needed the scene to change.
The ending was so badly done, it seemed as if they wanted it to be a 3D effect but without the glasses.
I had a few good laughs, but it’s a horror movie where that character already existed. No need for a “reboot” what so ever. At least the audience was obnoxious as ever.
“The ending was so badly done, it seemed as if they wanted it to be a 3D effect but without the glasses.”
I thought the exact same thing.
Aside from Jackie Earle Haley, I had no interest in seeing this. I was excited at first till I saw the trailer.
How does your rating system work? Like at what number does a movie become worth seeing to you? If I were guessing I would assume 1 to 4 is don’t bother, 4 to 6 is dvd, and 7 to 10 is worth a trip to the theater. Is that about correct?
Its entirely up to you to decide what my rating or review might translate to in regards to whether to see it.
Typically anything over a 5 is something I liked. Under a 5 I disliked more of it than I liked. Think of it more of a percentage of how much I liked compared to how much I didn’t.
Hope that helps.
I disagree 100% I give Nightmare a 2 out of 10.
It was boring and not remotely scary or suspenseful, and even the gothas were so telegraphed that I think I only jumped at 1 of them. Jackie Earl Haley was bad as Freddy, and the make-up made him look like a burned version of the the monster in Splice (which there was a trailer for before the movie). He was actually more creepy without the make-up in the pedophile scenes. The overall acting in the movie was horrible, I mean I have seen Clancy Brown act well in Shawshank, but even he was horrid in this piece of crap. The kills were just bad with the exception of the one where Freddy makes it look like the kid cuts off his own head (Freddy was controlling the knife in that scene Rodney, that’s how he can stab himself and the neck and then cut more, BTW). If I were to compare this with one of the other Nightmare movies I would say it was closest to the second movie, because they just didn’t know what to do with the character and failed to make him the boogieman he was in the original.
At least last years Friday the 13th had interesting kills and wasn’t boring. This new Nightmare movie is on par with the worst of the series hopefully this a one and done remake by only doing modest box office.
I state above in quotes that he “stabs himself in the neck” and even clarify the statement with (Freddy in the dream) - obviously I knew what was happening, but from the perspective of everyone else there, he stabbed himself.
I thought the Friday the 13th remake was a complete snorefest.
Completely unscary, not suspenseful and not at all entertaining as a horror film. There is a reason they are not doing any more of those. It failed.
There is no news as to whether they are doing more of Nightmare, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they did.
Its only been a day so there isnt much to go on but Friday the 13th has a higher raiting on rottentomatoes and made more money on the first day and cost less to make than nightmare on elmstreet.
I would be surprised if they made another nightmare on elm street.
Actually….there is news on a possible sequel to ANOES.
A Nightmare on Elm Street is a decent (but not scary) horror film. I actually prefer Jackie Earle Haley’s take on the Freddy Krueger better than Robert England because he plays the role more seriously. I found the original character too kitschy. The film does include typical horror staples such as beautiful, unknown, and terrible young actors but does deviate with a few well done suspenseful scenes.
I enjoyed the movie. Pretty much agree with Rodney on this one. The Friday the 13th remake was a complete snore-fest! This re-imagining of A Nightmare on Elm Street was a lot better than I expected. After seeing this Friday night I spend Saturday re-watching a few of the original films and the truth is the new film is better than a good number of them. I wouldn’t mind a couple of sequels to this re-imagining as long they don’t get too campy or turn Freddy into a stand-up comedian! For fans of the original series there is an awesome Nightmare documentary coming out this week that covers all the Robert Englund films and has interviews with almost everybody ever involved with it. My only real regret regarding Nightmare(2010) is that Wes Craven was not involved as a consultant the way he wanted to be. I think he would have contributed some nice things to the film. Also an Englund cameo! I think seeing him as the pharmacist during the super-market scene would have been a cool wink to the fans.
What I want to know is: Is he actually innocent of the molestation charge when they light him up? and it’s all about revenge……. or is it paint by numbers?
That would be a spoiler. All I can say is, that theme is played on throughout, and it keeps it fresh and interesting that you don’t know until the end.
That aspect was my favourite part of the movie, but I cannot get into details without spoiling it.
I agree with Rodney… Last year’s friday the 13th was shit and the kills weren’t original or interesting for that matter… I can’t consider it interesting if I’ve seen it already before…
My dislikes with new Freddy was that it was just predictable. I thought Jackie Earle Haley was the bright spot in this movie as an actor and the makeup was far superior to that of the Original. The cheesy line to end the movie kinda ticked me off.. “You’re in my world now bitch!” I just knew going into the movie they would throw that in there… And that was a real buzzkill for me because its so predictable
If you are a true fan of the original - DO NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE!! If you have never seen any films in the franchise - DO NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE!! If I can stop a single person from sitting through the 91 minutes of hell that is this film, I feel I will have done the world a small favour.