Nightmare on Elm Street

I could begin with a diatribe on the idea of the remake. However, if you have spent anytime reading this blog, you know I am one of the few who is not inherently against the idea of a remake, especially in the horror genre. I can list at least 5 horror remakes I prefer to the original. What I will say is that the difference between a good horror movie and a bad horror movie is often the smallest thing. Most Slasher Flicks are essentially the same thing with a slightly different killer. The differences can be death scenes, or the director's confidence, or the editing or music. Whatever it is, it can be slight. The difference between My Bloody Valentine and Friday the 13th is small, but Friday the 13th is a vastly better horror movie.

Nightmare on Elm Street takes place in some suburban city on some suburban street and inside some suburban houses. It has all of the usual suspects of a slasher flick: The killer, a group of teenagers and adults that are either clueless or are keeping secrets. The teenagers are: Quentin(Kyle Gallner), Nancy(Rooney Mara), Kris(Katie Cassidy), Jesse(Thomas Dekker) and Dean(Kellen Lutz). The Killer is the burned, knives for hands Freddy Krueger(Jackie Earle Haley). He invades your dreams and if he kills you in your dreams, you die for real. After Dean mysteriously slices his own throat in a diner late at night, the other kids start realizing their nightmares are similar. They all hear a creepy song, they have Freddy appear in them and often they are led to a preschool. The problem is, none of these kids knew each other until high school, or did they?? Quentin and Nancy are the main focus here and we watch them try and piece together memories and nightmares all while trying to not fall asleep and fall victim to the torture and the one-liners of Mr. Krueger

While the movie runs about 15 minutes too long and starts to run out of gas before closing out on a good climax, This remake/re imagining has enough good jumps, cool visuals and a super creepy Freddy Krueger, that I had a damn good time. Yet, there are problems. The flashback sequences to the horrible memories of the youth and giving Freddy more of a back story pulled focus, especially when it looked like the movie was going to humanize Freddy, ala Darth Vader. Therefore, I did get a bit annoyed a little more than an hour into it, but redemption came in the form of some seriously creepy, way left of good taste stuff in the climax. In the original film, Freddy was not so much the jokester the latter movies made him and in this remake, Freddy has some of those punchy/corny one-liners, but he is also a true monster and he has a few lines that just push him back into the side of pure evil and I like that the movie did not shy away from that.

Visually there are a few great moments, showing a first time director with confidence. I loved the nightmare in the bookstore when the books started vibrating and the waking nightmare in the pharmacy had a nice flare for the dramatic, in how Freddy appeared in a fiery silhouette. I liked that the transitions from nightmare into the real world. I should have tired of the constantly cheap and loud "jump" moments, but I found them to be mostly effective. I liked that the length of the nightmares varied a lot, so we never really knew what to expect or for how long to expect it. The last moment, visually I want to mention is during the climax where the director keeps cutting between the awake life and the dream of of Nancy. The parallels of Freddy and Quentin was a very nice effect and really brought home how deranged the Freddy in this movie was. I found it to be effective visually and in driving home this Freddy Krueger was never a man, but the kind of monster you hope to never encounter in life, or in your dreams.

The great thing about the idea of Nightmare on Elm Street is that the more the kids try to avoid Freddy, the more likely they are to encounter him. The more you try to avoid sleep, the more likely you are to experience dreams while awake as your brain tries to reboot itself. Effectively, by staying awake, you are putting yourself in just as much danger. This movie played up that idea pretty well and actually Freddy used it to his advantage. I thought there would be more focus on drugs/pills for young people to take to stay awake, but they did not do that. The movie is not perfect as the repetition of the nightmares can become exhausting, the script is pretty bad and a lot of the lines Freddy has are too groan worthy to even be moderately interesting. The make up for Freddy was not as good as I wanted it, but I could not put my finger on what my exact issue with it was. Something about it just rubbed me the wrong way. As it is a horror movie, the acting varies from serviceable to obnoxious and I actually found the gore to be a bit off-putting, which is rare for me in a horror movie.

Nightmare on Elm Street does not quite live up to my favorite horror movie remakes (Last House on the Left, Friday the 13th and Dawn of the Dead), but it is by no means a truly bad horror movie. I had fun and my scary movie buddy did plenty of jumping and hiding in my arm and once she even dug her nails into my shoulder, so that always makes for a better movie going experience. The first jump in the movie is really successful and it sets a nice tone. The movie should have done away with the two extended flashback sequences and it could have cut the running time down by at least 10 minutes, which could have left the movie with a tighter, more compact effect, instead of getting slightly drawn out. However, a good climax with two great one-liners almost make up for that lull midway through.

Final Grade: B