NIGHTMARE ON ELM ST. (2010) Movie Review
When I first heard they where remaking this classic and heard Michael Bay and his company Platinum Dunes was making it. I was luke warm about the whole thing Seeing as they have a history of hit and miss remakes. you might get a great remake in Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Amityville Horror or garbage in The Hitcher with Friday The 13th falling in between. Well they sure dropped the ball on this one
Let me start out buy saying it was not because Robert Englund was not Freddy. In fact I have to give credit to Jackie Earle Haley who did a good job as Freddy. His voice was dark, evil and menacing with some of the Freddy mannerisms as well. That being said the makeup job was terrible to say the least. Who ever did the makeup should be fired because he looked horrible.
You know you have problems when Freddy is revealed five minutes into the film not in a silhouette, but in full make-up. Right away we know the writers aren't looking to create suspense. That's what made the first one work, so why in the hell would we keep it here? It's never a mystery as to who or what Freddy is. Granted, with all his popularity, it might seem pointless to keep him hidden, but it would've made his character a hell of a lot scarier. You know how Freddy used to live in 1428 Elm St with a daughter and he took kids to his basement. Well not in this movie they turned him into a gardener at a pre school. So apparently Freddy is grounds keeper Willie. but that's not all they actually tried to make Freddy the good guy wrongfully accused of his crime and the parents of Elm St burned to death an innocent man. Like Seriously are you for real? Then at the end its revealed he actually was a child molester oh fuck I didn't see that one coming. Like seriously I had to check at the end that it wasn't rob zombie who wrote this. Wait of course not his wife is not playing Freddy!
Directed buy Samuel Beyer, what never heard of him? Well I sure as fuck haven't. He directed such classic horror films as Smells Like Teen Spirit and Greendays Blvd of Broken Dreams. Yes this is feature film debut and after this one I hope he goes back to directing Britney and Lady GaGa videos. Why they pick rookie directors not up to the task of remaking classics beyond me. The whole movie tries to pay homage to the original Nightmare on Elm St's. From Nancy working at a diner(instead of Alice), to the bathtub scene, Freddy coming out of the wall, the body bag scene in the school, Kris Nancy's friend falling asleep at school and freaking out(instead of Nancy) Kris death scene in the bedroom (Tina in the original) they're all here which leads me to the question if your going to copy the original with all the key scenes why the hell remake it. It's good to pay homage or tribute to it but copying every key scene?
The acting is sub par besides Jakie's that is. Nancy is uninspiring and in fact you hardly see Nancy for the first 15-20 min of the movie. I thought they made Kris(Tina in the original) the star uggghhh give me Heather Landenkamp any day, and the rest of the entire cast in forgettable. I can really only think of one good Freddy one liner they try to crack some here and there but there not funny. Like I said the special effects makeup on Freddy is horrible, I have no idea what they where trying to accomplish I think first year makeup students could have done a far superior job and probably have.
Oh, and SPOILER ALERT....there's only 4 deaths. But, unlike the original, they're poorly placed throughout the story. You shouldn't have to sit through 40 minutes of a phony, pointless mystery in order to NOT see anyone get killed. And the deaths themselves are unimaginative, perhaps the most boring of all the 7 films. Thanks for playing it safe, Platinum Dunes, that should rake in a few more target audience members.
Overall this is buy far the worst of the Nightmare on Elm St movies and yes I am including Freddy vs Jason. Far worse then Freddy vs Jason and Wes Cravens new nightmare. Any hardcore Nightmare fans stay away save your 12 bucks and stay home and watch the original!
\m/ Share this with your friends \m/
