A Nightmare on Elm Street Review

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Though flawed and, at times idiotic, there is one big difference between A Nightmare on Elm Street and every other Platinum Dunes remake. The people behind Nightmare actually gave a damn about the property they were remaking. A Nightmare on Elm Street is not the Hostel knock off that was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and it wasn’t the XXX porno that was Friday The 13th. Nightmare on Elm Street contains zero nudity and just the right amount of gore to be called a slasher film by today’s standards.

For those uninitiated, Nightmare on Elm Street centers around the children of, well, Elm Street. They are being haunted by mass murder Freddy Kruger who has the power to kill them in their dreams. That’s about it. This new Nightmare take cues the Pycho play book where we follow one of the characters for the entire first act and then, you can guess what happens from there.

As for the acting in the film, it’s alright. Well alright for everyone except Jackie Earl Haley who plays the dream walking psychopath. I must say, I enjoy watching Haleys Freddy do his thing a lot more than I ever did watching Robert Englund’s so familiar take on the character. Haley’s character is much more realistic and not as goofy (yes even compared to the “serious” original film). Haley’s Freddy is also much more believable as both a burn victim and a once upon a time human being. Now, there will be those purist who will be very angry over a certain change made to why Freddy was killed by the parents of Elm Street but for a film of this type made today, it works.

As for the rest of the cast,  there are some fairly good performances from the updated Nancy played by Roony Mara and the jock boy friend played by Sarah Connor alumni Thomas Dekker. As to avoid spoilers, I won’t say much more beyond that. The rest of the cast which doesn’t include a single recognizable name, the acting is ok. Nothing special but it works for a horror remake of today.

Now as for the directing, cinematography, sound design, essentially all the things that make horror, horror. It’s all surprising excellent. First time director Samuel Bayer has a clear vision for what he wants and it works. The best scenes are the ones that occur in Freddy’s dream world. The sound design is amazing. You actually cringe when you hear Freddy’s knives scrape against anything metal. The colors are all very defined and the light is just as creepy as one would hope.

Now as amazing as the technical aspects of the film are, there is no escaping the terrible logic of the film. Apparently not a single police officer has heard of video play back or blood spatter analysis. But in all honesty, the logic of this film by today’s standards is not that much more unrealistic than the logic portrayed in the 80’s classic by that times standards.

Over all, the Nightmare on Elm Street remake is a solid addition to the vast array of horror remakes. On the level of The Crazies remake of this year and certainly better than the abysmal Friday the 13th and Texas Chainsaw remakes. If you want to see a Freddy who is cunning and much creepier than the original than this is a film to go see in theaters.

6.5/10