Review: A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET - Not as Good as the Original
As one of our writers, the great Abe Froman once said “We're all kind of like fortune tellers, using movie trailers like crystal-balls to predict whether a film is good or not. Sometimes our "mystical" readings are right on the money. Other times, the images the crystal-ball shows us are deceiving, making something look way better than it is. Those trailer editors are skilled craftsman, and they know how to cut together little bits of footage into something that looks epic and exciting as a trailer, but in long-form it ends up being flat and uninspired.” The trailer for A Nightmare on Elm Street remake showed us some great gritty visuals that seemed to get a lot of people interested in seeing this movie. People like myself that absolutely despise remakes, were willing to give this remake of a horror classic the benefit of the doubt, I wanted to give it chance. Well, if you haven’t seen this movie yet... don’t! Don’t waste your hard earned cash. Stay home and pop in the DVD if you have the hankering to watch some Freddy Krueger killing teenagers. The original film is so much better in every way, in terms of story, character development, killing, and fun.
The new A Nightmare on Elm Street seemed like a half-assed attempt to remake the original, and did the original idea and characters created by Wes Craven, no real justice at all. They tried to take the story into a different path by making Freddy a child molester instead of a child killer. There was actually a point where the filmmakers tried to make us believe that Freddy was innocent of his crimes. They tried to make it a big deal but it seemed like they just breezed through it. On top of that, heres a guy that came back from the dead killing teenagers in their dreams, and they want us to believe this monster was innocent? Come on, how stupid do they think we look? The original film actually made sense because Freddy was actually a killer both in life and death. Since he was a child molester in this new film, why didn’t he just come back to molest these teenagers in their dreams? I’m just sayin’ Freddy wasn’t a killer in this before he became evil incarnate.
As much as I think Jackie Earl Haley is a fantastic actor, and he did a great job playing Freddy, he wasn’t enough to save this movie because unfortunately he was surround by some pretty awful young actors. Kyle Gallner, Rooney Mara, and Katie Cassidy all fell flat and were absolutely uninteresting. Maybe it was just the writing and the directing of the film, maybe these people have some talent, but I gotta say... it didn’t show in this film.
The director of the film Samuel Bayer was a very big music video director in the 90’s, and after seeing what his feature film directing talent is like, I suggest he go back to making music videos. Like most music video directors that move into feature films; the movies they make visually look great! A Nightmare on Elm Street had a fantastic visual look, but it lacked everything that makes a movie actually interesting and engaging such as a good story, solid script and decent acting.
This film was a huge disappointment. If a remake of a film ends up being better than the original thats one thing, but when the remake ends up being worse... then what was the point of remaking the film? If the filmmaker can’t improve the story and characters then don’t waste the time and money in making a inferior product! Just re-release the original film in theaters.
I can’t recommend this film to any of you, not even the die-hard horror fans because I honestly think it’s just going to end up disappointing you. Like I said, the original A Nightmare on Elm Street was a much better film that will stand the test of time better than this remake, which will quickly fade away and be forgotten.
If you saw the film what did you think!?