Review of A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) by Thelordoffilm — 12 Aug 2010

Why was this movie necessary I ask myself, to make money, to boast special effects? I don't really know because the movie never explains why. Is it for entertainment, no I don't think so. I know what exactly why it was made for.

It was made to dig in the pockets of fans of the series and give them a horrible product. I would know I was one of them yesterday and my wife and everybody else in the movies was. Wes Craven's original A Nightmare on Elm Street was a fresh idea.

It was a new vision of horror back then. It had nightmarish visuals and gore, and one of the most charismatic horror icons ever Freddy Kruger. This remake is a perfect example of what made that original movie so much better.

Let's compare scenes shall we. The famous scene where Freddy stretches the wall above Nancy's head and looks at her, the original is creepier due to its realistic effects. The remake has CGI and ruins a perfect scene where it's suppose to be tense and suspenseful it turns out that Freddy has his own line of wallpaper.

Let's talk about the acting and casting choices now. The girl playing Nancy is Roony Mara a weird gothic chick who looks like she's going to throw up at every scene. Then we have Kris played by Katie Cassidy who the only thing she does is stare in the distance and "acts" (notice the quotations) dramatically.

Then the boys who play every other high school kid out there are nothing really new and engaging. They say all the same thing it's not real it's just a dream yadda yadda. The original cast their appeal was that they look like everyday people kids next door their dialogue was realistic and their roles were written well so we can adapt to them.

Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy, the only thing I say about that is we miss you Robert Englund where the hell are you? I do admit Haley tries to give his own style but he just falls short he so poorly written in this movie.

The filmmakers said they wanted to remove all the comical stuff and make Freddy scarier. Are you trying to say Englund wasn't scary, watch Wes Craven's New Nightmare where Robert Englund goes serious and scares the crap out of you.

You know what Freddy being comical is what made Freddy famous you always can tell he enjoyed what he did to people. It was black humor; this "serious" (more quotation marks) Freddy is as boring as a burnt pretzel.

CGI, good looking actors, impressive cinematography does not make a good movie. Did Samuel Bayer saw the original movie did he send his actors to see it. I don't think so. This movie so bad that Wes Craven should re-release his original and basically say a statement this is how it's done people.

I told five or six people not to go see it hopefully they listen to me I don't want them to see an incompetent, lazily directed film. It's just going to dig into their pockets.