Review of A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) by Thequietgamer — 23 Sep 2015

What we have here is a rare surprise; a remake that actually provides a solid twist on the original. Obviously it doesn't live up to Wes Craven's horror classic, but there's plenty to enjoy here for any fans of Freddy Krueger. That's because Jackie Earle Haley does a fantastic job as the character.

Sure, he's no Robert Englund, but Haley gives an excellent performance with this slightly new take on the character. His one-liners are on point and he's just the right amount of creepy. He reminded me why I found the character so fascinating in the first place, and why I fell in love with the original series.

I also have to give the movie props for at least trying to be a serious horror movie. Yeah there are some self-aware funny moments here and there, but it certainly does try to scare you. Unfortunately it does not succeed. The jump scares are predictable and there's nothing here to instill fright. It thankfully manages to avoid turning Freddy into the comical villain some of the later sequels turned him into, but the movie's overreliance on modern horror movie scare tactics that just don't work prevent it from actually being scary. You don't come into this movie looking for frights. You come for the Krueger character and the twist on his fiction.

There are plenty of homages to the original here. It follows roughly the same path and there are plenty of new takes on classic scenes. The real change up comes from Freddy's backstory. This time around the movie isn't afraid to shy away from the pedophilic elements that were only hinted at in the original. It's (thankfully) not very graphic with these elements, but it's no secret what's going on.

Ultimately where the story stumbles is in that none of the characters outside of Freddy are really fleshed out. The parents are just sort of there, and Nancy (Rooney Mara) and Quentin (Kyle Gallner) are the only two teens who get any real screen time. The others are just there to add to the body count. Even with that though we never really get to learn much about them. The characterization falls short.

Still though as a huge fan of most of the original movies I can't find too much that I dislike here. It may be lacking scares and the non-Freddy characters are flat, but when it comes to a new take on one of my favorite characters in all of cinema the movie delivers. Freddy is what attracted me to the series in the first movie. To see him handled well here makes me happy, even if the rest of the film around him doesn't fare so well. I would love to see Haley take up the role again. It's certainly a lot better than most of the sequels to the original.