Director: Samuel Bayer
Genre: Horror/ Fantasy
When I first got the idea to make this blog 5 years ago, I made it a point NOT to include new releases. I wanted to stick to films long since out and already criticized or praised to death. The only excuse I can come up with for writing a post on this "reimagining" of the 1984 Wes Craven film A Nightmare on Elm Street is basically my own nostalgia.
Living with older brothers who enjoyed these films back in the 80's ended up making the lead monster of the film series (8 films in all, not counting this remake), Freddy Krueger, somewhat of my own personal boogey-man. I can honestly say I was never an Elm Street fan, and probably never will be.
The film was advertised as a “reimagining” of the original. Red flags of disaster immediately went up when I heard that. The whole idea of taking a story that, even I'll admit, is rather creative, and basically changing important elements around is just not a fair thing to do. It's like taking a story handed down through generations and reinventing it just because it's old. New audiences will miss out on the original. Reinventing the wheel is just futile.
Hollywood has already brought back monster killers such as Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers for new versions of original horror flicks- Friday the 13th and Halloween. It's no surprise that Freddy Krueger was next on the list.
Wes Craven, the original writer and director of the Nightmare series, didn't direct this one. The job went to Samuel Bayer. Who can blame Wes Craven?
First, Freddy himself was portrayed by a completely different actor- Jackie Earle Haley. I clearly remember Haley as the young, punk-mouthed "Kelly Leak" from The Bad News Bears (1976). Now he's portraying Freddy Krueger! Who would have imagined? Robert Englund had portrayed Krueger in all previous films from part 1 to part 6 as well as in Wes Craven's New Nightmare and Hollywood's desperate search for more money in the 2003 flop Freddy Vs. Jason.
The make-up was rather impressive, giving Freddy a more natural burn victim look as opposed to the classic ohhh, that's creepy look of the original Freddy. Still, Haley pitched in his own deep, guttural voice that was much more audible than the other actors despite his low pitch. The voice was too cliché but, then again, what else can you do with Freddy’s voice? On top of that, they decided to throw in some original catch-phrases from the '84 Nightmare for nostalgia, I suppose. I couldn't help roll my eyes whenever they did that. Luckily, it wasn't overdone.
In this new Nightmare, a select group of teens in the town of Springwood are plagued with reoccurring dreams of a horribly disfigured man sporting a red and green sweater, a dirty brown hat, and a glove with razor sharp knives. After random teens are mysteriously dying one by one, two kids, Nancy Holbrook and Quentin O' Grady, discover that the man haunting their dreams was in fact a gardener named Freddy Krueger who worked at the preschool all the teens had attended in their childhood.
As Nancy and Quentin try to find new ways to stay awake while educating themselves on the effects of insomnia and sleep deprivation, Nancy learns that Freddy had secretly abused the children in the preschool and was particularly fond of her. Her memory of such abuse slowly returns to her as she discovers more about Krueger. Their parents had previously discovered what Freddy had done to their children and that he had told his child victims to keep quiet. They had taken justice upon themselves by chasing Freddy down, trapping him in an abandoned boiler room and setting it ablaze.
Unlike the original Nightmare in which Freddy seeks revenge on the parents who murdered him by attacking their children in a place they can't reach him -their dreams- Freddy seeks revenge on the children themselves as they had told the truth about the abuse he was inflicting on them. Basically, Freddy blames the children for his death and not so much the parents.
The "jump scenes" were way too obvious. Then again this did have a touch of classic horror movie element, especially reflecting the original movie. Some of the special effects look much to fake and clearly computerized. They could have done a better job!
Freddy's makeup was well done but that's not to say the evil face of Englund's Freddy does not lose any of that fear which can still haunt us in our dreams.
I did like how Haley made Freddy much more serious with clearly one major chip on his shoulder. This is opposed to Englund's more sadistic humor he would incorporate into Freddy's taunting of his innocent victims as though he was really in it for the kicks.
The movie did flow well, as best a movie like this can flow. It didn’t drag on. Still, rewriting a story is just an unfair thing to do to audiences. It's confusing and not really necessary.
As Hollywood has submerged audiences into the trend of remaking movies, they could have at least done just that without rewriting the back story. Overall, the movie was disappointing and a lame rehatching of a horror classic that isn't that old. Freddy died in the 6th movie Freddy's Dead; The Final Nightmare and he needs to stay dead- not reimagined! Please, no sequels!
