Horror Movie Review: A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

Nightmare on Elm Street


Starring: Jackie Earle Haley, Rooney Mara, and Kyle Gallner


Directed by Samuel Bayer


Written by: Wesley Strick, Erik Heisserer, based on characters created by Wes Craven


Production Company New Line Cinema and Platinum Dunes


Release Date: April 27, 2010


Awards: 2011 Worst Film - Fangoria Chainsaw Awards; 2011 Favorite Horror Movie - People's Choice Awards

 

 So first they remade Halloween with some success. Then came a remake of Friday the 13th, not with as much success. Which brings us to most recently the remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010). Oh, it's time for horror to stop relying on remakes. I've said it before, I'll say it again...come up with something original horror makers!

We know the story...Freddy Krueger kills teens in their dreams to get back at their parents who killed him for killing children and getting off because of incorrect police procedure...wait, no, that was the original. No, in this one Freddy Krueger kills teens in their dreams to get back at them (the children) for telling their parents that he molested them leading the parents to illogically kill him rather than go to the police.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is by and large the difference between this remake and the original. In fact, some of the exact same scenes are used. Exact. The movie seems mainly a collection of some of the best scenes from the earlier franchise. Freddy's body shaping out of wall over a sleeping teen, a body bag of an already killed teen being dragged through a school, the heroine dozing in the tub with Freddy's claw-glove hand rising from the water between her legs. Seen it!

With nothing really different done, nothing new explored, it makes me wonder what the point was. There was a potential with a comment about being in a coma being like being stuck in your dreams, but other than another mention of Freddy wanting that to happen to the main heroine, it wasn't explored.

Though clearly there's some disagreement about the film as Fangoria chose it as the 2011 worst horror film but it was voted best horror film by the People's Choice Awards. I say pass this one by and watch the first two or three of the original franchise, but they're making a second one.

Although, IMDB doesn't even have Jackie Earle Haley's name attached yet. No director. Since it was announced there would be a sequel after the weekend box office return for this one came in, there's been plenty of time to get something rolling. I wonder what the hold up is? Maybe rethinking the whole thing?

Related Trailers

Maniac Cop III: Badge of Silence - Jackie Earle Haley, who played Freddy Krueger, also starred in Maniac Cop III: Badge of Silence. The Maniac Cop returns from the dead for the third time when a female cop is shot down during an attempted hostage rescue. This time, the "wrong" arm of the law wants a love girl, and nothing's likely to stop him! He's undead and unwed, so any cop with a pulse (and there are plenty in this flick) had better give this zombie a wide berth.

 

Jennifer's Body - Kyle Gallner also appeared in Jennifer's Body. After a supernatural romp with a satanic emo band, hot cheerleader Jennifer (Megan Fox) is transformed into a demon with an insatiable appetite for high school boys. Now, it's up to Jennifer's BFF, Needy (Amanda Seyfried), to protect the guys from the bloodthirsty man-eater.

 

Wolf - Wesley Strick also contributed to the script of Wolf. Bitten by a wolf in the Vermont wilderness, genteel book editor Will Randall acquires an aggressive new edge after he's demoted at work. No longer meek and mellow, Randall sets out to get his job back in this imaginative take on the werewolf legend.

 

Final Destination 5 - Eric Heisserer also wrote Final Destination 5. Death still isn't satisfied in the fifth installment of this cult horror franchise, setting out to claim the lives of shaken co-workers who cheated him when they heeded a colleague's premonition about an unstable suspension bridge.