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[A Nightmare On Elm Street 2010]
Plot:Freddy Krueger returns in "A Nightmare On Elm Street", a contemporary re-imagining of horror classic. A group of suburban teenagers share one common bond: They are all being stalked by Freddy Krueger, a horribly disfigured killer who hunts them in their dreams. As long as they stay awake, they can protect one another. But when they sleep....there is no escape.
Cast:Kyle Gallner,
Jackie Earle Haley,
Thomas Dekker,
Rooney Mara,
Katie Cassidy,
Kellan Lutz,
Clancy Brown,
Connie Britton.
My Thoughts:Very right in tone, yet wrong in characters.
Review:"A Nightmare On Elm Street" is Platinum Dunes latest remake of an old horror film classic. Last year, Jason returned to a new generation in "Friday The 13th", now...the razor-clawed Freddy returns in a new "Nightmare On Elm Street". So what's good and bad aboutt his remake? Well the film starts out high-impact, with Katie Cassidy's character Kris meeting a friend at the local Springwood diner, where a dark and stormy night, lets us know some real bad shit is gonna go down. And after some character intro's, it soon most certainly does.
After that, we get a really well-done funeral scene, where it seems almost everyone in town turned out to mourn the death of the character who "bites it" in the first scene. But it's also our second look at the new Freddy, who makes his first appearance in the movie by killing one teen at the diner. Earle Haley plays the new Freddy very well.
Not as good as Robert Englund did, but then again, who can compare to that man as Freddy? So it would be unfair to compare the two. One thing Jackie's Freddy has that Robert's Freddy didn't have though was a vicious mean-streak. In the original "NOES", you got the sense Freddy just liked to toy with these kids before killing them.
But in the remake, you get the sense this new Freddy genuinely hates these kids, for what their parents did to him. It comes through often in the death scenes, where he really uses verbal darts to abuse these kids before he kills them. So chalk up a vengeful tone for the remake. The original didn't make Freddy out to be a vengeful character, but the remake adds to Freddy's sick mentality, as he really believes he didn't deserve to die for what he did.
Rooney Mara plays Nancy Thompson in the redo, a role made legendary by one Heather L. Rooney's character though isn't stalked as much by Freddy as was the character of Nancy in the original. In the remake, Nancy is more kept on the sidelines until someone else dies at Freddy's hand.
Then, Freddy targets her, and thus her role grows larger within the context of the movie. The guys in this film though, do not measure up. They're too emo. The original "NOES" had a few tough guys, mixed with a few normal teenage fun-loving type guys. The redo has made everyone emo, for some odd reason. All the guys dress in black seemingly, and have these constipated looks on their faces.
As if their lives in suburbia are so miserable. The original atleast made the kids happy-go-lucky, until Freddy showed up. But the remake makes them all miserable, angsty kids. And when Freddy begins to stalk them in their dreams, the teens are so depressed-looking that it's hard to tell their scared-selves from their normal selves.
One thing this movie does though is speed up Freddy's powers, making him kind of like Michael Myers. Usually, Freddy has to wait until the kids are really tired, and fall asleep to get them. But in the new version, his powers are magnified to the point where he can kind of blur his dream reality with their human reality, and flicker in and out of their world to attack and terrorize them at will.
Yep, the remake has certainly increased the amount of Freddy moments from the original from like 5 to like a hundred. Freddy pops up pretty much 80% of this film, taking verbal and physical swipes at the Elm Street teens, and for those of you who are very nostalgic about your remakes, I will tell you that the remake sticks by the original "Elm Street" quite closely.
Except, for one of my and I'm sure probably your, most favorite sequences, which comes late in the movie. For some reason, the filmmakers went in a different direction with that particular sequence. But, as far as sticking by the "Elm Street" book is concerned, I cannot complain too much about this movie. It's got blood, gore, and guts. The kills are solid and vintage Freddy, and there's even some extra backstory thrown in about Freddy's "molestor" tendencies and why the Elm Street parents came after him. The scenes where the kids enter the infamous "dream world", are also exceptionally well done, as everything there looks carroded and twisted.
But the films flaws are certainly noticeable, with it's overly angsty characters, and also Freddy's make up effects not being that great. Needed a bit more rubber and plastic, and less cgi. Overall, "Elm Street" redux is a good "slash-swipe"...at an old classic. Had the characters been more mature and less whiny, the film could've been perfect.
Positives:Earle Haley's Freddy is a lot more sadistic, mean, and vengeful. Good kills, and the dream moments are well filmed and sorted out.
Negatives:The kids are too angsty, like "Dawson's Creek" angsty. Freddy's face should've also been done with more makeup effects and less cgi.
Overall:Three out of four stars.
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