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The
new
A Nightmare on Elm
Street
doesn’t have the wit
or campiness that
the original version
of the film has. It
has an edgier and
more polished vibe
to it that will make
a new set of kids
horrified… Just like
the original did to
the kids of the 70’s
and 80’s when it was
released.
If you watched the
original then you
know what’s
necessary about the
remake. A bunch of
kids’ parents killed
Freddy Kruger when
they realized he was
a piece of garbage.
To exact his
revenge, when the
kids are teenagers
Freddy can enter
their dreams, make
them nightmares, and
they don’t wake up.
There are a few
twists and turns in
the remake of
Nightmare, but the
premise remains the
same. Freddy Kruger
is one #@(*$Y(# up
son of a @)_$#*.
The remake is a
different movie than
the original.
There’s no humor to
be found in the 2010
version of the film.
We don’t get Freddy
firing off
one-liners about his
victims and we don’t
get the campiness of
the original. While
hardcore fans of the
original are going
to be displeased by
this, it makes the
film that much more
horrifying for first
timers. The writing
from this version to
the previous version
is also a step up-
there’s some
background on Freddy
provided that we
didn’t know before-
that makes him about
a million times
creepier. We also
see some outstanding
make-up and effects
that we didn’t get
with the original
version of the film.
The other positive
that this film has
going for it is an
outstanding
performance by
Jackie Earle Haley.
He delivers his
Freddy voice fairly
similarly to what he
delivered Rorschach
in Watchmen, but he
still does an
outstanding job. He
just looks creepy as
Freddy- pre-death
and post-death.
Jackie Earle Haley
is outstanding here
and he’s a
completely different
Freddy than Robert
Englund, he’s a
creepier version
because of his
serious undertone.
If
this
Nightmare
has one bad quality,
it’s the common
teenager. The acting
the kids did in the
film is fine- Rooney
Mara was fantastic
and Kyle Gallner was
great too. But the
characteristics that
their parts had were
cliché problems and
traits that you
would expect. It
would have been nice
to see the kids be a
little more unique
before meeting their
demise.
The special features
on Nightmare are
fairly cool. There’s
a cool documentary
that takes you
behind the scenes of
remaking a horror
classic, then there
are some deleted
scenes- that just
like every other
movie- you can see
why they were
deleted. There’s
also WB’s Manical
Movie Mode which
does some cool dual
picture stuff (or
you get watch the
focal points by
themselves.)
Remakes are
different beasts.
We’re in a stage now
to where things are
presented with such
polish and such
sheen that if they
were made before
that technology
existed, they don’t
hold the audience of
the younger crowd
like they used to.
You’ll still like
the original of the
remake better, but
today’s generation
will like the remake
better. I think
that’s the case with
A
Nightmare on Elm
Street,
just like it is with
all of the other
recent remakes.
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