Well, it’s official. We are in remake hell. I really, really wanted this to be good. It had everything going for it. Competently made, good budget, Jackie Earle Haley (who’s turn as Rorschach in The Watchmen was wonderful) but in viewing A Nightmare on Elm Street a few great truths were revealed to me. 1) Mainstream horror is no longer made for people like me and 2) Modern audiences are stupid. I will go into much further detail on both of these items as we progress, much to the chagrin of you, gentle reader, but this is something we need to talk about. A Nightmare on Elm Street scared the proverbial crap out of me in 1984. Wes Craven devised a character that we, physically, could not escape from. There was no solace to be found one town over, or by making it to dawn or by escaping the campground. Freddy Krueger could kill us in our sleep… and he enjoyed it. Take that same premise and update it 26 years later and what we’re left with is an overwrought story and an underutilized mood. Remove iconic horror film characters out of the equation and, even then, A Nightmare on Elm Street remains uninspired and flat stealing the best elements out of the original and slapping them on a green screen. Hold on to your fedoras, because this could be a bumpy ride.
Buy A Nightmare on Elm Street on Blu-Ray!