A Nightmare on Elm Street (remake)

[Tim-Æ]

I was going to post a review up at IGWT but the website seems to be down. So seeing as how only you people here read the reviews at the site, I'll give my personal opinion on the remake that no one is talking about...positively.

First of all, I will say this about the slew of remakes to classic slasher/horror films. Its' a scattershot with them. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. I'm a huge fan of the slasher classics - Friday the 13th, Halloween, and Nightmare franchises made my childhood. No matter how god awful they are, they hold a special place on my movie shelf because like the mindless garbage that litters the Sci-Fi channel late night, someone out there loves them. And I do. It's not so much the gore, it's the camp. It's the fact that Jason Vorhees can take a chick in a sleeping bag and bang her against a tree to kill her. And I can laugh at it, for hours. I hate some movies. Lord of the Rings. Avatar. Why? Because despite their goofy premise they still take themselves seriously. They're glorified rubbish in my opinion. Polished. Glorified. Shit.

That's not to say that these aren't crap. They are. And the new one, is crap. Completely. But it's watchable.

Most of the qualms people have with the remakes is the teetering between reimagining and restructuring. Copying classic deaths sequences is okay. It's not frowned upon, it's nostalgic, but overall its still unnecessary and kinda "bleh." Nightmare doesn't shy away from that. Most of the deaths are as you'd expect, gruesome, quick, moderately disturbing, but overall fairly predictable.

The iconic role of Freddy going to Jackie Earl Hayley was a bold move. But a successful one. He is the stand out point of Nightmare. Robert Englund created it, he was Freddy, it was all him. But he's gotten old, and he can't keep reprising this role. It's a shame that's all he's ever done (next to the original V series). I feel on the one hand though, this film was dealt a poor hand. There were two major factors working against it. The fact that Platinum Dunes picked it up for distribution. And that prick wad Michael Bay tramp stamping it. That lead to over criticism of the movie.

That's not to say that this film deserves copious amounts of praise, because it sure as hell doesn't. It's not scary. The special effects are sub par. Everything's predictable. It's a horror movie for God's sake. It's not gonna be scary anymore. But the fundamentals are all there. It has a decently entertaining plot. It emphasizes the mystique around Freddy. And a support cast that's actually better than one would expect (exception being the chick who plays Nancy). The dream sequences aren't scary at all, but...they are well done (with the obvious boiler room being unspectacular as always). But certain sequences, like the diner, and nancy's room filled with snow, the classroom of ashes, - those are creative ideas that we never would have seen in the early years of this franchise. The campiness destroyed those, and instead of legitimately wicked looking sets, we got treated to a bunch of douchey teens visiting the same fucking house for a decade. It's always about going to Freddy's house. Not in this. Instead, the sets are designed around the town, with more locations which make it more interesting.

The plot's thin, but it attempts to dig deeper into Freddy. It borders on the risque though, as one thing the original series never explained was whether Freddy was a pedophile or just a murderer. In the 80s pedophilia wasn't as popular...or desensitized I should say. But here it's more heavily insinuated that Freddy got off on Nancy's supple little body at a pre-school. Thats dandy and all, but some may find it fairly inappropriate.

JEH in the role is superb. He's no Englund. But he revamps the character the proper way. Whereas Jason and Michael Myers don't need personality, they just need a big oaf to walk around and breath, Freddy needs a personality. And JEH is perfect in the role. Some may not find his one-liners as funny as "Welcome to Prime Time Bitch!" (which is the best one of all time), but they are far better than "you can check in, but you can't check out," or "I'll get you my pretty, and you're little soul too." The problem with the old series was how it gravitated away from the mystique and more into the duh duh area. Slapstick humor and excessive gore, but no plot. That's why today, the original, the 3rd one (Dream Warriors) and New Nightmare are considered the best. And really...they are. The other sequels are garbage, and in the end, Nightmare on Elm Street's remake is not on par with the original.

However, I'll make a bold statement here. It's a decent remake. It's not perfect. It's not Ocean's 11 good. But we've seen 20 remakes in the last 5 years. From the The Ring and the Grudge to Friday the 13th and Halloween. Of the slasher classics I'd put Nightmare on Elm Street at the top of those remakes, it's the best one they've done, which is unfortunately fucking sad as hell. But I won't lie, I enjoyed myself. And I'll probably buy it on DVD too.

B

[! JDM The Professional !]

Friday the 13th, Halloween, and Nightmare franchises made my childhood.

So that's why your so fucked up Tim?



Regards,

JDM

[Gary]

The Birdcage made Russ's childhood.

[Ian "Wolfie" Trumps]

The Birdcage made Russ's childhood.

Did Slumdog Millionaire make yours...apart from the millionaire part.

[Gary]

well if getting a really hot girl made my childhood then so be it

[Midas]

I agree with Tim on this...

My Girlfriend is a huge fan of the Nightmare series and was dying to see the remake. She insisted I sit down and watch the original again which I was cool with but I noticed during it that our memories during childhood actually make these movies better then what they were. As I watched the original Freddy I just found myself more stunned on how stupid it was then impressed or in owe, as a matter of fact it kind of took away some of the glory I had in my head about it personally. Now I contribute that all to the fact that I was a kid when I watched it and hell this was the 80's so while it seems goofy now watching Freddy get his with a sledgehammer it might not have seemed that way in the 80'S...

I found myself watching the remake and thinking to myself that is the original was never made and people had nothign to compare it to they would be all over this movie begging for sequels and talking about how creepy it was. I think the movie was filmed well and the sequenses where they transission from the boiler room to real life are awesome to me and add to the film.

One of the many problems I had with the original was that it seemed like they spent less time building up a story and more time with other shit... For example in the original when they kill off the blonde chick it was like pointless and you felt nothing because she was barely in the film... This one if you actualy didn't know any better you would have assumed she was the star of the movie with how much time they spent on her and such... That to me was a great change and personally the changes they made in some key areas I think added to the film instead of taking away from it...

I didn't like the girl playing Nancy but hell that is just my opinion...

I think it is worth seeing but I think most of these critics need to take a step back and stop hating so much as it is a good film... not a classic but good..

[Ian "Wolfie" Trumps]

Like I said in another post I saw the original when I was 5 or 6 and it scared the shit out of my for years. I didnt watch any of the sequels till into my teens and saw Freddy as more of a jokey character which

- stopped the phobia i had develoeped about it

- kind of ruined it because i had these memories of being utterly petrified as a child watching it

not sure if I will see the remake. Not a massive horror film fan to be honest, but...a part of me doesnt want to see it becaue i still wanna hold onto that inner child fear I have deep down inside somewhere.

[Drama Queen]

It's funny but as someone who is NOT particularly a horror fan, I could see myself enjoying it more than a lot of actual horror fans. I am a fan of campy stuff and as Tim pointed out the entire franchise is made of that. I don't care if it's Englund or not, I am a purely casual fan. I enjoyed one and three the most but would not lose any sleep over them being altered or remade or whatever.

Then again I don't go to the theatre anyway unless I'm taking my kid so the above opinion is rather irrelevent I'm afraid 

[Zombie Gunn]

I remember the original scared the hell out of me when I first saw it. Didn't sleep well for two weeks afterwards.

Which was really ackward considering it was last month.

[Black Death]

I remember the original scared the hell out of me when I first saw it. Didn't sleep well for two weeks afterwards.

Which was really ackward considering it was last month.

lmao   at that