100 Movie Challenge 2015 - # 128: A Nightmare On Elm Street (Remake)

Director: Samuel Bayer

Genre: Horror/ Thriller

Runtime: 98 minutes

Year: 2010

Starring: Jackie Earle Haley, Katie Cassidy, Kyle Gallner, Rooney Mara, Thomas Dekker, Kellan Lutz, Clancy Brown, Connie Britton

Description: The spectre of a dead child rapist haunts the children of the parents who murdered him, stalking and killing them in their dreams.

Review: In 1984 an icon was born. That’s when sadistic murderer Freddy Krueger started haunting dreams and killing his victims. There were a lot of sequels and spin-offs. So in 2010 it was time for a remake, because we didn’t have that yet. And I really wished we never had.

A remake, it doesn’t sound as fun as it is. Especially not when you know Michael Bay produced it.

First the casting. They are hardly credible, because they are supposed to be sixteen and look much older. And their performance is very bland as well. It’s just very uninteresting to watch them for one and a half hour. It even appears that actress Rooney Mara hated to be in this movie so much, she almost decided to quit acting.

In this film, Jackie Earle Haley plays the role of Freddy Krueger. His performance is okay. The strong point of the original was that we never completely saw Freddy, just parts and shades. Now we see him in full glory, already very early in the film. And where the first Freddy looked like an actual burned man, this one is clearly wearing make-up. With that, Wes Craven’s film was scary because of the suspense and the sinister atmosphere. Bayer doesn’t manage that at all, because he shows us too much of Freddy and even Freddy’s past. No mystery left for us. And the jump scares only come from loud sound effects, not the actual events in the film.

If you expected anything new, don’t. Some scenes were actually literally recycled. “A Nightmare On Elm Street” doesn’t add anything, a good example of an unnecessary remake.

Rating: 1,5/ 5