Release Date – 4/30/2010
Something odd is happening to a group of teens from the same neighborhood. It seems that they are all experiencing nightmares dealing with one terrifying individual. The scary thing is what happens in the nightmares affects them in real life. They are all being haunted by a man named Freddy Krueger, but they are trying to put the pieces together as to why he is coming after them. Are the parents hiding something from their past that connects them or is this all just a coincidence? This movie is a decent remake but doesn’t come close to standing up to the original classic. It’s got a lot of horror clichés that have plagued this genre for many years. Sure, its creepy and better than the Friday the 13th remake. It will make you jump and disturb you a bit but its missing a certain something to send it to great horror territory.
I like the fact that we aren’t sure who the main character is in the beginning. If you’re a fan of the Nightmare on Elm Street series then you’ll know typically we get a female lead. Katie Cassidy plays Kris. Her boyfriend was killed in a dream and now she is seeing similar visions as he was before he died. Her ex-boyfriend is played by Thomas Dekker (best known as John Connor in the Terminator TV series) and he comforts her during this time. Events transpire and we find out neither of these people are the lead. Instead, there’s an outcast girl at school who knows a bit more about the situation than everyone else. OF COURSE! The outcast girl! I should have known. Anyway, she teams up with another kid at the school to follow clues as to who Freddy Krueger is. So now we officially have a bunch of teens for Freddy to start messing with. And boy does he ever. I think 90% of the movie is one of Freddy’s dreamworlds. Sure, it was cool seeing his famous boiler room nightmareland but 100 times in 90 minutes is a little much. The characters barely had any time to build up their story in the real world. It was just nightmare after nightmare after nightmare. These kids sure do fall asleep a lot. Don’t even get me started on the parents. Bunch of idiots. For being the adults in the movie, they sure do make a lot of dumb decisions.
Now on to what will be the major talking point. Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy Krueger. He is WAY creepier than Robert Englund ever was but he doesn’t have the same charm as a bad guy. Yes, bad guys can have charm too. He’s like Rorschach with a burned face. Robert Englund WAS Freddy Krueger. That’s all we knew him as so that’s why he was so perfect. Haley was a little bland. I thought they were going light with the whole child molester theme but it gets pretty intense at the end. Definitely some disturbing elements. But I did like Haley’s depiction of Freddy and he even threw in some one liners at the end. This is ALMOST what I wanted from the film. Where Friday the 13th missed, this one hit, but not enough to make it an awesome horror movie. If it makes a lot of cash, I’m sure we’ll see another one (like Texas Chainsaw and Halloween remakes). This is the first full length film from Samuel Bayer who is only known for putting together music video compilation films so I’m sure he’s looking to cash in on a series instead of one movie. Next time maybe he’ll have a better script so knowing how sequels go probably not. I’m a sucker for horror movies so a part of me enjoyed the movie and a part of me would still go see a second one. But if it comes down to this or the original, I’m going original all the way.
IMDB – N/A
Rotten Tomatoes – 13%
Movie Wiseguys – 6.5/10