The Nightmare on Elm Street remake was a box office hit when it was released in 2010. The movie grossed over $100 million domestically and over $200 million worldwide. Despite its commercial success, the movie was not well-received by critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie has a 27% “rotten” rating, with the consensus reading: “A Nightmare on Elm Street is a remake that offers a few good jolts but lacks the imagination and conviction of the original.”
Being a pretty big fan of the original movie i approached watching this re-imagining with intrepidation as i generally get somewhat touchy when i see classic movies being milked out and drawn through the mud. From the opening onwards it was fairly plain to see that this was going to be run of the mill stuff. Without deviating much from the original story this remake does endeavour to flesh out certain aspects of Kruger’s tale, such as his ‘living’ demise. Most of the characterisations remain the same, even if most of the names have changed. Anyone who has seen Wes Craven’s original will know what i mean, normal everyday high school teenagers trying to deal with something that is discernibly abnormal.
Remakes almost always bring around new actors and this movie is no exception. Jackie Earle Haley puts in a remarkable performance as Freddy although it doesn’t quite have the same gravitas as Robert Englund’s original in my opinion. Still a worthy show, but perhaps anything good to be said can end right there. Most of the other performances are very generic with no one really standing out. Clancy Brown (Highlander’s Kurgen) makes a a showing as one of the would be victims father and puts in a respectable performance although his screen time is a bit on the short side. Most of the other actors are really just ok, not bad but certainly nothing great.
As far as shocks go Elm St, isn’t the scariest and comes nowhere near as creepy as the original. It isn’t really boring, it just doesn’t do anything to elevate itself above what we’ve seen from the Nightmare series in the past. The visuals whilst being a bit on the minimalist side (not necessarily a bad thing) are solid enough, although this is not going to help the movie really. Gore is minimal and nowhere near as gruesome as the 1984 classic, Tina’s bed scene has been recreated to a much lower level of shock, it just isn’t that scary.
In the end i cant really recommend this new remake, its OK in parts but its just not doing enough to warrant that special recommendation. I might recommend watching if your bored and you happen to find it on TV down the road but that’s as far as it goes.
Many reviewers criticized the movie for its lack of scares and its reliance on gore. Some also felt that the movie was too derivative of the original and didn’t offer anything new.
Despite its negative reviews, the movie was a financial success. It was the highest-grossing horror movie of 2010 and proved that there was still an audience for Freddy Krueger.
Synopsis
The american movie A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) is a remake of the classic 1984 horror movie of the same name. The movie follows the same basic plot as the original, with a few key differences. In the 2010 version, the main character, Nancy, is played by Rooney Mara. The movie is set in the present day, and Nancy is a high school student. She and her friends, Quentin and Kris, are haunted by a demonic figure who appears in their dreams and kills them in their sleep.
Nancy discovers that the figure is Freddy Krueger, a man who was burned to death by her father years ago. Krueger now wants revenge on Nancy and her friends, and he will stop at nothing to kill them. Nancy must find a way to defeat Krueger and keep him from coming back to kill her and her friends.
The movie is a suspenseful and scary ride from beginning to end, and it will keep you on the edge of your seat. If you’re a fan of horror movies, you won’t want to miss this one.
Movie Details
Director: Samuel Bayer
Writer: Wesley Strick, Eric Heisserer
Actors: Jackie Earle Haley, Kyle Gallner, Rooney Mara
Release Year: 2010