On April 30 the remake of “The Nightmare on Elm Street” was released in theaters. Directed by Samuel Bayer and produced by Michael Bay, this film was anything but original.
Shane Rice
-News Editor-
On April 30 the remake of “The Nightmare on Elm Street” was released in theaters. Directed by Samuel Bayer and produced by Michael Bay, this film was anything but original. This film stars Kyle Gallner as Quentin, Rooney Mara as Nancy, Katie Cassidy as Kris, Thomas Dekker as Jesse, Kellan Lutz as Dean, and Jackie Earl Haley as Freddy Krueger. The result of this film is not only predictable but lacks depth and originality.
Nancy, Kris, Dean, Jesse and Quentin are the teens of Elm Street, and they’re all having the same terrifying nightmare of a man with a mutilated burned face, tattered, striped sweater and knives for fingers. The voice they each hear is horrific, and they are afraid to sleep.
One by one the grotesque figure terrorizes them by haunting and manipulating their dreams, where the rules are his and the only escape is to stay awake. When one of their members dies violently in her sleep, the rest realize very quickly that death in their dreams means death in their reality.
Turning to each other for answers, they slowly uncover the truth about a past laid dormant by the parents of Elm Street. With the answers buried in the teens’ forgotten memories, the only way to uncover the truth is to enter the twisted nightmare that is Freddy Kruger.
This may be the most unneeded film of the year with its overly familiar story plot to the predictable scenes and outcomes. The 1984 version is still better assembled, cast, and more suspenseful than this remake.
It’s visually faithful but lacks originality and depth; it definitely makes the original much, much more memorable. Haley’s ability to play Freddy was mediocre at best. The original Freddy Krueger, Robert Englund’s unpredictable presence and sadistic humor is definitely missed. Bayer’s ability to capture the genuine terror of Wes Craven’s version was absolutely pathetic; he failed to exploit the true nightmare.
In terms of plot, screenwriters Wesley Strick and Eric Heisserer failed to come up with new and interesting story ideas for the new Freddy. It seems as though they just took scenes from the original sets and threw them together.
A person that has never seen the original will probably appreciate the sarcastic yet dry sense of humor of the new Freddy, but those who grew up on the original Freddy may want to wait for the DVD release.
Nightmare on Elm Street is rated R for language and gore and runs for 95 minutes.
