The idea of bringing horror-legend Freddy Krueger back to the big screen isn’t a horrible one at its core. After all, the gloved-one was (emphasis on was) one of the biggest slasher-icons in history, who has unfortunately been a tad forgotten due to a 20-year (ahem) sleep and a few silly sequels. To bring Fred back to life with true justice, director Samuel Bayer (music video director) had to keep the old fans happy via homages, and bring in new ones who do not scare easily. Finding that balance is difficult in any remake/reboot/re-imagining/re-whatever, and 2010’s A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET manages to fuck it up royally.
Something unexplained is killing teenagers in their sleep. For Nancy (Rooney Mara) and her friends, the dreams point to a badly burned man in a dirty hat and ugly sweater with daggers on his digits, knows as Freddy Krueger (Jackie Earle Haley). Nancy and her potential beau Quentin (Kyle Gallner) seek answers to Krueger’s torments, while their parents seem to be hiding the true story and identity of him.
The narrative of this NIGHTMARE seems torn between Freddy’s backstory and Nancy’s suffering. Fred’s story and past are fleshed out well, but it detracts attention from what should be the heart and emotion of the story: the children. This version of Freddy is humanized where he is not so much a murderer in his past life, but a pedophile instead. It works to an extent, as the filmmakers attempt to draw emotion by showing Freddy as a man who made a mistake and was a victim of vigilante justice. It’s a fresh take on the all-too-familiar NIGHTMARE tale, but it’s just not enough to carry things home. Attention is taken away from the poor kids who are too scared to sleep and must watch their friends get butchered after every dream sequence, which seems to happen every five minutes. The dream sequences are many, and they are always obvious with only a few strong visuals for support. With a light effort on Freddy, not enough emotion from the kids, and dreams that would put the viewer to sleep, NIGHTMARE’s main narrative is dull and lifeless.
Haley’s Krueger is arguably the way the devil himself was to be portrayed: mean, sick, twisted and sadistic. Gone are the humor and laughs, replaced with harsh language and sick innuendo. Haleys’ features are buried underneath gobs of makeup which take away any human aspect (he looks like an alien from CLOSE ENCOUNTERS), and the voice is the same pitch and tone he used in WATCHMEN. The character still seems to rip off a few cheesy one-liners towards the end, but by that point the humor is out of place in this dark and dank universe Bayer has created.
While Haley still has full and total command of his character, the others don’t seem to know what they are doing. Mara’s Nancy character has no emotion, and is played as a sulking depressant that no one is going to care about; it’s almost easy to wish Freddy would dice her up and put her out of her misery. Thomas Dekker (John Connor from THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES) does a fine job as he always does, but he is underutilized and meets his end way too early.
Lame attempts to become a classic horror film are present throughout, as Freddy is constantly photographed silhouette-style to emphasis the hat and knives. Bayer seems more concerned with neat lighting and visuals than he is of characterization and creating atmosphere, and the entire ride suffers for it.
The CGI work is absolute shit. Period.
This NIGHTMARE is a dull and joyless film, with little reason to care about anything. The scares come way via loud noises preceded by silence, and not one of them is unexpected. As a remake it tries really hard and fails. As something original it fails even harder. Horror films as a whole are on a real downslide these days. Flush this one along with the last ten SAW films.
BOTTOM LINE: Fuck it.
Fuck this reboot.
ReplyDeleteI honestly will neve see it but was hoping you would review it.
So what is the best recent horrow movie? I'd have to say Sam R's Drag me to Hell.
There were several inexcusable moments of what can only be described as "****ing ****ty writing". The dude falling asleep in the pool and then witnessing what happened to Freddy years ago for absolutely no good reason was the worst. It was insulting and nothing more than a plot convenience. The girl sets the alarm on her phone to wake herself up in the bath, but never thinks of using it later on when she asks the dude to wake her when trying to bring Freddy into the real world. Why? This is life and death and you didn't think of a contingency plan when there was one that you already used sitting in your pocket? Another plot convenience. Then there's the kid with the adrenaline, which does absolutely nothing to him - an obvious plant for a later pay-off.
ReplyDeleteThis is a movie for idiots. Plain and simple. There's actually a scene in this movie where the girl pulls a piece of Freddy's sweater out of the dream world and into the real world, and the first thing she says is "Freddy's sweater". Really? Are you kidding me? What kind of sped wouldn't understand that scene if the dialogue was omitted?
It's sad, because the original Nightmare is not a very great film. The concept is absolutely brilliant, but it could use an update. Even sadder than that is the fact that Hollywood's mission is not to make money by providing the public with a quality product. It's just to make money.
There were some things about this film which I liked, but were mostly too brief or underdeveloped. The other kids in the school picture, the hospital sedation, etc. Just not enough to bring this turd out of the sewer where it belongs.
It's better than the new Halloweens and Friday the 13th, but that is about as close to praise as a racial slur. It's kind of hard to screw up with such a brilliant concept. However, that didn't stop Hollywood from trying.
I'll cut right to the chase and explain what is wrong with this movie instead of wasting your time setting anything up. I know how awful that feeling is, because it's exactly what this movie did for nearly 2 hours of my day - waste my time.
ReplyDeleteSPOILERS
Focused too much on the secondary characters at the beginning, which was a problem because it was excruciatingly obvious that they were all just Freddy Fodder. I actually wanted to see them die quicker instead of spending a half hour with the plastic Barbie chick that couldn't act to save her own life and the annoying kid that went to jail because someone did in the first movie.
In the original, the group of four was together a lot of the time. They all shared the same plight together. The whole purpose of the sleepover was so that they could be there for each other if something bad happened. Here, we still have the same four roles, but two of them do their own thing and the other two are only communicating by phone, if they communicate at all. The inability for this new film to create a connection between the kids causes a disjointed feel and makes it impossible for us to care about anyone.
In this one, that kid going to jail means nothing and his demise means nothing. Not to me or the actual heroes of the story: the curly haired dude with the dirty sanchez and the winner of the Emily Blunt look-alike contest. They never saw it happen, never grieved over it, never even seemed to give a hell. It almost seemed like something from a different movie. In the original, the kids went to the jail, watched it happen, and Nancy's father was a cop. They were much more involved and therefore, the death meant something. It wasn't just killing time like it is here.
When we do get the actual heroes, it's so far into the movie, I couldn't help but wonder why not start the movie at that point? The other two dying did not have any effect on what the heroes were doing. The only constant was Freddy, who seemed much less threatening in this movie than in the original. Emily and Sanchez just kept doing what they would have if Barbie and the criminal didn't die at all.
The micro-naps part was not necessary and added nothing to the movie. It was just an excuse to get Freddy into the film more. But when you show him for no reason other than to sit around and taunt the kids, perhaps slash at them once or twice, the fear goes away. The more I see, the less I'm afraid.
Bringing Freddy into the picture when the kids are still awake completely defies the concept of the movie!