Freddie Kreuger is intrinsically scary. A boogeyman who gets you in your dreams, what could be scarier? The problem with the "A Nightmare on Elm Street" remake is that the movie gives the viewer nothing new from the original and fails to improve on the established formula created by horror legend and Kreuger creator, Wes Craven. While the original horror film was done on a limited budget and over 25 years ago, this new version's special effects are actually less impressive than what was done before. Sure, the production values are more polished than before, but most of the older dream effects still work. The one element that the new film got right is finding a capable actor to put behind the make-up, as Freddie Kreuger.
The same basic story is retold in this new "Elm Street," with the children of the Elm Street parents paying the price for their parents' vigilante justice against Fred Kreuger several years ago. Now teenagers, Nancy and friends are dying in mysterious ways while they are sleeping. The burned and scared, knife gloved Kreuger stalks them in their dreams and takes his revenge. But in this new version, a question is raised whether Kreuger even did the awful things he is accused of.
In the original "Nightmare," it was understood that Kreuger was a child-murderer and anything else was implied. In this new version, Kreuger may have been a child-molester but he was never tried for it. Kreuger's back story is filled in through a dream flashback by a character that wasn't even there. This scene felt forced into the narrative, which is the problem with many of the scenes in the picture including a strange homage to the original "Halloween" movie in one of the dream sequences.
According to this story, Kreuger worked at a pre-school and lived in the basement. When children started coming home with bruises and scratches, Freddie was blamed. The parents decided to take the law into their own hands. In this new version, Kreuger is almost made to be sympathetic. Even the choice of make-up creates sympathy for Kreuger as the dream stalker looks like a real burn victim. The question is seriously raised: What if Kreuger didn't harm any of the kids? Freddie is supposed to be the irredeemable villain of the slasher films. Jason was a deformed child that the camp counselors neglected and allowed to drown, Michael Myers was the young boy who suddenly "lost it" and murdered his sister. Kreuger was the adult man who took advantage of children and when the law couldn't punish him, the parents stepped in. This new version muddies the relationship between the teenagers, parents, and Kreuger to ill-effect.
The actors cast in the picture are an uncharismatic bunch who don't get much screen-time to develop their characters. The new Nancy is a wallflower that really doesn't come into her own as the heroine until the very end. Her Sheriff father is notoriously missing from this version and the finale has changed accordingly. The male actors fare better than their female counterparts, with Nancy's potential boyfriend, Quentin, (a similar character to that originally played by Johnny Depp) becoming a more realistic and helpful participant thanks in part to the performance of Kyle Gallner ("The Haunting in Connecticut"). The relationship to the teenage characters are not as well developed as in the prior version, with the first victim's boyfriend left to rot in jail without much concern from his "friends." The parents are less of a presence in the film and certainly don't seem truly sorry for what they did. Kreuger actually plays the sympathy card as he prepares to carve up one of his victims. I prefer my horror a little more cut and dry, thank you very much.
The new Kreuger (Jackie Earle Haley; "Watchmen") is sufficiently frightening and keeps a morbid sense of humor without going overboard as the later entries did. There is a slow reveal of Freddie throughout the beginning of the picture. Haley captures the voice of Freddie quite well, but ultimately the story is about the survival of the children and not the killer. These new children are not as interesting as their prior incarnations. And with the opportunity to update the story using new technology, the director only takes true advantage once with a creepy web blog. Otherwise, where's the power drinks to keep the kids awake? Coffee is so last decade.
After watching this remake, I am more certain than ever that the horror classics don't need to be remade. If the remake stays too close to the source material, viewers will wonder what the point was of remaking the film. If the remake strays too far from the story, viewers will complain it is no longer true to the original vision. Remaking classics is a tightrope walk that the new "Nightmare" mostly fails at. While the picture is occasionally scary, it is nowhere near the masterpiece the original was. Leave the remakes alone, already.
Rated R for strong bloody horror violence, disturbing images, terror and language.
