A
Nightmare on Elm Street
Freddy Krueger is back to haunt your dreams the way I am still haunted
by the time I went to that vegetarian restaurant by accident. Yes, you
will be just as unsatisfied as I was (broccoli must be accompanied by
NY Strip or it isn't worth it).
Nancy (Rooney Mara), Quentin
(Kyle Gallner), Kris (Katie Cassidy) and Jesse (Thomas Dekker) are a
group of high school kids who don't realize how much they have in
common (aside from all of them living on Elm Street). Each one has
started to have strange dreams starring a psychopathic dude with a
fedora, striped sweater and a glove with knives attached to the
fingers, Freddy Krueger (Jackie Earle Haley).
Sadly, Freddy is no Edward Scissorhands. Instead of slicing the
shrubbery and delivering the hottest hairdos on the planet, he is
chasing these young kids to exact revenge, and wants to kill each one
while they are asleep in dreamland, so they will die in real life, too.
Why does Freddy want revenge?
Can the kids stay awake and alive?
A Nightmare on Elm Street lacks imagination,
story, good acting and a reason for being. This version, or reboot of
the franchise, or re-imagination (or whatever lame spin the Hollywood
executives want to use to cover up the fact they are greedy and want to
cash in like Goldman Sachs), doesn't do anything to justify the time
and effort.
Director Samuel Bayer and the team have produced a flaccid film that
doesn't appeal to the slasher fan, the horror fan or the fan of good
and interesting films. The audience goes from attack scene to attack
scene for the first third of the movie without any real attempt by the
characters to figure out why they are being chased by this freakazoid
with the burned face and knives (You think intellectual curiosity would
kick in).
Then, as if forced by a conscience or some outside influence, writers
Wesley Strick and Eric Heisserer half-heartedly start to explore the
why and background of Freddy Krueger, but it's nothing new. They have a
chance to make Freddy into a 21st Century villain, but never do
anything to make him new, interesting or daring.
Worst of all, A Nightmare on Elm Street has some shocks, but
never thrills and amazes. The dream sequences are bland and
unimaginative, especially compared to the original! Why not have Freddy
create some nightmare that plays on each victim's deepest fear? Why not
do more to create some nightmare from a past event in their lives?
Even hard core slasher fans will be yawning at action that doesn't take
us to a new level of fright and gruesomeness. Freddy should make them
afraid to fall asleep during the movie, but droopy eyes will be
prevalent as each audience member tries to fight off the drowsiness
that is inevitable.
A Nightmare on Elm Street is a waste of a
classic character and a great actor (Haley can do so much more than
spit out one-liner after one-liner).
A Nightmare on Elm Street is rated R for strong
bloody horror violence, disturbing images, terror and language.
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