Nightmare On Elm Street
For a new generation, it retains the fantastic idea of Freddy Krueger faithfully, albeit over a shoddy movie.
One of the most original and terrifying ideas in cinema - a heavily-burnt killer who haunts you in your dreams, and if you die in your nightmare, you die in real life. Genre genius Wes Craven's 1984 film became an instant classic, introducing one of the most memorable screen slashers ever. Freddy Krueger, a vile child murderer burned alive by a lynch mob, returns to wreak vengeance on the children of his killers. Iconic in his stripy jumper, fedora and bladed glove, Craven set up utterly brilliant moments in this definitive horror. Robert Englund played this monster with maniacal glee, becoming the baddie you love to hate. He was the key to the film's success, spawning several sequels.
And now, in a period of diminishing original ideas, Nightmare On Elm Street becomes the latest horror to get an unnecessary reworking. Video director Samuel Bayer makes his debut, and - despite frenetic fast-paced cuts - induces nothing but sleep. His first fatal flaw is in the casting. The original Nancy was a regular girl-next-door turned brave heroine in the hands of Heather Langenkamp. This time she's so unbelievably forgettable, I couldn't point out Rooney Mara in a room right now. It's hard to believe out of all the actresses working today, they picked one so completely devoid of life. She's brought into focus about a third of the way in, after Katie Cassidy (as the most unconvincing high school student ever) pegs it, taking the only spirited performance with her.
While the thought of any actor bettering Englund's Krueger was absurd, casting the genuinely creepy Jackie Earle Haley raised hopes. It's the second role as a child molester for the unfortunate chap, after his stunning performance in Little Children. Whereas Englund's expressive features were visible under the burns, they went too far this time, with Haley limited under a flattening prosthetic. His Freddy is actually disgusting; there's no amusing parody of serial killers here, Krueger is a now a predatory pervert.
Bayer gives us one brutal kill after another, without stopping to examine the impact on the community. There is only angst between the affected students, which include Thomas Dekker and Kyle Gallner, matching Nancy for drippiness. The sickening impact of having to stay awake for days is never really portrayed; the parents are unaffected, only featuring to serve the flashback scene to Krueger's original demise. No-one seems to stop and question the deaths, which no longer look like suicides or murders, but the work of a supernatural force (the famous hanging in the cell is replaced with a chest-bursting bloodbath) - a horror is only affecting if it's steeped in some kind of reality. The utter frustration of 1984's Nancy being shipped off to a dream therapy clinic is missing. Instead, parents Clancy Brown and Connie Britton (both wasted in their expository roles) are uninvolved except when covering up their own misdeeds.
The producers have taken the liberty of rewriting the background story, but have cheerfully borrowed some of the famous scenes and butchered them with ropey CGI. The nail-biting moment when Freddy's form stretches out of Nancy's bedroom wall is now laughable, the bathtub scene has no impact whatsoever, and the blood spilled doesn't feel real. This version is rightly going to be the subject of much vitriol, but isn't actually an all-out disaster. Anyone who has seen the original should avoid, unless they want to be full of rage. However, for a new generation, it retains the fantastic idea of Freddy Krueger faithfully, albeit over a shoddy movie.
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