Never sleep again. The original Nightmare on Elm Street was released in 1984 and quickly became one of the best known horror movie franchises in the world, spawning (for better or worse) seven sequels. That being the case, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that after recent remakes of other slasher classics like Halloween and Friday the 13th, a Nightmare on Elm Street remake should happen to find its way to the big screen.
The remake, which was not written by Wes Craven and does not star Robert Englund as the infamous Freddy Krueger, seemed like a big question mark to me right off the bat. This was compounded by having watched the horrendous attempt at a Friday the 13th remake just a few months prior. Despite this, the 2010 version of Nightmare was not a complete disappointment.
Still present were the obligatory finger knives, the blurred the line between reality and dream in order effect frightening surprises (sometimes more successfully than others), and all the basic elements of the original plot despite some tinkering. Missing, however, were Freddy's inane wise-cracks, which became normal fare throughout the sequels to the original masterpiece. With that said, I doubt anyone will shed a tear for the loss of those...
Unfortunately, some of the most memorable classic scenes from the original are missing altogether, or altered to the point of being unrecognizable. These include the bed exploding with blood, Freddy lopping off his own fingers just to prove a point, etc. The scenes which replace them simply don't fill the shoes and despite some pretty freaky moments, the remake doesn't have quite the same over-all atmosphere as the original.
Better than many of the sequels, doesn't come close to the original, but still worth checking out.
3 dead guy's out of 5
Rated 18A/R for strong bloody horror violence, disturbing images, terror and language.
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