Friday, April 30, 2010

My Review of Nightmare on Elm Street


I'm back from seeing the remake of Nightmare on Elm Street and I have to say... The original is better, however this version wasn't bad.

I know, I know, I should be used to this by now, but I had to give this a try. But I'll say it again, the original is better.

Here's why (bullet point time)
  • Freddy's face almost seems nicer in the updated version. In the original, he looked scarier.
  • The opening credits sucked, a waste of time for 4 minutes.
  • Kellan Lutz's scene could have been left out.
  • All the names were changed, but Nancy's.
  • I didn't care for the updated version of Nancy. Her role didn't come to life until the last 35 minutes of the movie. Plus, they made her kind of goth-ish and nonchalant, not the feisty 'Nancy' Heather Langenkamp gave us.
  • Freddy was not a child murderer, he was a molester in this version. I felt like this change took the 'horror' factor away from Freddy.
  • Jackie Earle Haley did a great job as Freddy. Love Jackie.
  • The famous 'Freddy coming through the wall' scene SUX in the new version.
  • The dreams were not fun or scary, but creative.
  • There were no 'long arms' sceneno pulling Glenn down into the bed and blood flood the ceiling... No, just a bunch of 'jump' scenes.
  • The characters were boring, noone stood out. But Jackie/Freddy.
  • We learned more about the parents of the Elm Street kids.
  • Nancy didn't have a Cop dad, in fact, she had no dad.
  • They didn't seem like High School students, more like college kids.
  • I enjoyed Rooney Mara, I just wished we got more 'Nancy' out of her.
  • I was bored from this version.
  • Honestly, there was no reason to remake this. It didn't increase the value of the story or Freddy's or Nancy's characters.
  • The 'mother ending' scene was slightly better in the updated version.
In all, this wasn't a bad movie. Far better than the Friday the 13th remake. This was a decent take, but nowhere close to the original.

3 comments:

robertga99 said...

I saw the previews and wondered why they decided to remake it. The original was scary and good. Not all the sequels though...they got corny.

Anonymous said...

Interesting. I plan to see this next weekend. Sucks they didn't do the long arm scene. That is one of the creepiest in the original.

SteveA said...

I am going to see it. I am a huge fan of the original (which launched the career of Johnny Depp - it was his 1st movie).

Also Nancy in the original seemed a better character - she seemed nice and she really played the role well.

Thanks for the review.

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Viktor is a small town southern boy living in Los Angeles. You can find him on Twitter, writing about pop culture, politics, and comics. He’s the creator of the graphic novel StrangeLore and currently getting back into screenwriting.