"I keep having these dreams, and there is this man, and he's burnt."
With the remake of the obvious classic, A Nightmare on Elm Street, the circle is complete. The big three slasher icons of the 80's have all been remade now, with questionable and varying results. There is a lot to complain about with the Halloween and Friday the 13th remakes, so where does the Nightmare on Elm Street remake stand?
Surprisingly, it is actually a fairly decent film. It's definitely the superior of the three slasher icon remakes to me and I would rank it somewhere in the middle of the franchise, clearly behind the first two films and perhaps just behind New Nightmare and Dream Warriors. It's a very solid entry in a relatively uneven franchise. Unneeded perhaps, but considering it could have been a disaster, the results are pretty pleasing.
The teenage leads do an adequate job. I basically give everyone a pass because I wasn't annoyed with them, like I am in so many of the more modern horror films. None have the screen presence of Heather Langenkamp, who played Nancy in the original film (and returned in Dream Warriors and New Nightmare) so it's disappointing in that sense, but how many horror leads are that memorable and charismatic anymore? Speaking of the character of Nancy, one of the few holdovers from the original storyline, she's nothing like the original. It doesn't help that the focus doesn't go on her until a good 30-35 minutes into the film, a move reminiscent of the first film, but not for that lengthy amount of time. Instead, the viewer mostly follows Kris, played by Katie Cassidy, in the first act of the film. She was the best of the young people in the film, and the best looking too, so it was a shame to see her character kick the bucket after the first half hour.
Even though the main protagonists are important, everyone comes for the portrayal of Freddy Krueger. Jackie Earle Haley does a passable job. He looks great in the shadows, mainly because it still looks a lot like Robert Englund's classic. I'm not a big fan of how his face looks, but it's not a deal breaker. However, I'm not too fond of his voice. At times, he sounds menacing, but most of the time, he sounds like a drug addict struggling to catch his breath. And his one liners are usually cringe inducing. After the first couple of films in the franchise, the one liners became a part of this character, but those films were also not as serious. This remake is very serious in tone and a lot of Freddy's quotes don't jive too well. However, I think it's going to take me some time for this new portrayal to sink in. After all, having Robert Englund be the only person to play the character since the release of the first film a quarter of a century ago is the main reason Haley deserves a break.
The strongest area of the film is how it honors the original just enough, while expanding on other areas to make it a satisfying addition to the Elm Street saga. Scenes like the above picture with Nancy in the tub return, but play out differently than the original. Yeah, everything is better in the 1984 version, but this film pays tribute while refraining from being a carbon copy remake like the terrible 1998 version of Psycho. I also like how the kills are kept to a minimum. While not terribly creative, it was a good move to keep them all to glove kills. As mentioned, the tone is serious, so anything else would not have fit.
It was always hinted at that Freddy was a child molester, in addition to being a child murderer, but outside of a newspaper article that you had to pause on to read in Dream Child, I believe, it was never more than implied. This new film makes it very clear that Fred is indeed a child molester. As long as you're a normal individual, you should be creeped out by this aspect of his character. In this day and age, the way a lot of mainstream horror films play, I felt it was actually a bold and daring move by the filmmakers to bring this unsavory quality of Krueger to the forefront and spend so much time on it. Outside of actually showing him rape children, which no one wants to see, I think this is as close as we're going to get to the scenario behind the long rumored prequel tale showcasing Freddy's exploits with the Elm Street children.
The film looks great. It has that slick modern day Platinum Dunes quality that plenty of people bemoan (usually myself included) but it also has the dirty, grimy feel of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake. The dream sequences are well done, as expected with the CGI technology of today. Nothing is over the top, which is a good thing, and scenes like Nancy walking back into her room and having it covered in softly falling snowflakes capture the sleepy dream quality the film has most of the time. One negative is that sometimes it is too obvious at first to the viewer that the character is in the dream world. Warped and shuddering bookshelves is one scene that comes to mind. I like how in other films in the franchise, particularly the first two, it is not completely clear if we're in the dream world one minute or not. Like I said, they were mostly well done, but sometimes it was jarring, but I think that is more personal preference than anything.
As for the music, it peppers some of the original's main theme here and there. Thankfully, no heavy metal is present either, which is something too many modern remakes use in place of an original score. While there is some generic chase music here, it is pretty subdued and doesn't overwhelm any scenes. Again, they were careful in this area too and points are deserved.
Overall, the final product was about as much as I could dare hope for. It's a remake to one of the greatest horror films ever, from a time period where film-making was arguably more daring, more creative, and more personal. It's a solid horror film, possibly one of the best remakes in the current remake cycle that began with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in 2003. Getting used to the new Freddy is honestly my only glaring issue with the film and I think only time will help that. Here's hoping the inevitable sequel doesn't fail horribly like the sequel to the Halloween remake did.
Film Grade-
Cinematography: 8
Plot: 7
Score: 8
Suspense: 6
Tilt: 8
Overall: 7.6
No comments:
Post a Comment