‘Nightmare on Elm Street’: A successful remake

You may have to see the film in order to believe it, but as a person who has followed almost every invincible killer in the horror genre, I can honestly say that the new ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ pretty much accomplishes the aim of any good remake. It remains faithful to the original source that inspired it, and at the same time gives a modern perspective to the legacy of the central character.

The essence of his rampage is often debated among the fans, but the general idea is that Freddy Krueger (Jackie Earle Haley) was scarred in a factory fire after being accused of a heinous crime. Whether or not he is actually guilty will be for you to decide when the film reaches its climax, but the driving point of the narrative is a group of suburban teenagers who share a common enemy in their nightmares. In all his disfigured glory, with the same black fedora and his razor-sharp fingers, Freddy haunts their dreams like a phantom in the darkness who will stop at nothing to eliminate anyone unfortunate enough to fall asleep.

Unlike the giant stalkers who never speak in the midst of their carnage, Freddy is the one villain who brings a personality into what is often disregarded as a genre of disposable slashers. As we see within the opening minutes, the producers clearly haven’t lost touch with his bloody madness, but the important thing to understand about this revision is the way it implements Freddy’s ego.

Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers have always been renowned for having their tall monstrous physiques standing off in the distance as they move closer and closer to the dumb teenager whose foot is caught in the door, but Freddy is not that kind of killer. With his short stance and shadowy formation, Freddy’s entity is more equivalent to that of a tiny little tick that bites down hard and doesn’t let go once he’s drawn blood.

Robert Englund will always be credited as the actor who stuck with the entire franchise when many others didn’t, but in replacing the now 62 actor, Jackie Earle Haley proves to be a perfect fit to the new image. One of the things that made the original Freddy character special was Englund’s ability to manipulate the audience by throwing in numerous one-liners and sidesteps of humor amidst the horrific mayhem. Earle Haley is very talented, and could undoubtedly follow that concept if he wanted, but this ‘Elm Street’ is no laughing matter for the same guy who played the cold-blooded Rorshach in ‘Watchmen.’

Earle Haley’s Freddy doesn’t show his face for quite a while, and he doesn’t say very much; but when he does speak, just to hear his chilling words is about as lethal as the scrape of his claws as he slices into the flesh of his next victim.

On a technical note, director Samuel Bayer makes quite an impressive debut here. A lot can be said for the way he positions his cameras mostly on the human subjects so that we never see Freddy coming, and even more interesting is his revamping of the original set designs which are almost identical down to the last detail. For someone who has already made a career directing music videos, Bayer shows that he obviously studied many of the classics, and then learned from the mistakes of all the other reboots. There’s not much to appreciate with the teen actors who are only in the film to be killed off, but by reinventing and reshaping some of the original scenes (boiler room, bathtub, etc.), Bayer’s new film revives many of the old techniques that put Wes Craven on the map in 1984. And even though you probably already figured as much, do I really need to leave you a hint about whether or not it’s open for a sequel?

Posted by Chris Moskaly on Apr 30 2010. Filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry