It’s seldom that a remake is better than the original but director, Samuel Bayer’s (‘Max’) take on the horror class, ‘A Nightmare On Elm Street’ lifts it to a new level and takes it to a much darker place. This time round Freddy Krueger becomes one of the most evil characters to grace our screens.
When the teenage friends around Nancy (Rooney Mara – ‘Tanner Hall’, ‘Youth In Revolt’) and Quentin (Kyle Gallner – ‘Cherry’, ‘Jennifer’s Body’) begin dying horrific deaths the two teens are shocked. To make matters worse a horrifying character named Freddy Krueger (Jackie Earle Haley – ‘Shutter Island’, ‘Watchman’) is trying to kill them in their own dreams… or should that be nightmares. Soon they realise that if Freddy kills them in their dream they die in real life as well, so they do the best to stay awake. Convinced their parents, Alan Smith (Clancy Brown – ‘God Of War III’, TV’S ‘Batman: The Brave And The Bold’) and Dr. Gwen Holbrook (Connie Britton – ‘Women In Trouble’, TV’S ‘Friday Night Lights’) know the secret to why Freddy is hunting them, they set out to find the truth while battling sleep deprivation.
Samuel Boyer needs to be congratulated for having the guts to stand up and make this film. The darker more evil Freddy Krueger brings this film in line with Rob Zombie’s reworking of ‘Halloween’ and in a lot of ways Boyer’s work is very similar to that of Zombie… who in my view is one of the best horror directors of our time.
Boyer does everything right. There is genuine suspense in the film and enough gore to keep the most ardent horror fan happy. The only downside to the whole film is that one teenager’s death has you laughing rather than being horrified, and there are one or two clichéd moments. But all that is forgotten when it is revealed why Freddy is killing the teenagers… the horrific truth will shock but certainly won’t disappoint.
‘A Nightmare On Elm Street’ out classes the original by having the guts to go quite a few steps further than the original ever did. Horrific and thrilling this is horror at its most dark… and I love it!
Year: 2010
Director: Samuel Bayer
Stars: Rooney Mara, Kyle Gallner, Jackie Earle Haley, Clancy Brown, Connie Britton
Classification: MA15+
Runtime: 95 mins
Rating: 