Nightmare on Elm Street Review

I think this blog could use some reviews, and I have nothing to do on a Saturday night, so why not?

So Sad...

Spoiler Warning

So last night, with much anticipation, I went to go see the remake of Nightmare on Elm Street at a Drive In. Yes, we still do have drive ins in Ohio; they are just in really terrible areas. This one had two strip clubs down on the road and the smell of pot was lingering for the entire movie. So it was definitely the right atmosphere for romance.

So the movie opens with Kellan Lutz, mostly the reason I cared more than usual, sitting in a dinner looking strung out. He is hated by a burned man in his dreams, and ends up dying like 5 minutes in the movie. This sets things into motion and gives us four characters to watch die off during the film. The film, at least I didn't think, isn't as violent or gory as I was expecting it to be. Its all very to the point with this Freddy, which kinda sucks. The series, even in its low points, had some very creative death scenes. I don't think anything has freaked me out more than the time I watched a girl get transformed into a roach and smashed under Freddy's foot. I guess that is my big complainant about the film, they didn't push it far enough.

I can compare two scenes directly from the original Nightmare and the remake. Chris' death scene is suppose to be the well known scene in the original, where a girl is lifted into mid air and beaten against the walls while being slashed up by an invisible force. The 80's version seemed a lot messy and violent while the new one was just a little too neat and clean. You would think they could have made it more a wow moment and its like, yea I saw this wire move in Crouching Tiger.

The remake does bring in several things that I did end up liking. I do like the the fact that turned Freddy into a child molester, it just adds a very dark side to him. I honestly don't think they used it enough. Dreams are often sexual things and they really don't get into that till the finale with Nancy and Freddy in her dream. I think they should have pushed that more, because as a sexual predator he would really be able to abuse people in their most vulnerable and potentially sexual moments. I honestly was most uncomfortable and sick watching Freddy getting all on Nancy and pushing the sexual violation angle, and it hits at your core. A horror movie should either make you scared or make you incredibly uneasy and uncomfortable, this movie could have done more of the later.

Another good thing was the introduction of these micro naps, where if someone has been up for so long they begin to slip into sleep without realizing it. This is actually used to pretty good effect towards the end of the film. The scene in the pharmacy was good, and before that with the body bag in the school. I wish had been used more and to more extreme effect, like really warping reality. I know part of the point of keeping it subtle was to make the audience question what was a dream and what was reality, but it just seemed muted. Its a dream world, push it some crazy limits. They probably didn't want to make it feel like it was campy or over the top but thats some of the charm of Nightmare on Elm Street.

The imagery was solid. I definitely like some the industrial settings used in the film, which fits with Elm Street being in Ohio. Yes it is in Ohio, the school had an Ohio state flag on it. And the idea of a bunch of Ohio parents going vigilante on a child molester makes sense, we roll conservative and mean here.

On some random points...

A lot of MILFS in this movie, like jeez, everyone had a hot mom. One was even a flight attendant, come on!

I'm not sure how I feel about Nancy being an emo, outsider artist...it wasn't bad but I didn't think it made her a better character. She also draws scary things, should make a film about that.

A franchise staple was altered as well, the little girls. The girls were suppose to be souls of children killed by Freddy but obviously now they are suppose to be the children he molested. They are more memories than spirits, which makes me wonder how they would carry on in sequels...

They only did the rhyme like once, you would almost miss it if you weren't aware of it.

I was expecting some kind of cameos from the original Nancy or Robert Englund, but they were not to be found. That was kind of a bummer.

When compared to other films in the franchise, I think it is definitely one of the better films. I would put in the class of the original, Dream Warriors, and New Nightmare.

As a stand alone film, it is alright. I think it had some good moments but it was a missed opportunity for me. I wish they had pushed things further and really used today's technology to make horrifying and twisted dream killings.