Nightmare on Elm St.

"Nightmare on elm st." Is obviously a remake of a movie by the same name made in the 80's. Of course the original created one of the most famous movie icon's of all time, Freddy Kruger. Known for his burnt body, crazy claw, and super nerdy sweater. Freddy went through many different changes as the original movie franchise went on. He went from dark, to dark comedy, to just plan goofy. One things for certain though, he was always scary. I don't care who you are, I don't care if you've never seen these movies, you've had a dream about Freddy at one point in time in your life.

So how does this new movie hold up to the original. Well in a few words, not very much. It does however improve upon some of the casting from the original. The role of Nancy for instance. In the original movie she's played by Heather Langenkamp. Her character is just a scream queen character, you never really feel dread for her because secretly you kinda want her to die. While the new Nancy is played by Rooney Mara who does an amazing job as the kinda dysfunctional teen that would kill Freddy in the end. She's believable in the role and never milks it or makes it feel shallow. In fact in the remake her character is almost cast aside until later in the movie which was a nice touch in my opinion. The love interest was another area that I felt improved a bit. No one will ever forget the classic scene of Johnny Depp bleeding out in his bed with a river of blood, I mean its one of the most metal deaths ever. This time though Nancy is kinda followed around by the interest, played by Kyle Gallner. It works because you see the story unfold from their dialog and not Nancy figuring things out out loud, which is just stupid.

You can save 15% or more on car insurance.

Honestly though no one really gives a crap about anyone other than Freddy, so how does he fair in this rendition? Well honestly not very well. If people actually read this they would give me crap for this but let me try and explain. The original Freddy was played by horror icon Robert Englund and he play's the role flawlessly. Even in the more crappy Elm St. movies he's by far the best thing. Even becoming some what of a anti-hero. He pretty much created and molded the character to be his own, and his voice is synonymous with Freddy. Enter Jackie Early Haley, most known now for his role in "The Watchmen" as Rorschach. Now this maybe personal preference, but his make up effects looked stupid. Yes I'm sure its more realistic, and I'm sure it looked more menacing to others. I just didn't get that feeling. In fact I laughed out loud when he was trying to be scary because I kept thinking "Lizard Man"! To Jackie's credit though, if he would have been in similar make up to the original, he would have been amazing. He acted the part well and for the most part he felt dark. So I would ultimately go with Roberts version but Jackie's version isn't all that bad.

Robert Englund as Freddy

Here's my issue. When this movie was released I read a lot about how "Dark" it was and it made Freddy look more "Evil". B.S. It wasn't that Dark and it definitely wasn't very evil. What's with filmmakers today? They can't seem to make things that push any boundaries. Take the remake of "Last House on the Left". Its so much more tame than the original. Thats just sad. Its no wonder either since both of these remakes were originally Wes Craven films. Its possible that Craven just made them as messed up as any person could? All I know for sure is that his originals stand the test of time and are ultimately better than their 2010 remakes.

I'd give Nightmare 2.5 Kruger claws out of 5.