04-29-2010, 11:16 PM
Copied this from horrorbid.com. I hid all of the text (highlight it to read it) because I don't know what some would consider spoilers or not... so... read at your own risk!:<!--coloro:#424242<span style=\"color:#424242\"><!--/coloro"First of all, for anyone worried about Haley's performance as Freddy, I can assure you that this is the most despicable, twisted and evil version of Freddy there has ever been. He takes a special pleasure in tormenting the teens in the flick and it only gets more and more skin crawling as we get closer to the end. Haley saves this film from complete mediocrity because without him it's just another addition to the teen slasher remake genre.Alright, we now know that Freddy is great, what about Nancy? She's an important piece to the Nightmare mythology being the first great challenge for Freddy and ultimately defeating him (however short that victory was) in the original film. Rooney Mara as Nancy is the complete opposite of everything Heather Langenkamp was. She is socially awkward, shy, lonely, out of place and a little too emo for my taste. Mara mumbles her way through most of the picture and doesn't really become the strong character I expected until the final minutes of the movie.Actually, through the first part of the movie I was wondering if Nancy was even the central character at all. Her role is very, very limited through the first 30 minutes until the character of Kriss (This would be Tina in the original) meets her end in the famous bedroom scene. One of the main problems, or differences depending on your viewpoint, is the relationships between the teens. As opposed to being a group of friends, they seem more like acquaintances here. People that pass each other in the hall at school and will say hello but don't really get together beyond that. This kind of plays into the overall plot of the film, which I wouldn't dare reveal.Now let's get to that plot. The motivation behind the character of Freddy is completely different from the original. While he still dies at the hands of the Elm Street parents, that's not his reason for killing the Elm Street teens. His reasoning actually makes more sense than the original and brings a much darker turn for the role. I wasn't sure I liked the concept at first but after having spent a night thinking about it I actually like it more. Another part of the plot that had me worried was whether they were going to make Freddy innocent of his crimes. It doesn't really change his character's motivations when you think about it. He still gets killed at the hands of a vigilante group of parents and still comes back to kill their children. His guilt or innocence does play a large role in the movie and it had me wondering, is he the sick bastard we think he is or is he an innocent victim? You'll just have to watch and see.I really tried to watch the film without comparing it to the original but it was very hard. If there was never a Nightmare on Elm Street film before than I would be praising this one up, down and sideways. Unfortunately there is an original version and I think they failed at bringing the character of Nancy to life in the same way that Wes Craven did. With that being said though, they have created a Freddy that is much darker and I have to admit that I like this Freddy the most. He is twisted and sick and makes every other version of Freddy look like that fluffy kitten you see in the pet store window.I do have some complaints about the look of the film though, the biggest being the final showdown with Freddy. We get treated to that super quick style of editing that left my head spinning, wondering what the hell was going on. I can't stand that style and I always feel like I'm missing something or the editors are trying to hide something. Either way it just never works. The other complaint is the jump scare. This is not a problem that is new or strictly for the Nightmare remake. Every horror film employs this and they are effective but there's just too many in here.I watch a lot of Asian horror and I love their style of a good scare. They're not always trying to make something jump out at you. Sometimes the most creepy thing is to see whatever villain/ghost/monster the film has just sort of standing around behind someone without them even realizing they/it are there. It gives you a building sense of dread. You want to scream out loud 'He's right behind you. Oh god, he's gonna get you!' We don't really get that with Nightmare on Elm Street and too many of their scares are telegraphed right to you. There's a sudden silence, all the background music has stopped, you can hear the character onscreen breathing and then BOOM! Cue loud music and scream. It worked in the theater as every one of these moments was followed by the nervous laughter of moviegoers as they tried to calm their pounding hearts. I really do love that kind of laughter in a horror flick screening!The dream sequences are well done but it's the one scene with Nancy crawling across the floor of a drugstore that works the best. Reality and the dreamworld blend together so perfectly in that shot. As Freddy's glove slices through a baby powder bottle in the store the puff of powdery smoke is replaced by the steam off a boiler vent in the dreamworld. They merge together so well and I was entranced by the whole moment.There's also plenty for the hardcore fans in there as well. Most of the iconic scenes still show up in this movie. Freddy leaning out of the wall over Nancy, Kris (Tina) in her body bag in the school, the glove in the bathtub, the bedroom death of Kris (Tina) and Nancy's gooey walk up the stairs. They're all in there but in slightly different ways. Almost all of them seemed to be thrown in at the last minute though except for the gooey stairs. The glove in the bathtub scene actually brought laughter from the audience and it does seem a little cheesy but they at least put it in there.The two most effective are the death of Kris (Tina) in the bedroom and Nancy on the stairs. Kris' death seems much more brutal here as her body is not only flung around the room but smashed against the wall and the ceiling before she is finally sliced open and left to drop to the bed. The absolute best of the bunch is Nancy on the stairs, or in the hallway in the remake. The original saw Nancy's feet getting stuck in what looked like marshmallow holes as she tries to get up the stairs of her home. It wasn't well done and if you look hard enough you can see the hole in the steps where her foot is supposed to go next. The remake takes it to a whole new level. As she's running down the hall, reality and dreams begin to merge and she finds herself swimming in a sea of thick blood. Again, the two worlds blended together so well that I was amazed. It was one of the best scenes in the movie.So fear not fellow Freddy freaks, Platinum Dunes has made a great remake for once. This is a Freddy that I would love to see more of and I would imagine that they'll be making sure that JEH follows through on the two sequels that I'm sure he's signed on for. "<!--colorc</span><!--/colorc