A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) is the remake of the original A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) and is a fantastic one at that. Put aside all your previous biases on remakes and take a good look at this movie. Unlike the horrific Friday the 13th remake, the Elm Street remake managed to actually be scary instead of just plain silly. However this remake is not without its flaws...
The Good: The movie manages to be generally creepy, I got the same feeling from this version of Freddy that I did from the original one, a sort of uneasiness from his very presence. Some of the death scenes were really well done also. Kris's death (like Tina's) was executed very well. I found only one thing about the movie that was superior to the original and that was the suspense throughout the entire film, unlike the original the remake had an element in it (i.e. "Micro naps") that made Freddy capable of popping out at any given moment, which was actually quite effective overall. The acting overall was not bad at all, it wasn't amazing but it suits the movie.
The Bad: The movie doesn't start off slow; instead of building up suspense it just takes a flying leap into the very basis of the movie. Over half of the times Freddy comes on screen it happens by way of the old sharp music and jump tactic, which I found alright at first but it soon got kind of old and annoying to be honest. Two iconic elements from the first film were executed very poorly. The wall scene from the original was now a very poor CGI version, I hated it and it was completely unnecessary to add it just for the sake of paying homage or whatever they intended on doing, it just looked bad... then again I despise CGI with every fiber of my being. The tub scene was also poorly done; it was simply his hand coming out of the water with again some sharp music to get the squeamish. I still don't care for Freddy's look in this movie even after having a very open mind about it, however his voice far makes up for it.
Overall this film is worth seeing, I was a complete skeptic with low expectations going in and the movie managed to be very well done. Robert Englund will always be the true Freddy, but I will accept this as a replacement. The Nightmare formula works to this day and is the scariest concept I have ever witnessed in a movie.
The Good: The movie manages to be generally creepy, I got the same feeling from this version of Freddy that I did from the original one, a sort of uneasiness from his very presence. Some of the death scenes were really well done also. Kris's death (like Tina's) was executed very well. I found only one thing about the movie that was superior to the original and that was the suspense throughout the entire film, unlike the original the remake had an element in it (i.e. "Micro naps") that made Freddy capable of popping out at any given moment, which was actually quite effective overall. The acting overall was not bad at all, it wasn't amazing but it suits the movie.
The Bad: The movie doesn't start off slow; instead of building up suspense it just takes a flying leap into the very basis of the movie. Over half of the times Freddy comes on screen it happens by way of the old sharp music and jump tactic, which I found alright at first but it soon got kind of old and annoying to be honest. Two iconic elements from the first film were executed very poorly. The wall scene from the original was now a very poor CGI version, I hated it and it was completely unnecessary to add it just for the sake of paying homage or whatever they intended on doing, it just looked bad... then again I despise CGI with every fiber of my being. The tub scene was also poorly done; it was simply his hand coming out of the water with again some sharp music to get the squeamish. I still don't care for Freddy's look in this movie even after having a very open mind about it, however his voice far makes up for it.
Overall this film is worth seeing, I was a complete skeptic with low expectations going in and the movie managed to be very well done. Robert Englund will always be the true Freddy, but I will accept this as a replacement. The Nightmare formula works to this day and is the scariest concept I have ever witnessed in a movie.