A Nightmare on Elm Street [2010]
For some inexplicable reason, teens in high school of a particular association (perhaps linked to a preschool where a gardener worked) are being tormented and killed in their dreams by a burn-faced man with razor-knife fingered glove, most of the time in some steaming, flaming boiler room. Will any of them survive?
**
I can tell you the truth when I say that the remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) didn’t leave me with clinched fists high towards the heavens cursing Hollywood for “You fuckers and your remakes of fan-friendly horror films!!!!!!!” I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t like it. I guess I just had this overwhelming feeling of apathy. That happens when a film doesn’t rise to the occasion or even seems to try. The cast is chock full of pretty faces, with performances that aren’t piss poor but fail to truly register a pulse of any sort of magnitude. Personally, I don’t dislike Katie Cassidy; actually, I quite like her. I could see her as the Janet Leigh of the remake because those who wrote and made this film remain so dedicated and close to the vest with the original that inspired this, it was screaming aloud with a sound of thunder, “IT’S SOOOOO OBVIOUS!!!” Cassidy has been devoted as an actress to the horror genre for years. She knows how to evoke all the traits accustomed to the vulnerable, soft-hearted, wear-her-emotions-on-her-sleeve final girl character so engrained in slashers since the old days. When she takes her exit, unfortunately the filmmakers involved fail to send her off with an impact…I could only imagine that Wes had to have been mighty proud of how well he did with half the budget in his film. Hell, even the babysitter’s exit in Wes Craven’s New Nightmare kicked this remake’s ass in the invisible-Freddy-ragdolls-pretty-girl-across-the-bedroom visual effects show so iconic now to us Nightmare fans. There was a rather (cringe-inducing-to-dog-lovers) shocking effects scene while Cassidy is in nightmareland, discovering her pet with the glove-knife-fingered slice across its torso lying in the backyard prior to her leaving the film soaked in blood. I think we may be nearing the end of the remake craze so prevalent over the course of the last five or so years. A Nightmare on Elm Street may be a reason why this is the case. They make money…during the first weekend. You could go through the motions, and not really give a shit and still make money by whoring yourself out on the past successes of others.
Rooney Mara made waves in her heroine role in David Fincher’s unnecessary remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but I don’t think I could have ever considered her to be such a star-in-the-making after her colorless performance as Nancy (anybody could have sufficed, but Mara can’t even summon the least bit of a personality that brings us to connect on any level with her character) in this Nightmare remake. She just hides in herself, and we get a face and delivery, monotone and blank as a sheet of paper, that leaves much to be desired. Heather Langenkamp, while celebrated by many as a beloved scream queen in the 80s, is considered not exactly Oscar-worthy in her performance, but compared to Mara, I think she a thespian. Kyle Gallner, as Nancy’s friend (and son of the school principal, played by Clancy Brown), as Quentin, is much better because he can at least convey fear, aching, concern, and anger (towards those responsible for Fred Krueger’s “burning”, the parents of the children he molested) in a way that explains the situation his character is currently going through now that Fred Krueger has found his way into his dreams. Mara can at least tear up, I’ll give her that. Thomas Dekker (of the really cool Terminator-The Sarah Connor Chronicles, that was criminally removed from television after a mere two seasons as the young John Connor), as Cassidy’s ex-boyfriend who is there when she is butchered, and Twilight’s Kellen Lutz (as Cassidy’s current beau, and the first film victim) round out the young cast that get the slice and dice. Dekker’s a bit of a prick and Lutz is too far gone by the time we see him at the beginning of the film to really matter as much of a character.
The leaves Jackie Earl Haley, an actor I consider terrific when you give him a part with some real meat. I think if he had a character that wasn’t so exclusive to the actor who played him, Haley could have made an impact. The part of Freddy just leaves him little room to make it his own. Robert Englund is so totally linked to the character that Haley is left to grind through it; it was daring for him just to take the part. I do think the right approach was to place an emphasis on the child molesting aspect that seemed to become rather forgotten as the series itself continued (up until Freddy’s Dead commented somewhat on it). The problem is that Freddy was made up to be a wise-cracking jokey psycho with colorful zingers and playfully sadistic ways to kill teens that endeared him to the slasher audience that found him entertaining. I like that this remake doesn’t suffer the same approach, with Fred just presented as a cruel, calculating monster with a delivery that isn’t flashy or cocky. Haley doesn’t even seem interested in Fred being anything other than a burned creep using the dream as the means to get even with teens, once kids, who “tattle-tailed” on him. The shit with his voice and the make-up, how unimpressive these parts of the character are, I don’t necessarily dispute or embrace, but I did think the character being stripped of all the pomp and circumstance that Englund brought to Fred wasn’t exactly a bad thing. That’s obviously what a lot of Nightmare fans hold near and dear, though, so the critical disappointment didn’t exactly surprise me.
One of my favorite scenes occurs in the hospital after Fred caught Nancy off-guard in a pharmacy/store (the scene where she alters in and out from store to boiler room and back again, with Fred leaving his imprint on Nancy’s arm; Nancy rips away part of his shirt). Treating her for the knife-fingered glove slash down Nancy’s arm, one of the nurses on call wants to sedate the patient, with the mother needing to sign a consent form. It’s the little things I like sometimes. The idea of sedating her, the mother believing it’s possible that her daughter is suffering the throngs of repressed memories that have ruptured a horror she had hoped would remain buried away and forgotten, while we know what truly exists and wants to not only kill Nancy but take pleasure tormenting and hurting her; this is setting up a terror scenario that could place the heroine under, with Nancy to possibly face Fred without the ability to just awaken on her own or with a noise (ring, alarm, or person) that jars loose the dream state. And I have to admit that there was one damn good jump scare when Quentin (after injecting himself with adrenaline to keep himself awake, stolen from a nurse’s cart in the emergency room) is driving in the SUV, Nancy (sleep-deprived), as his passenger, talking about going out on a date “after this is all over”, when Fred appears in front of them, causing a veering off the road. This is a moment that indicates that even when seemingly awake, their brains are at points at rest and weakened, with Fred “slipping through the cracks”.
The remake follows the dream logic of the original
relatively closely. Fred’s presence derives from the alive memories of those he
torments, and as long as he is in his domain, those asleep are almost powerless
to stop him unless they can pry him away from the dream into reality where he’d
be mortal. There’s the climactic battle between Nancy and Fred, but a little
addendum to the remake is that Quentin is part of the mix. Fred lays into poor
Quentin something fierce. A slash down the chest, a hurl through the room, and
a complete stab into his shoulder; Quentin takes his share of abuse. The
setting, however, changes to the “hidden cave” where Fred would take the kids,
the fitting place for him to meet his supposed end. The twist at the end, in
many ways like the original, goes against the very essence of the dream logic
scenario right before it: how could Freddy take multiple stabs and a slit to
the jugular and later return to surprise her mother? Both times, the heroine
has faced her fear and vanquished him because he was removed from his habitat
to the realm of real that would render him vulnerable and no longer immune to
actual violence to his person. This remake, as evident of the twist, is a
good-looking cash-in. Let’s make some money, exploit a popular horror-household
series and psychopath, and produce a product that will grab the fanbase on that
first weekend. This Fred lays it on thick with the creepy psycho-sexual
pedophile bit such as the way he passes off his sick comments to Nancy and
purposely does all he can to provoke disturbing thoughts and feelings out of
her for kicks. That one line, in particular, about “Your mind says no, but your
body says yes” is a good example of how much of a creep this Fred really is.
The film never presents him as even an anti-hero…he’s just a sleaze with a
burned face and a glove that destroys. Primarily the film doesn’t seem to have
the inspiration to take what Wes provided and go into interesting directions
that propel the Fred character and his victims into places that are surprising,
unique, and refreshing. It is basically business-as-usual, with Fred and the
cast about as inspired as the content and special effects scenes featuring
them. Those who made this remake gave the film a polished look with plenty of
nice establishing shots of Fred in various stylistic ways. I have to say the
film is easy on the eyes, but that’s Platinum Dunes for you…PD has the money
and resources but not the passion. And, for me, this was just passionless.
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