Over the last couple of years, I have found myself watching so many remakes of classic horror films that I just don’t know how to review them anymore. Everytime a remake is about to come out, or trailer is released, people are always saying, “I wonder how the director will reimagine this one…” The key word here is “reimagined.” It has become so heavily used that for a while I was using the word myself.
For the first time, I sat down to watch the remake, or “reimagining,” of A Nightmare on Elm St. Wes Craven’s masterpiece. Everybody’s ultimate nightmare–a man who can kill you in your sleep. When I first heard that this film was coming out in the summer of 2009, I was quick to say, “I wonder how Jackie Earl Haley will reimagine Freddy?” But what I should have said was, “Why is he even going try?” With time, I became so annoyed with this whole “reimagining” phase that Hollywood has been on that I avoided the film in theaters. But, sadly, I succombed to watching this dissappointing movie now.
I know what your saying, “of course you didn’t like it, you had low expectations to begin with.” You’re correct, I had very low expectations. And after watching it, I am even more upset that I wasted my time. Haley’s Kreuger is nothing more than an attempt to make Freddy a one dimensional character, whose deep voice, occasional attempt at humor and poor visual appearance did nothing to stimulate my fear or leave me with an everlasting image to haunt my dreams. Kreuger was a monster more than he was a man. It seemed as though Haley’s Kreuger was lost in the wrong dreamworld. And the directors attempt to humanize Freddy with images of him as a gardener at a preschool came too late and were poorly executed. Robert Englund understood what Freddy was from the very beginning. A monster who enjoyed living in this new world. His charisma, grace and ability to frightenly flirt with audiences made Freddy Kreuger so horrifying that his image has lasted nearly three decades.
The rest of the cast was almost appalling to watch. Rooney Mara as Nancy held zero sympathetic characteristics. I didn’t care to see her successed. I didn’t feel her pain. I didn’t even understand her role in the story. The rest of the cast is not worth mentioning, except for Connie Britton, who played Nancy’s mother. An individual who can’t read a single line from a movie script could have played a better role. In fact, the best scene of the film was her death. Britton brought nothing to the film. Her position was to be the final link between Nancy and her friends and their past. Yet, she failed miserably at bringing the film any redeeming qualities. Her lines were wasted on a role that should have been take by an actress who could emotionally connect everything together.
I believe it is time that movie studios, screenwriters, directors and actors, stop trying to reimagine someone else’s imagination. Since when has using your real imagination been so frowned upon. Craven developed Kreuger from his mind, providing movie-goers with one of the most unforgetable horror movie villians of all time. After watching numerous sequels destroy his imaginative character, Craven had to come back and give us his New Nightmare. Now, Hollywood has given us another nightmare, and it doesn’t involve Freddy Kreuger. It involves watching great young talent in our film industry forgo their own imagination in order to make a quick buck. To pass on delivering a quailty, unique film for just another Freddy movie.
A Nightmare on Elm St. has joined the club worthless remakes, such as Halloween, The Wicker Man, Psycho, and all the others that have come and gone over the last decade. We are about to embark on the start of a new decade, and I hope that the term “reimagined” is left behind. Reimagining the past will leave us nothing in the future.
