film review: a nightmare on elm street
This decade has seen a recent influx of slasher film remakes, and Marcus Nispel’s re-envisioned Friday the 13th (2009) was poor in comparison to the new remake of Wes Craven’s classic A Nightmare on Elm Street.
Samuel Bayer’s A Nightmare on Elm Street has a plot that is fairly consistent with the original, as they both follow a group of teenagers who live in the town of Springwood and are inexplicably suffering from similar nightmares that contain the infamous and vengeful Freddy Kruger (a villain notable for his disfigured face, fedora hat, stripped jumper and his razor bladed glove) who can kill his victims in their dreams.
Through various flashback sequences we learn that Freddy once worked as a janitor at a primary school and shared a “special” relationship with the young students. Back in the 80s, it was too taboo to thoroughly examine issues such as paedophilia, which is why the remake gives more background information into Freddy’s human life, and an insight into why and how he was burnt to “death”.
I was not a fan of the new Freddy – Robert Englund who starred in the original and all of the eight sequels did not sign up for the remake. Oscar nominated actor Jackie Earle Haley plays Freddy as a much darker figure: his face was apparently supposed to resemble a real burn victim’s, and his voice is very deep in comparison to Englund, whose character was much more charismatic, and in my opinion, more creepy. This quality also differentiated him from the other slasher villains of the time (such as Jason Vorhees, Michael Myers and ‘Leatherface’).
While most slasher films are typified as misogynistic, A Nightmare on Elm Street does not include any derogatory sex scenes, but includes a strong willed ‘final girl’ named Nancy who eventually manages to triumph over evil. However, unlike the original, the first half of the film does focus on blonde beauty Kris (played by Katie Cassidy), and there is one bizarre scene later in the film that sees Nancy drifting to sleep whilst taking a bath, as Freddy’s blades are seen rising out of the bubbles towards her open legs – thankfully her alarm clock wakes her up in time!
As a horror film buff, I enjoyed this remake, and while the special effects are fairly unconvincing, there are numerous effective “fake” scares throughout which contribute to the eerie and surreal atmosphere that dominates the film.
