Starring: Jackie Earle Haley, Kellan Lutz, Kyle Gallner, Rooney Mara, Connie Britton

Directed by: Samuel Bayer

Today I just saw the “Nightmare on Elm Street” remake and here is my review:

Plot/synopsis: The story to the remake is pretty much the same as the original. Freddy Kreuger, a child killer, who was burned to death years ago. Appears in people’s dreams. Freddy murders people in their dreams which causes them to die in real life.

Again, this movie is getting mixed reviews and opinions by fans and the critics. Some hate it and some LOVED it! Me? Well, I fucking LOVED IT! Seriously, I did!!! I have always been a fan of Freddy movies. The Robert Englund ones. I probably liked the first couple of “Elm St.” films with Englund, the rest of them I didn’t care for and were kind of stupid. The “Elm St.” series went downhill after “The Dream Master”. I know the 1st “Elm St.” movie was directed by horror legend Wes Craven. Notice how Hollywood seems to be remaking every Wes Craven film these days (“The Hills Have Eyes”, “The Last House on the Left”, etc.)?

Some people claim that the Freddy Kreuger role, belongs to Robert Englund and him only. Well, that’s where I disagree. The Freddy Kreuger character is just make up. You can’t recognize the actor anyways and you can always copy that speaking voice easily. Plus, I’m sure the film makers at Platinum Dunes, got Englund’s blessing for going on without him, so I’m sure Englund is all cool with the remake.

The reason I loved this version, was that this is much darker and more evil. The new Freddy’s make up maybe bad and horrible looking but hello, it’s supposed to be like that. The new Freddy look is supposed to be disgusting. They wanted it more disturbing looking than the Englund version. The Jackie Earle Haley version looks exactly like a burnt victim. In the earlier, “Elm St.” movies, the Englund films, they made it look like he was a child killer…but in this one, they wanted Freddy to be more human like. They wanted to have the new Freddy to have some character than the Englund version. This version showed more of Freddy’s past of how he appeared to be today. The remake, made it turned out to be that Freddy Kreuger is a child molester, not just a child killer. So it makes a lot of sense of why Freddy only appears in teens dreams when they go to sleep. I think Jackie Earle Haley’s version is more creepier and darker than the Englund versions. Yes, Haley’s version still have that comical sense of humor like Englund but not much. This film wanted to keep Freddy scary, not humorous.

The plot and storyline maybe similar but the whole movie is pretty different than the original. I was surprised to see “Friday Night Light’s” star, Connie Britton, have a role in this. It’s not just a cameo with Connie, she’s one of the leading roles. Her acting is great as always. They wanted to keep this a serious horror film. Make it scary and creepy. It was kind of scary and creepy in my opinion. They tried not to make it a popcorn flick and made it an actual horror film. The film was extremely dark and it actually made me a little uncomfortable in certain scenes. I think this is one of the best horror remakes in a long while. In fact, I wouldn’t even call it a remake. I would call it a stand alone film. It’s the way the original “Elm St.” movie should have been. No offense to Mr. Craven and Mr. Englund. Looking forward to the sequel now!!!

Score for “Nightmare on Elm. St” = **** (4 stars as in = “excellent”)

Kev