As far as I'm concerned, Freddy Krueger has got to be one of the greatest slashers ever created. What could be more scarier then an enemy who attacks you in your sleep? Apparently Hollywood has completely run out of new ideas and has been forced to "remake" (or reinvent as they like to put it) old franchises. The last we heard of Freddy was in the bad (yet oddly satisfying) Freddy Vs Jason. Some of us may not have watched all of Freddy's films (or even one of them), but
we all know who Freddy Krueger is. The question now is, does this new Nightmare on Elm Street live up to the legacy of the old? I truly wanted to compare this remake to the original, but in all honesty I felt that it just wouldn't be fair. You can't top the original, no way no how. So I deliberately chose not to watch the original again to make sure it wasn't that fresh in my mind and proceeded to watch the remake with an open perspective.
Let's start with the story: kids in whocaresville are mysteriously dying in their sleep. Turns out that all the kids that died are dreaming about a man with a burned face, complimented by a tacky sweater and fedora. Pretty standard Freddy Krueger material right? What I quickly noticed in this remake was that the directors never gave a sense of dread in the atmosphere. Sure the locations were nice, dark and gritty, but the fear that the directors were going for never seemed to hit me. I guess that has everything to do with
Michael Bay. Apparently the king of explosions decided to try and apply his method of directing action films, to a modern day horror film. Did he succeed? No..No he did not. Instead of explosions everywhere we're given
jump scares every 15 minutes. What's sad is that most of the jump scares themselves, weren't even startling. But that's okay as long as the villian himself was scary right?
Freddy Krueger is iconic and will almost always be remembered as Robert Englund. Unfortunately I couldn't ever get his image out of my head as I watched this new film. Just look at that burned smirk on the left. Freddy had just the right amount of humor mixed in with his evil intentions and we loved him all the more for it.
Flash forward to 2010 and take a look at this pic on the right. Granted that its not an actual film still, I kid you not in saying that
thats literally how his face looks. I understand the filmmakers wanting to create their own unique looking Freddy, but did they have to make the mask look so bad? Jackie Earle Haley did a great job as Freddy and I would love to see him reprise his role in the eventual sequel so I can't really fault him. His Freddy was also menacing and stylish but the lack of meat in his dialogue mixed with a not so thought through plot only helped to fuel the argument that Robert Englund should have come back for the remake.
Freddy Krueger is a great villian and I honestly was excited to see him reinvented. The movie itself however was neither memorable, nor scary. For fans of A Nightmare on Elm Street, this movie is a decent different perspective on Freddy in our modern day. Tragically though the movie is worth only one viewing, if any at all. If you want to see a 80s slasher flick done right, go and watch Rob Zombie's Halloween instead.
FINAL GRADE: C-
Freddy Krueger is iconic and will almost always be remembered as Robert Englund. Unfortunately I couldn't ever get his image out of my head as I watched this new film. Just look at that burned smirk on the left. Freddy had just the right amount of humor mixed in with his evil intentions and we loved him all the more for it. 
Flash forward to 2010 and take a look at this pic on the right. Granted that its not an actual film still, I kid you not in saying that thats literally how his face looks. I understand the filmmakers wanting to create their own unique looking Freddy, but did they have to make the mask look so bad? Jackie Earle Haley did a great job as Freddy and I would love to see him reprise his role in the eventual sequel so I can't really fault him. His Freddy was also menacing and stylish but the lack of meat in his dialogue mixed with a not so thought through plot only helped to fuel the argument that Robert Englund should have come back for the remake. 
Thank you Ebert and Roeper. I do agree with you but just like Halloween (the remakes), it will never be as good as the original. They can add all the special effects they want but the truth is, it's just not the same. One problem we have is that we have seen the original and will always compare it that. I did enjoy the remake as that, a remake. They need to start having new ideas to scare us or I might as well stay at home and watch old horror DVD's.
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