Horror fans are a unique breed. They know what they like and, even more so, they know exactly what they don’t like. They are fiercely loyal and will come out, guns blazing, to defend their favourite film or director. So, when New Line Cinema and Michael Bay’s much maligned Platinum Dunes announced they had plans to remake arguably the most popular horror film of all time, the internet horror community erupted into vitriolic revolt against anything and anyone connected to what was perceived as the most vile and offensive sacrilege.
This was neither a challenge to our right to free speech nor a threat to our religious, social or reproductive rights; no, this was much more serious. This was A Nightmare on Elm Street.
Wes Craven’s 1984 film gave horror audiences a new killer to love. After watching busty teenagers running from faceless killers like Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers, Nightmare’s blade gloved child killer, Freddy Krueger, was a breath of fresh boiler room air. He was a killer with personality, he had pizzazz and we rooted for him. The film was a box office success and was positively received by critics and film fans alike. With seven sequels, a television show, a spin off film and millions of dollars of merchandise, Nightmare on Elm Street had cemented its place in horror film history and in the cold, black hearts of horror fans the world over.
When Platinum Dunes announced in early 2008 that they would be “re-imagining” the film, fans were worried. When they heard the directing job would be handed to the inexperienced Samuel Bayer (a music video director best known for Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit), they were horrified.
Not me though. But before you grab me by the hair and drag me into your boiler room, let me explain.
Like any good horror fan, Freddy Krueger holds a special place in my heart. I remember as a six year old, desperately wanting to go to a dress up party as Freddy, despite never having seen the film. So, off my mother and I trundled to the local video store to hire the film that would begin my lifelong love affair with horror cinema. While my mother watched it and took notes on my costume, I watched with absolute delight as Freddy slashed and impaled his way through an attractive cast of adults masquerading as teenagers. I squealed with laughter as he dropped one liners that I could not possibly have understood and clapped every time he appeared on screen.
I was excited, enraptured and in love.
But, even as a six year old, I wasn’t scared
While I love all of the Nightmare films, I would never put them in a “Scariest films…” list. Freddy is a caricature whose horror, despite being grotesque in appearance, has been rendered impotent by the ridiculous things he says and the filmmaker’s seeming desperation to include as many product placements and pop culture references as possible.
While the first few Nightmare on Elm Streets didn’t rely heavily on referencing pop culture and current technology, as the later films grasped for storylines and relevance, they screamed desperation and that made me feel sad (and queasy). At any moment I’d expect Freddy to start hawking a George Foreman Grill.
I also struggled to reconcile the idea that Freddy was a child murderer, yet we were supposed to, in a way, identify with him and laugh along with him. He was our buddy, we were on his side, yet if we left him alone with our children he’d kill them and incinerate their bones. As an adult, this dichotomy proved almost overwhelming to me. In the original film, humour is present but kept at a minimum; in the later films he’s basically a stand-up comedian. I can’t help but feel that the film makers lost Freddy somewhere between 1987’s A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: Dream Master, released the following year. They had given up on him being a monster or every parent’s worst nightmare, and were happy to let him become a parody of himself.
Which is why I (and it is possible that it was only I) was so excited about the impending release of the Nightmare on Elm Street remake. Platinum Dunes are known for their horror remakes, in fact, that’s pretty much all they do, and they have had varying levels of success since they began pumping out the cookies in 2003. While I found their remakes of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Friday The 13th to be thoroughly average, I enjoyed The Amityville Horror and felt that the divergences from the original film’s storyline really enhanced the horror and the narrative quality of the film. Keeping in mind that the original 1979 Amityville is a wonderfully terrifying and incredibly well respected film, they certainly had some big shoes to fill.
So how did Michael Bay (a man known most notably for blowing things up and being compared to Hitler by Megan Fox) and Samuel Bayer (an inexperienced feature film director) fare in their attempts to re-write the horror bible? In my opinion: pretty well.
Bayer’s A Nightmare on Elm Street is sleek, scary and well paced.
His history in music video directing is evident in the production values and editing choices made in the film. The plot (including Freddy’s backstory) has been fleshed out, and because of this, the film needs to move at a faster pace to include all relevant points. I don’t usually say this, but the movie could have gone for a bit longer.
While it follows the tried and tested Krueger formula, it still manages to feel fresh and honestly frightening. The basics are still there: the vigilante parents and attractive teens, the bloody deaths and the burned dream stalker with the razor fingered glove. But that’s where the similarities stop.
Gone are the one liners and the kitschy post modern references, and in their place is an evil, sadistic and clever killer. With a cast of respected actors such as Academy Award nominee Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy and Clancy Brown as local father Alan Smith, the film has a classiness that the original lacked.
Haley is brilliant as Freddy. There really is no comparison to Englund’s Freddy as they are as different as two characters can be. Neither does a better job than the other because they are poles apart in their portrayal and also in the way the writers have crafted them using dialogue and their appearances. The fedora and shirt are still there, but Haley’s realistic burns are grotesque in the light and horrifying in the darkness, courtesy of make-up artist Karen Lynn Accattato. Unlike the original film, the audience is not encouraged to identify with Freddy or to laugh along with him; we are repulsed and terrified that a man – let alone a creature – like him could exist. Haley’s Freddy truly is the monster of your worst nightmares, delivering his dialogue in a dry, rasping and truly scarring way. His voice will linger with you long after you have left the cinema.
Relative newcomer Rooney Mara brings a new angle to the main protagonist as Nancy, played by Heather Langenkamp in the 1984 film. Despite only making her debut five years ago in a bit part in Urban Legends: Bloody Mary, Rooney makes Nancy feel real. The other members of the young cast do a good job, including Kyle Gallner from Showtimes Big Love.
The real stars of the show are the impressive sets featured in the dream and flashback sequences, as well as the industrial locations used in Freddy’s death scene. The use of literally dreamlike imagery creates a world we can really imagine Freddy inhabiting. Cinematographer Jeff Cutter and Art Director Craig Jackson have done an amazing job of bringing Freddy’s world to horrifying life.
While fan opinion is divided about this film, I loved it. I came out of the cinema as excited as I had entered. This is not Gone With The Wind, it’s not going to go down as one of the greatest films of all time, but that’s not what A Nightmare on Elm Street was ever about. It’s a fun and scary film and, I think, definitely worth seeing.
