The original Nightmare on Elm Street directed by Wes Craven managed to build a legacy for itself and grew from a small-budget exploitation movie into a juggernaut within the horror genre that is still credited to this day as one of the best horror films ever made. Through a simple yet memorable premise, inventive kills, mostly tolerable characters, and an iconic killer in Freddy Krueger, its multiple sequels and franchise potential demonstrated they had something special with this brand, enough so that a remake was eventually put into contention and was released in 2010 with diminishing results (which shouldn’t have been a surprise). After witnessing the death of a friend at a diner, teenager Kris (played by Katie Cassidy) tries to research into these supposed nightmares that he was suffering, as she has also been suffering similar nightmares that involve a severely burned man with knives for hands. After being killed in her sleep by the man and her boyfriend, Jesse (played by Thomas Dekker) being convicted for the crime, fellow classmates Nancy and Quentin (played by Rooney Mara and Kyle Gallner) discover that all five of them used to go to the same preschool together, but were collectively forced to repress it by their parents due to being molested by the janitor of the school, Fred Krueger (played by Jackie Earl Haley), who has now returned in their dreams for revenge. Being the last ones left alive from this school and therefore the last ones Krueger wants to finish off, Nancy and Quentin try to determine a way to kill this demon off once and for all, before their bodies catch up to them and forcibly fall asleep, leaving them at Freddy’s mercy. Despite being a success at the box office (even being the highest-grossing film in the franchise with $117.7 million worldwide), this remake was trashed by critics and audiences, failing to impress others for its distinct lack of purpose, freshness, and engaging material.

The idea for a Nightmare on Elm Street remake began in 2008, with production company Platinum Dunes, which is led by Brad Fuller, Andrew Form and Michael Bay (already a great sign there), wishing to go down the same track that they had done with their 2009 remake of Friday the 13th, abandoning the more comedic and quip-happy character that Freddy had turned into over the course of the franchise, and return to a horror atmosphere that would take elements from each of the films and construct their own new tale out of it (even though it would eventually just become a remake of the 1984 film, with only  death scenes and concepts being borrowed from the other stories). On the surface, it doesn’t feel like an exact copy of the original (which is usually a worry when it comes to these kind of remakes), acting more akin to a re-imaging than an exact remake like what was done with the similar retreads of Friday the 13th and the 2003 Texas Chainsaw Massacre. However, this film is severely hindered without the unique style and components that made Nightmare on Elm Street famous. The original story was something more akin to an urban legend or a scary story you tell around a campfire; something that didn’t have a ton of depth but banked on simplistic creepiness and over-the-top imagery as a means of getting into people’s heads and staying with them, which was assisted by the directing, acting and the visuals. This movie is every standard modern horror film ever made with nothing inventive or creative placed in to make it feel the least bit engaging. There isn’t a lot of new directions you can take with this character and premise, and while the element of tying it back to a deeply disturbing and sadly true criminal act could work, it would need to scratch the supernatural element and instead twist it into a more psychologically torturous movie, which the film would never do in fears of disappointing hard-core fans. The script by Wesley Strick and Eric Heisserer allows for no moment of character development, introspection, or even creative allegory, it all relies on this singular event and instead of letting any moment sit, it breezes through almost every scene without any moments of humanity or in-depth discussions, so it doesn’t even add a new perspective or tone to the story. With that said, while it is flawed in the writing and directing department, it isn’t downright awful. For being the first and only movie he’d direct, Samuel Bayer, who is known for directing commercials and several music videos including Nirvana’s Smells like Teen Spirit, The Cranberries’ Zombie, and Green Day’s American Idiot, does at least bring a slight visual eye to some scenes in this film, and while it is a very bland movie without much purpose, it isn’t distractingly poor to sit through, more just mindlessly droning.

The cast for the film has a few more recognizable faces than you’d expect. While none of them are huge names, it is still surprising to see them in this kind of movie, even though it’s not too uncommon to see stars before their peak appear in roles of this variety (like the original film with a very young Johnny Depp). With this in mind, it draws to attention how for what this movie requires and what these actors have to work with, most of them are doing pretty decently. You can feel that everybody is putting in effort when they are given the chance, and if a moment feels awkward or a delivery feels poor, it is more often than not a problem with direction and scripting than seemingly because of them. The lines are generic, none of them are given any backstory whatsoever, and the fact that these roles are different than the original mean that people can’t just infuse how they felt about the past roles onto these ones, but when the actors are allowed to showcase some emotion, they do it pretty well. Both Rooney Mara and Kyle Gellner are stuck with incredibly bland roles that have zero personality, chemistry, or intrigue whatsoever, and they are saddled with occasional stale line deliveries because of their shallow roles, but when they have a moment that puts them in emotional distress, they do it pretty good. Despite having small parts, Thomas Dekker and Katie Cassidy are honestly pretty strong as well and unlike the leads, are at least given the opportunity to have an emotional range outside of just bland indifference (even if their roles are pretty short and equally as unengaging). Random cameos like Connie Britton and Clancy Brown are nice to see, but they don’t have much to offer, and sadly the film does drop the ball quite a bit when it comes to its main villain. Freddy Krueger is an iconic horror character, but his portrayal here wouldn’t give off that impression for a first time viewer, being stuck with horribly generic lines, an awful design with hideous VFXs, a nasally and overly digital-sounding voice by Jackie Earl Haley that doesn’t feel threatening or ghostly, and a backstory that is strangely kept a secret for a good chunk of the film even though it’s obvious what the end result is going to be (don’t try to fool your audience into thinking the dream-slaying creeper-looking guy ISN’T a paedophile). By trying to remove the goofier direction his character went in the sequels, they forget that Freddy didn’t have much of a personality originally (rather existing as a physical representation of these disturbing ideas), so this more openly predatory version just comes across like any random horror threat instead of a legacy villain re-imagined.

The design of Freddy in this film doesn’t come close to matching how the original portray him, but it’s even more tragic to find out that it isn’t all CGI. There was make-up and prosthetics used for the role, with CGI from the people behind the Two-Face effects for The Dark Knight, so these are talented people working on this movie, but something about the execution just doesn’t work in the end. Sometimes he looks okay from certain angles, but the closer he gets, not only does he look faker, but very little expression or uniquely creepy elements are featured under this computer-generated filter, so it feels incredibly safe and therefore, unmemorable. Most of the moments within the dreamscape sadly don’t try to be overly creative or adventurous even though they have CG now (although considering how most of the effects in this look, it’s probably for the best), but they at least capture the sweaty and claustrophobic nature during some of the more confrontational moments within this space (Nightmare on Elm Street really likes orange-tinted pipe-ridden areas). What’s also nice is that despite the opening giving the impression that the film is going to be stuck with this hideous mucus-coloured tint of green and yellow (like what most horror movies of the era or even nowadays had), the film thankfully drops that for more of a standard looking production, deciding to trade out ugly and unpleasant to just bland looking. Again, thanks to the director’s past work in music videos, it feels like he gets an idea of how to shoot a scene and while the cinematography by Jeff Cutter isn’t great, its decently composed and once and a while, there’s a good shot. Even with this in mind, it doesn’t hide the fact that the film just isn’t scary. The original definitely went for more of an unnerving factor than anything flat out horrifying, but this one is trying to be scary and is just failing miserably with every attempt. The jump-scares are pathetic, the tension and suspense are non-existent, any time they try to include actual human horror like what happens to the children is disturbing but not matched with smart enough content to make it feel warranted, and any time they replicate a scene from the original, it feels hollow and adds nothing new so it’s just watching the same scene but without any surprise

Funny how it has to be stated that a perfectly good film from years ago doesn’t need a remake of any kind, but at least when it comes to this film, this 2010 A Nightmare on Elm Street film doesn’t fail because it couldn’t have anything to offer, it’s that this one DIDN’T have anything to offer. If you’re going to bring it back, try and refresh it for a newer audience and don’t just rely on stale generic tropes of the genre while using an old classic as a mask to hide how little you have to bring to the table, and that can be felt in the aimless direction, shaky script and zero scare factor or sense of personality. The acting is honestly better than it deserves to be, and the film isn’t awful to sit through, you can feel there is a sense of competence behind everybody involved, you just won’t get anything from it. This Freddy might be trying to be scary again, but at least the jokey one left an impression, this film ironically has a very strong chance of putting you to sleep.

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