Review: A Nightmare on Elm Street

Hollywood is not afraid of rebooting franchises, and this year's big reboot is A Nightmare on Elm Street with Jackie Earle Haley donning the knive-glove and striped sweater that made Robert Englund famous in the 1980s. But like most remakes, there's a lot lost in translation.

Director Samuel Bayer, whose background is in music videos, doesn't bring anything new to the table, but it's hard to tell with a script that plays bait-and-switch with its protagonist. It's not until Act Two that it's even apparent who the real protagonist is, with all the focus on Kris (Katie Cassidy). Screenwriters Wesley Strick and Eric Heisserer may be following the basic structure of the original Wes Craven concept, but unlike most Craven stories, there isn't anything truly scary here. Sure, there are jump points, when you know you must be scared, but more often than not you're reacting because you know you're supposed to (often due to loud noises) versus being genuinely startled, let alone frightened.

Not that slasher films are known for outstanding casts, but A Nightmare on Elm Street has so little to work with, there's not much they can do but pout and deny anything is wrong. No characters are sympathetic, with Katie Cassidy (Melrose Place) looking Botoxed to the point of asphyxiation, and Kyle Gallner (Haunting in Connecticut) as Quentin seems on the verge of tears in every scene. Rooney Mara (Youth in Revolt) plays Nancy like a poor man's darker haired and less expressive Felicia Day. 

The biggest waste in this film is Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy Krueger. Haley, who's proven he can act and act well in films like Little Children and Watchmen, barely gets to do anything more than growl out a few tepid one-liners. He could easily be a scary, nightmarish character but he's got little to work with, being wasted underneath the prosthetics and bad lighting. 

With rotating leads, implausible plot twists and boring nightmare sequences, it's hard to recommend the new A Nightmare on Elm Street even to horror fans. To put it in context, this is from someone who has yet to see the original 1984 A Nightmare on Elm Street, with no bias toward the original.