HORROR FAIL PART 3: A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2010

Everyone that knows me knows my stance on remakes. I pretty much hate all of them, unless they were remade in the 80s. There have been a few "ok" ones here and there, but not enough to sway my opinion. In comes a remake of one of the most legendary slasher movies of all time. I was not excited about this project, but I have to say, the trailer put some hope in my heart. Upon release, the film was pretty much blasted, but I still decided to ignore the critics and my friends and decide for myself. I kind of wish I had listened to the opinions. This isn't the worst movie ever, but it just doesn't live up to the original, or even add any exciting elements like the sequels. You can definitely argue part 5 and 6 are worse than this movie, but they had originality, something the 2010 remake completely lacks.

In this film we have better special effects, better actors, better cinematography, and pretty much everything else that comes along with a bigger budget. But what is the major fail that holds this film down? It just isn't scary in the least. I may be desensitized to horror at this point, but I can still detect when a movie has legitimate scares and thrills. The remake fails on all levels in the scare department, and goes for the loud screeching noise at a "jumpy" part to scare the audience instead. In all seriousness, they could have just ripped off the mood and scenes of the first movie frame for frame and they would have produced more scares. The only plus about this movie is we get a decent backstory involving Freddy Krueger. Jackie Earl Haley is one of the best current creepy actors and I actually think they did a fine job in casting him. He adds some more seriousness to the role that was made a little more comical by Robert Englund. But sadly, he doesn't have much to work with. Take a bunch of generic teenagers and use different kill tactics from other movies but throw then in dream sequences and that is what you have with this movie. I like the casting, the backstory, and I'll go as far as to say it isn't at the bottom end of recent horror remakes. But still compared to the OG Nightmare, it is an epic fail.

*2 Lance Approvals*