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A Nightmarish Reboot

The new Nightmare on Elm Street movie is a more blatantly sadistic “Freddy,” and a great pulse pounding reboot of the film series.  After umpteen sequels you might think the content and storyline of a new ‘Nightmare’ movie would be stale; more re-hashed ways of offing defenseless teens – more driveled one-liners by our pal Freddy – but director Samuel Bayer (anybody remember the Metallica videos from the early 1990’s?) and writers Wesley Strick & Eric Heisserer (Arachnophobia and Final Destination 5) work magic with Wes Craven’s original concept.  The neighborhood of Elm Street keeps the same 80’s look of the original film series.  The story line, although consistent with the theme of the Freddy films, still seems fresh and inventive.  Noted film composer Steve Jablonsky renders a musical score that reinvents the eerie sounds of Elm Street while adding his signature style of rhythmic vibrating bass tones (Want a sample of his talent?  Check out the new trailer for “Jonah Hex” starring Josh Brolin & Megan Fox; it’s his score from 2005’s ‘The Island’).

The new ‘Elm Street’ keeps the story of our favorite crispy villain and his horrendous exploits to unleash a barrage of steel-fingered dismemberment on the inhabitants of Elm Street.  The film also stays consistent with the heroine who appears in the film series, Nancy Holbrook (Rooney Mara “Youth In Revolt”).  Nancy is your typical socially-awkward teen as she’s always been.  This time she’s an artist with struggling visions of despair driving her brush nightly as she feverishly attempts to avoid sleep.  With friends around her suddenly dying in strange ways, and her dreams  slowly engulfed by a menacing burnt figure, she begins to piece together the ‘who’ and ‘why’ this nightmare is playing out on the residents of her street.    Our villain Freddy (Jackie Earl Haley “Watchmen”) relishes in his power to whisk through her dreams to torment her, while taking extensive trips into her friends to systematically slice and dice them in clever and inventive ways.  The film draws on the clichéd quick music jumps to send your heart fluttering, but it becomes a ‘rope-a-dope’ on the senses.  Just when you think it’s as simple as a cat jumping across the screen – you suddenly get a fright that is completely unexpected.  The hidden jewel of this film is the storyline.  You get engrossed in where the writers are taking you and the spin they put on Freddy’s motive for stalking these hapless teenagers.  Freddy’s banter is hard edged and offers very little comedy (“Why are you screaming?  I haven’t even cut you yet!”).  It’s all about the business of terrifying and shredding for this Freddy who finds a morbidly gory way of dealing with the films resident hottie Kris (Katie Cassidy of 2010’s ‘Melrose Place’).  As the film moves, you start to wonder how fresh they can make each death dream sequence, yet each one is a visual spectacle that culminates in the inevitable downfall of another angst ridden teen; you will not be disappointed.

The steady-cam film work gives you the constant impression Freddy is walking with or behind every character you see at all times.  The score brilliantly plays off each tension filled moment and culminates in a auditory sensory shock almost as potent as the visual one you get with each characters demise.  The film runs a bit short at 90 minutes, but why waste time with filler when you have content written this well.

“A Nightmare On Elm Street (2010)” is rated R for strong bloody horror violence, disturbing images, terror and language.

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