Day 232: "If I sleep, I dream. If I dream, I die."

The recent rebooting (for lack of a better term) of cherished horror franchises from my youth have, so far, been pretty good, in my humble opinion.  Texas Chainsaw Massacre was pretty cool, and I loved the Friday the 13th re-imagining (of course I am a HUGE Jason fan, and this was initially a tough pill to swallow).  The 2010 version of A Nightmare On Elm Street, is another matter entirely.  The story remains, essentially, the same as the original, but the emphasis here is much more on Freddy than the teenagers attempting to decipher what's happening to them.  There is some research done by the doomed teens, but the majority of their tragic discoveries is either sheer luck, or is revealed to them in their dreams.  As far as the sleep deprivation aspects of the movie, they appear to be surly and irritated rather than exhausted.  This is not to say the film is a total loss, as many of the iconic scenes and lines are delivered here, but if one is going to create a "new vision" of a franchise and villain, come up with fresh, new ideas.  Simply re-shooting the same scene with better effects and production values smacks of laziness, at the least, or plagiarism, to be blunt.  As the original series got completely campy by the end, I did appreciate the attempt to make Freddy scary again.  The snarky one-liners are very few and far between, and the makeup is creepier.

The teen stars in this are nothing to write about, so I won't.  The real star here is Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy.  Fresh off of his turn as Rorschach in Watchmen, Haley gives Freddy new life with his superbly creepy voice.  He also injects some new "twitches" to Freddy's persona, putting a bit of excited, nervous energy into the hunt.  I hope if there is a sequel to this, that Haley continues to make Freddy a monster and not a laughing stock.

I was ultimately disappointed with A Nightmare On Elm Street, but the new Freddy is something to behold.  It is easily the weakest of the re-launches, in terms of story and delivery, but one of the best in delivering a classic splatter titan in a new way.  The one highlight for me was the inclusion of an origin story.  I always wanted to see the "actual" beginning to these killers' stories, be they Jason, Freddy, Pinhead, or even Leatherface.  It was nice to finally see one, albeit in a deeply flawed film.  6/10.

See you tomorrow, and GO WATCH A MOVIE!!