A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

A re-vamp of the slasher classic series, Freddie Krueger comes to life once again stalking the kids on Elm Street.

Plot:
The same as the original movie. Teenagers begin to have nightmares about a guy named Freddie coming to kill them. These dreams are quite real, and when they die in their dreams, they die in real life. A few realizes this and desperately tries to stay awake. When they are so tired they start having micro naps Freddie starts chasing them around in a fun blend of reality and nightmare. Turns out that the kids' parents kept a secret from them. When they were in kindergarten, there was a kind gardener who loved playing with them. But the kids started showing up at home with bruises and cuts in strange places. The parents mobbed up said gardener into an abandoned factory and burned him alive.

In the original Freddie was merely a child killer, but in our new racy age he's the pedophile he's always meant to be. Apparently 80's audience couldn't handle it so Wes Craven had to keep his plot point until now. Somehow pedophilia is a crime less acceptable than infanticide. This country is mad.

Thoughts:
Creative kill scenes. The guy's got a scissored glove and man does he put it to good use. Overall not very scary for a horror film. The most off-putting scare wasn't even Freddie, but a traditional shot of a dead girl in a body bag. The old ones weren't scary either, and some argue this movie's actually more terrifying than the original. If so I can't imagine how the original series were billed as horror for so long. I'm a fan of American non-terrifying horror films though (Jeepers Creepers is a favorite). They're always satisfyingly gory without being traumatizing.

Unlike his brother Edward, Freddie had a better use for his scissorhands

I haven't watched the original so I can't make any comparisons. This movie is enjoyable enough on its own, though it won't provide any good scares. Its decent, with decent effects, decent acting, etc. Nothing remarkable.

Other things:
Oh my God I love his voice! I don't know what digital wizardry they did to Jackie Earle Haley's voice but I love it! If only Watchmen had done the same for Rorschach. Freddie's voice is not so much creepy as downright captivating and dare I say it, sexy. I'm not sure they were playing that card with Freddie, I mean after all, he's a pedophile covered in 3rd degree burns, but that's the effect they achieved.

It doesn't help that the guy's really, honestly funny! I know some think his one-liners campy, but all the ones in this movie (and there were quite a few) were lol material. I always thought the Nightmare series were pegged as absolute horror, and was unprepared for the zingers. I ended up enjoying the film a lot more than expected, almost as a comedy. Freddie was wasted as a gardener.

"I'm your boyfriend now, Nancy"

TL;DR:

Slasher film in every sense of the word. Watch for evil burn-victim Rorschach!