A Nightmare on Elm Street ** (2010, Jackie Earle Haley, Rooney Mara, Kyle Gallner, Thomas Dekker, Kellan Lutz, Clancy Brown, Katie Cassidy) – Classic Movie Review 4633

Director Samuel Bayer’s 2010 horror thriller brings back Mr Pizza Face Freddy Krueger – and this time Jackie Earle Haley provides the ideal face in this slick but pointless re-imagining of Wes Craven’s 1984 seminal horror movie A Nightmare on Elm Street.

The usual number of hapless teenagers get killed – some of it in properly gruesome ways and chillingly done. But the slashing-in-dreams material is so darned familiar by now and the movie is very short of the needed big scares, frights and shocks.

So, without much imagination on show, this does not come up fresh enough to warrant a rebooting of the series. And, with strong bloody horror violence, disturbing images and scenes of terror, it is still as sick as ever, of course, but now with the added whiff of quick-buck cash-in.

Proper actor Haley deserves better material for his career. You can’t really do much acting as Freddy. A new generation of teens in the audience may be enthralled by this reboot, but it seems unlikely.

The story and screenplay are by Wesley Strick, with Eric Heisserer a s co-author of the screenplay.

Also in the cast are Rooney Mara, Kyle Gallner, Thomas Dekker, Kellan Lutz, Clancy Brown, and Katie Cassidy.

It is the first film to use A Nightmare on Elm Street in its title for 21 years.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984).

A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985).

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987).

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4633

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