So, I got to see this opening night and I have to say that it's not very terrible. I went into this film with pretty low expectations, apart from Jackie Earle Haley (taking over the role of Freddie Kruger from Robert Englund, who's played the character since its inception, and who looks more and more like Ben Kinglsey [see pictures]), who I really do like in most of his new roles. There are really no other notable actors here other than Clancy Brown, who's name you don't know but who's face and voice you'll recognize. The actors playing the kids in the movie are new to me, except Thomas Dekker, who played John Connor on Fox's Sarah Connor Chronicles.
The story has been changed this time around and instead of a *spoilers* creepy guy who was "wrongfully" murdered and is taking his revenge by killing his murderers children, into a child molester tormenting the kids that he assaulted...hurray! While it takes a bit for the movie to reveal this intriguing little plot point, when it was divulged I was immediately turned off. A Freddie who is seeking revenge by killing kids makes sense in my mind, while a sexual deviant Freddie who is just trying to further destroy the lives of the kids he once molested just did not compute.
Apart from that the movie is actually fairly scary. If you like the "popping out of darkness and going 'boo'" type of horror movies that have become fairly commonplace lately. The plot is pretty simple, teenagers get stalked and killed in their dreams by Freddie and if they get hurt or killed in dreamland, they get hurt or killed in real life, and in order to escape the horror they must somehow get him into the real world and kill 'em.
As far as remakes and reimaginigs go, this one's OK. I much preferred Rob Zombie's Halloween, but that being said it's much better than the new Friday the 13th movie, and is better than some of the original stuff coming out now...here's looking at you Midnight Meat Train.
This movie deserves a 3 out 5 for being better than average at scaring the audience, but for horror with story I'll stick with the Saw franchise. I'd recommend renting A Nightmare on Elm St. and watching it with your significant other on the couch, but there's no reason to rush to the theater to check it out.
