The Freak's Rating: C+ : Being a child of the 80's, Freddy Krueger is as integral a film character to my movie-loving personality as any and redefining him is a difficult task. Though there are a few bright spots in this rebirth of the villain, there are enough failures for it to fall a tad short of a recommendation.
The best part of the original series was Robert Englund, a virtual unknown at the time the first film was launched, who took the role of Freddy to a career-defining and, in the end, a self-inflicted nightmare of his own, typecasting hell. Englund never launched beyond the B-movies Freddy inspired and aside from being remembered as the man in the green and red sweater, he'll likely not have much more in his epitaph. Englund's personality and fun he was allowed to have with the character shown through in every moment on screen. That element is what kept the franchise entertaining. In the 2010 film, Freddy is shown with little humor or one liners like Englund had, no doubt the intention of the filmmaker. Freddy is meant to be a tad more terrifying here. There is one moment where Freddy talks about 6 minutes he'll have with a victim which are truly frightening, so in some respects...mission accomplished.
Acting is par for the course, with supporting throwaway roles being just that and barely any talent in the leads. The most reliable acting chops belong to Connie Britton, lead actress on TV's Friday Night Lights, as Nancy's mother. She is solid with her lines. The remainder of the cast, as I said, is notably absent in the talent department. Female lead Rooney Mara is an odd choice as Nancy and doesn't have near the pull she'll need to no doubt carry the remainder of the film's sequels. Katie Cassidy is the brightest newcomer in the film as Kris, and sadly her moments are quite limited.
Lack of acting ability can be handed an alley oop by a script and is done so nicely here. There are interesting turns doing a decent job of blending the original script with a few new twists. Some are beautiful (fans of the original are treated to some direct dialogue duplication) and some fall relatively flat. There is also one point in the script where the film could have taken a drastic turn for the worse and thankfully didn't. The writers do a decent job here and should be commended.
Nightmare isn't going for Academy Awards. It simply wants a knockout horror movie opening weekend, enough to justify the sequel that is no doubt already being written. My guess is that the studio will get what it wants here. There are enough jumpy moments to scare the bejeezus out of teenage girls and make them cling tightly to their dates, the staple of a good horror picture. The fans of the original fans won't be completely disappointed and I am excited to see where the franchise heads next. It is a classic example of, "if you think you might like this you likely will. If you don't normally like films like this, skip it". For me, the franchise needs to put a bit more work into the next one.
