In Defence (Sort Of) Of the 2010 A Nightmare on Elm Street Remake

Remakes are a messy business at the best of times – but they’ve never been messier than they were in the late 2000s and 2010s in the horror genre.

(just going to stick a quick warning for discussions of sexual abuse here, in case that’s something you’d like to avoid)

The notorious production studio Platinum Dunes (who would later have a line in pretty good original horror franchises like The Purge and A Quiet Place) began producing remakes of classic horror titles in 2003 with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and went on to churn out a series of famously dreadful re-dos like Friday the 13th (2009) and The Amityville Horror (2005). While they haven’t exactly got an impressive hit rate for quality, there is one remake I think deserves a second look, and that’s 2010’s A Nightmare on Elm Street.

A remake of the iconic and beloved Wes Craven movie of the same name, A Nightmare on Elm Street had a lot to live up to. Freddy Krueger, here played by Jackie Earle Haley instead of Robert Englund, is one of the most instantly-recognisable and personality-heavy horror villains of all time. The series’ campy, gory tone, with the surreal playground of Freddy’s dream dimension, made it a harder task to take on in terms of a remake, compared to the more straightforward horrors Platinum Dunes had created before. Samuel Bayer made his directorial debut, with Kyle Gallner and Rooney Mara serving as the tormented teenage leads.

And look, the reason I think this movie deserves more credit is because it actually tries to make something new. Of course, this is still the same villain and the same general premise, but what Bayer and screenwriters Eric Heisserer (who would go on to win accolades for his adaptation of Arrival) and Wesley Strick do with it feels like an actual attempt to tell a meaningful story within those parameters.

Here, the nightmares afflicting the teens of the small town are a reflection of the abuse committed against them by Freddy when they were children. While the Freddy we get in the original movies is, with no doubt, a monster, he’s a wise-cracking one, a pun-heavy gag machine; but here, he’s a much more human villain. Jackie Earle Haley is a really incredible actor, and what he brings to this still really impresses me – it’s completely distinct from Englund’s interpretation, dour and serious. That he’s driven by the children’s exposure of his crimes really gives him a deep, malevolent presence, and I appreciate the effort to create a truly distinct monster.

And the way the movie uses the nightmare realm as a manifestation of trauma is actually pretty effective. Trauma horror would go on to become a genre unto itself in the next ten years, and it feels as though Nightmare on Elm Street is feeling around that new territory here – the uneasy uncertainty and sense of unreality captures that dissociation that comes with trauma memories really well, in particular in Thomas Dekker’s featured sequence.

But this is still one of the infamous Platinum Dunes remake, and, as a result, it feels as though it never reaches the full potential offered by this interesting interpretation of the premise. The world feels washed-out and empty in a way that feels more bland than stylistic, and the adult side of the cast looks as though they’re really phoning it in (I’m looking at you, Connie Britton). The dialogue is far from natural or even human at times, and sometimes Bayer’s inexperience shows in terms of confidence behind the camera.

It’s a real shame that this movie has the dreadful reputation it does, but in a lot of ways, I do understand why people view it through that lens. It’s not a good film, no matter how interesting the premise is – and perhaps, coming out as part of this string of remakes had it doomed from the start. But there’s something here, an interesting vision for a version of this story that took on a darker and grittier tone without losing the iconic villain of the original.

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By Lou MacGregor

(header image via Fangoria)