A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (2010)

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (2010). Director: Samuel Bayer.

Young people in a small town discover that they are being pursued in their dreams by a crazed maniac, Freddy Krueger (Jackie Earle Haley), and that if he manages to kill them while they're asleep, they're dead for real. Krueger, now a demon, was roasted alive by the parents of small children whom he molested years ago, and who have now become his victims-in-nightmare. While this remake of the 1984 A Nightmare on Elm Street is perhaps a bit slicker and less cheesy than the original, it still misses the mark for the most part. Haley does his own take on Freddy and is fine, and the other members of the mostly unknown cast are at least adequate. The film has limited gore and special effects, which probably did not sit well with its core audience of young adults. It's just a bit on the slow side, and doesn't exploit its horrifying situation with the required intensity. I mean, here we have a bunch of youths too frightened to fall asleep because once they do they know that they'll die. The movie is not bad, just disappointing. And it's never very scary. Maybe all those earlier Nightmare films have just blunted the edge.

Verdict: A really great film has yet to be made from this terrific premise. **1/2.