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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

A new ‘Nightmare’

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There’s always something to be said for a movie that knows exactly what it is. That much is true of Samuel Bayer’s re-imagining of the 1984 slasher classic “A Nightmare on Elm Street.”

With the good sense not to try to imitate the original, this version’s strength lies in the dreaming.

The subtle transitions into the characters’ dreams and the eye-catching dreamscapes lend atmosphere to the film. Its quirky lead actors, who actually look sleep-deprived, make the victims far more sympathetic.

Gaining momentum after the main duo begin investigating the deaths, “Nightmare” manages a couple of truly creepy moments mixed in with standard fare. Its attempt to distinguish itself from the original in terms of story, however, have mixed results.

What was implicit in Wes Craven’s original — the question of whether or not Freddy Krueger was a child molester — is an overt part of the story in this film, making Freddy a more reality-based threat. Even his appearance is more realistic, looking more like a third-degree burn victim than a supernatural creature. But even more surprising is how blatantly the film plays on rape anxiety, from shots between Nancy’s legs to Freddy’s explicitly sexual one-liners.

At best, the realistic take on Krueger pays off in genuinely chilling moments — the explanations of “micro-naps” and post-mortem brain functioning were used in an interesting and frightening way, for instance — and at worst, it results in clunky dialogue and unbelievable character development.

The film could’ve done more with some of its dream sequences, and several of the death scenes used too much CGI (it is Michael Bay-produced, after all), but it did make some interesting changes to the original. Overall, it’s worth seeing, but as a solid re-imagining of a horror icon that never quite rises above being just another slasher.

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