Ah, the Nightmare On Elm Street remake: a movie that was torn apart when it was released in 2010 and even to this day has it’s critics. For me, I never understood the absolute hatred that this movie receives at times; I mean you would have thought this was the Batman & Robin of Freddy Krueger movies which makes me tilt my head seeing how I’ve witnessed Freddy’s Dead in my lifetime and that movie revives the character via dog urine.
To sum up my thoughts: I think Nightmare On Elm Street (2010) is a decent horror flick with some impressively dedicated performances, some neat visuals (barring a couple dated CGI effects), some decent kills, and a Freddy Krueger that does not get enough credit. My biggest flaws are the aforementioned CGI in spots, sometimes the movie plays things a little too close to the original, and an over-reliance on jumpscares.
I firmly believe that a lot of the hate came from the silly stigma towards remakes/reboots and the fact that it wasn’t Robert Englund who, don’t get me wrong, is a legend but much like the Joker or Jason Voorhees, the performance should not be limited to only one actor. Now rather than discuss the movie itself, I thought I would take this time to defend Jackie Earle Haley’s incarnation of the Springwood Slasher and explain why I personally think fans were too harsh on it.
JACKIE BROUGHT BACK MENACE AND FEAR
Let’s all be honest here, the later Nightmare movies of the first canon turned Krueger into a Deadpool who haunts dreams. Sure, there might have been some impressive visuals but Krueger himself became a one-liner spewing clown of a villain who provided more chuckles than scares. In 2010’s version, Jackie Earle Haley brought the character back to his roots where the jokes and bits of humor he dishes out are more sinister and dark.
Rather than focusing on cheap gags, this Freddy Krueger felt more like a villain you would be scared of. Though the scares are sometimes ruined by the jumpscares but for every jumpscare, there are at least 5-10 minutes of Krueger being a true threat such as when he kills Jesse or when he stalks Kris for almost 15 minutes of the movie a la the original.
HE DOESN’T TRY TO REPLICATE ENGLUND
I’ve always believed that if you’re going to reboot an iconic character completely, don’t try to mimic what was done before. Jackie did just that: he took Freddy and made it his own portrayal with added traits like twitching his claws, a different voice altogether, and even having different means of instilling fear into the children of Springwood.
I’m aware of the complaint that his voice is barely different than what he uses as Rorschach which is a fair enough point but that doesn’t bother me since actors do that all the time. There’s not much difference in performances between Clint Eastwood in Good, Bad, & The Ugly and Dirty Harry or the little to no difference between most of Bruce Willis’ roles over the years so, to me, that wasn’t really a problem. Even then, I feel his performance was different enough from Rorschach to stand out on its own.
Enjoying our content? Help keep the site alive by donating to our PayPal
THE MAKEUP AND DESIGN IS NOT BAD
The biggest complaint I ever hear about Freddy in the reboot is the way he looks since the filmmakers, yet again, did not try to replicate Robert Englund 100%. Usually, this complaint is that though: that he looks too different from Englund’s Freddy Krueger which I don’t particularly understand. Have you ever watched ANY of the original Nightmare On Elm Street movies? Not once except for maybe the second movie does Robert Englund look like a burnt corpse but more like an overdone pepperoni. It simply worked well enough for the limitations at the time.
With Jackie Earle Haley, his Freddy Krueger looks like a real-life burn victim would; he literally looks like the results if you were to set Haley on fire and keep the corpse from turning to ashes. Is it different than the original? Yes but I don’t see why that immediately makes his design bad.
THE TWISTS AND TURNS
The other big complaint I see a lot is the added backstory that Freddy Krueger was a child molester when he was alive which…is an odd complaint to me. I mean, I always felt like that was the intent of Freddy from the very beginning: I don’t see why confirming it makes it a crime against the character when he already was killing kids to begin with.
My only complaint with this twist is that they actually setup the idea that maybe Freddy was innocent and wrongfully murdered by the parents of Springwood because of what the kids said about him. To me, that would have been a brilliant twist as it would have made Freddy’s quest for revenge make more sense but due to a last minute script change, they kept that he was a pedophile.
From that point of view, I sort of understand frustration there but people just seem disgusted by the fact he was a child molester even when he’s evil when it’s not that hard to believe. It’s not like Freddy ever had any dignity as a villain in the original series.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
Jackie Earle Haley’s performance was not given enough credit: he was a threatening villain that brought about some great lines and memorable scenes for the character that I am actually sad never got at least one sequel or reprise except for maybe the DLC character in Mortal Kombat 9. I think Jackie performed well and cemented his portrayal of the character right alongside Englund’s version. Say what you will about the movie itself but in my opinion, Jackie was a great revival of Freddy Krueger.
A quick thing I want to talk about is: if you haven’t seen the alternate ending to the reboot, go find it on YouTube because it is one of those cases where the alternate version definitely should have been left in the final cut in my opinion as it used Jackie Earle Haley’s immense talent better than the original ending.
You’re all SO SWEET for making it this far and I hope you all enjoyed this review! I write about anything geek related, especially comic book related stuff so if you want to stay up to date with all the reviews, news breakdowns, and lists I do, make sure to follow this blog or follow me on Twitter @MelodyMacReady ! Love you all!
Keep this site alive by donating to our PayPal or…
PATREON: Become Super Sweet when you support my stuff!
Melody's Marvels 