Nightmare on Elm treet Review

[Westside Steve]

Nightmare on Elm Street

Warner Brothers

R 90 min

 

 

Well gang, who knows; it might have been better than the rest.

I mean, the talent free Wes Craven didn’t direct it (even though Sam Bayer is best known for his distinguished contributions to a Green Day video) and there are two actors we’ve actually heard of. (Clancy Brown and Jackie Earl Haley)

Brown’s a good actor who hasn’t quite made the A list over the years though he’s done good work and Haley, for God’s sake is the grandson of THE WIZARD OF OZ’ Tin Man, Jack Haley.

The rest of the cast would be hard pressed to get a job at the local dinner theater but acting isn’t the traditional hallmark of the NIGHTMATRE series.

The reason for it’s continues success has always been fake blood, gratuitous violence and silly special effects. That’s it.

Oh there is a vestigial story, at least there was in episode one and in this re-beginning.

(If you really have no idea and honestly want to see this, stop reading now!)

Freddie Krueger (Haley) was the gardener at a kids’ school suspected of molesting the children. The rumors stir up an angry mob of vengeful parents who chase Freddie into an abandoned factory where he’ll be roasted alive when they torch the place.

So for decades old Freddie, with a set of Ginsu blades on his fingers, has been sneaking into peoples’ dreams from his lair in the netherworld. These visits are a lot worse than your average bad dream, because when you die in one of these, you die for real. There’s no suspense at all since as soon as any scene gets a little weird, you know without a doubt that the character has fallen asleep and will probably be hacked to bits.

And that, dear friends, is that. Let me tell ya that staying awake in my theater seat is even harder than it is on screen.

There have been no less than nine sequels and scores of these stunningly awful scenes since 1984. It’s reported that this is the highest grossing series of all time. Yipes.

Oh well, like the old adage, “You’ll never go broke betting against the good taste of the American public.”

Actually I was hoping that this reboot would have had a little more class. Maybe delve more into the background of Krueger and let Haley do a little acting. Then again, as long as I’m waxing axiomatic today let’s say “You dance with who brung ya” and to tell the truth it doesn’t seem like there’s been a lack of cash flow so far.

 

F+

 

WSS

 

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