Step 1: Nice try, but they probably should have just left the original Nightmare on Elm Street as is.
Step 2: Don’t mess with a classic. When he was first introduced during the ’80s slasher movie boom, Freddy Krueger was the antithesis to the mask-wearing monsters cutting their way through teenager after teenager. As a maniacal, deformed psycho, he actually had a brain and was made even more terrifying by the fact he taunted his victims with a tinge of sadistic humor. And he killed them in their dreams, a scary enough prospect to begin with. So, the set up was refreshing and, played by the sardonically wonderful Robert Englund, Freddy was an iconic villain.
Step 3: Looks good on paper. Now, I’m sure the powers that be thought a redo was a good idea – especially with getting someone as talented as Jackie Earle Hayley to play Freddy. I admit I was intrigued by the idea of Hayley as the striped-sweater wearing monster with knives for fingers – and I didn’t even watch the original. Well, I saw part of it, but never the whole thing. Certainly Hayley IS the best part of this remake, but ultimately, this Elm Street does nothing to improve on the original source material. There is a little more background info on Krueger before he became THE Freddy Krueger, plus a more pinpointed reason to why he’s killing all the teens in Elm Street, but that’s it. The special effects aren’t any more scary or spectacular – and there’s no Johnny Depp getting sucked into a bed (I remember seeing that in the original). I feel the film could have benefited from a Depp cameo.
Level of difficulty in seeing Nightmare on Elm Street: Eh. Seriously, let’s finally be done with all the remakes of ’80s slasher movies, please.