On Eagle’s Wings ©2002 Steve Anthony. All rights reserved.
In an instant,
the flames are lit,
on the forge of a thousand memories.
Fanned white hot,
with bellows of terror,
they forever sear the minds of the masses.
Delirious in their fever,
the monoliths reel,
and stagger to the earth from which they sprang.
Eternal and phoenix like,
liberty rises from the ashes,
to soar triumphantly on eagle’s wings.
My review of "A Nightmare on
A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) Nightmares are common, especially among children and creative adults, but unless someone suffers from post-traumatic stress, or makes movies in
I confess I went into this movie curious, wanting to be entertained, yet daring it to do so. First of all I didn't like Freddy's voice in the previews and thought he sounded like Batman. Secondly, I wondered why it needed to be “re-imagined.” After all, the original Wes Craven project (same title, 1984) was almost unique in its day with its interwoven dream-reality sequences that were very effective at making us wonder which we were watching. For a 'big-on-special-effects' 1980s film with many effects that had not been seen on screen before, it still holds up very well on DVD. As often happens with movie themes, 1984 also saw the release of another film that relied on dreams as effective visuals; "Dreamscape," starring Dennis Quaid. That movie is a much better film, but I digress, and that’s another review somewhere in the back of my mind.
"Re-imagined" films should probably stand alone and not be compared to their predecessors, but it's difficult not to compare when you have two films that might easily stand alone in different movie going generations, if neither were aware of the other film. Where Craven is a master of terror and suspense ("Last House on the Left"; "The Hills Have Eyes"), and wrote and directed the 1984 movie as well as being involved in the 3rd film, 'Dream Warriors,' and "Wes Craven’s New Nightmare,” this latest film is produced by Michael Bay. Bay’s productions (“Transformers I & II”; Armageddon”; “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” 2003) tend to up the ante on whatever is involved, whether action, gore, visual shock, or sudden heart stopping sound that can make you jump in your seat. But sometimes the ante can be too big and ruin an otherwise good game. The bigger ante here is a more intense and brutal film, rather than a goose bumps horror story.
The basic storyline of the ‘Nightmare’ films involves teenagers who die in real life when killed in their dreams by a horribly burned and disfigured terror named Freddy Krueger. Freddy’s favorite way to kill young people is tossing them against walls, pipes, and other hard objects, until he can get them stunned enough to slash them with his glove made of knives that Ginsu would be proud of. One by one they are killed in their sleep, as worried friends and parents begin to wonder what exactly is happening on
Make no mistake, this is not a film for kids and is rated R for bloody gore and violence. Craven’s Freddy was a child murderer; a bad enough crime in any decade. Here, Freddy is a child predator; an unnecessary and disgustingly hard to watch downgrade of an already twisted mind in the scenes that allude to it. He doesn’t start murdering the kids until years later when they are grown because they came forward with the truth as small children. This led their parents to trap Krueger in a warehouse, take justice into their own hands, and set the place on fire with him still inside.
The Freddy that emerges from the flames here, as portrayed by Jackie Earl Haley (Rorschach in “Watchmen”), is cruelly creepy and threatening. Haley can be multifaceted and with burned and twisted flesh make-up covering all but his eyes, he manages to conjure up a terrifying image we would not want to meet in a nightmare of our own. Craven’s Freddy, played by Robert Englund is fun in a horror movie way; Haley’s more brutal, and the one-liners as he cuts into his victims barely compensate for the brutality. I saw this movie with my 20-something son, and he made an interesting comparison as we left the theater. Where Englund’s Freddy might be Jack Nicholson’s likeable ‘Joker’ in 1989’s “Batman,” Haley’s is Heath Ledger’s heartless and cruel villain in “The Dark Knight.” I'm talking strictly character comparisons here. In no way do I mean to imply that Englund is another Nicholson or that Haley has the depth that Ledger had as an actor.
The new film is almost effective at making us guess which sequences are dreams and which are reality for its characters. I say almost, because we've seen it before and at times it deliberately indicates a dream sequence with flickering lights or other surreal imagery. In other scenes, the clichéd action taking place on screen makes us realize the character is really dreaming and about to be confronted by their nightmare. In THX digital sound (is there any other kind?) the scraping and clanging of Freddy’s glove against pipes and chalkboards truly gets our attention, and is actually quite, pardon my audionerdness, cool. But then I get chills when they play the THX logo tones, so go figure.
I want to be clear; had 1984’s movie not been made and this movie was the first time the audience knew of Elm Street, I think there would have been more surprises. The current generation seeing this story for the first time will most likely enjoy it as much as the 1980s crowd did the original. Still, each generation will probably prefer its own film. There are definitely enough startles here for an older teen date movie and snuggling in a dark theater with that special someone. But there's enough disgust at the reason for the new Freddy being burned that you may feel it well after you've left the theater.
Buy a ticket if you like horror films in a darkened theater, or wait and Rent/stream it when available for a lights-out disgustingly creepy evening at home.
Better yet, rent the original but stop after the first one.
My rating choices:*Buy a ticket* *Rent or stream* *Wait for cable* *Wait for network* *Just want to watch a movie and don't care what it is*
