When I heard that there was going to be a new Nightmare on Elm Street, I was super excited about it! The 2009 Friday the 13th reboot was awesome and I had high hopes that this would get a similar treatment. However, what we ended up getting was a bit of a disappointment.
How to Download A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) was released on April 30, 2010. You can download or stream the film from a digital platform. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and make your choice.
The Movie Review
I do not hate the 2010 Nightmare on Elm Street like a lot of people do and I have watched it multiple times to try and see if it gets better. However, this is a very by-the-numbers kind of movie that never tops what came before it. The 2009 Friday the 13th movie was like the greatest hits of what made that franchise so great, mixing elements from a few different movies.
With A Nightmare on Elm Street, rather than doing that, they just tried to remake the original movie. I will say that having Katie Cassidy as this movie’s version of Tina was pretty awesome. However, I never connected with Rooney Mara as Nancy at all, to be fair, Heather Langenkamp is my all-time favorite final girl so perhaps I never have the talented Ms. Mara a fair chance.
The Plot Unfolds
Nancy, Tina, and Dean are hanging out in a diner when Dean falls asleep and is killed by Freddy. This is what starts off our Freddy slaying and it turns out that these teenagers actually knew each other when they were much younger, even though they have no recollection of this.
Comparisons with the Original
As you would expect, Freddy starts stalking the teens and Nancy starts to put together what is going on and wants to get to the bottom of it and stop Freddy. They really did not do a great deal here to change the story as much as I feel they could. I think that is why it is impossible not to compare this to the original 1984 movie.
Fresh Twists
I will say that A Nightmare on Elm Street 2010 does do some things that are pretty interesting. We have a much more pure evil version of Freddy here and the flashbacks and how he has a much more “personal” connection to Nancy were a great idea. The fact that the most interesting stuff the story has going on is the stuff that is new and added for this remake shows that they should have tried to tell more of an original story here as I do think they had some good ideas.
Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy
We do have to talk about Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy. To be fair to him, he does a decent job of playing Freddy. This is not the wisecracking Freddy we got in the last few movies before Wes Craven’s New Nightmare. I think he plays the role in a very sinister way and I like how they made him look familiar, but also different at the same time. The makeup effects on his face are very well done and he does look very evil.
Final Impressions
The first time I saw this I remember being so disappointed, but I have come to like it a bit more over the years. I think that it was a huge mistake to just try and remake that first movie! The original ideas they had here, such as Freddy actually knowing the kids were good and they could have built a more original story all around that and who knows it could have relaunched the franchise with some cool sequels.
