A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

Directed by Samuel Bayer. Starring Rooney Mara, Kyle Gallner, Jackie Earle Haley, Katie Cassidy, Connie Britton, Thomas Dekker, Clancy Brown, Kellan Lutz. [R]

Because the filmmakers don’t try taking the material into a compelling new direction, there’s no compelling reason for this lethargic, overly-reverent remake to exist (okay, money can be a compelling excuse). Replace the excessive use of “compelling” from that last sentence with loud clangs on the soundtrack, and that sums up this gratuitous and generic rehash, populated by gratuitously generic teenagers (ahem, twenty-somethings playing teenagers) getting terrorized by a child molester/murderer’s spirit known as Freddy Krueger (Haley). Never a good sign when the most effective bits are the ones either slightly tweaked or just plain lifted wholesale from the original (e.g., the clawed glove rising from bath water between the protagonist’s legs). Haley should be applauded for not trying to imitate Robert Englund’s interpretation of the character, but his malice is so dour and straightforward, that his personality resembles off-the-rack psychopathy—only the supernatural element sets him apart from the genre’s other un-muted slashers. Much was made of the fact that the villain’s makeup more closely resembled an actual burn victim, but what’s the point of realism in a movie that does its darnedest to destroy the boundaries of such? (And what’s next…a version of Pinhead that more closely resembles a porcupine from hell?) To date, Bayer’s only feature directorial gig, though he helmed plenty of classic music videos, including “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “No Rain.”

32/100