After meeting with a former classmate at a cafe, Kris witnesses a horrifying scene: the gloomy, dark-circled young man explains that he can’t sleep because of strange dreams. As if to confirm the bizarre nature of these dreams, he slits his own throat right there at the table. At the funeral, Nancy, a classmate who works at the cafe and served him his last coffee, approaches Kris. It soon becomes clear that they are all haunted by a monster in a striped sweater – but why them specifically? Their parents avoid eye contact, doctors try to prescribe sleeping pills, and Freddy’s song grows louder and closer.
Twenty-six years and seven sequels later, Wes Craven’s “A Nightmare on Elm Street” finally gets its first remake. This new version of the dream-stalking maniac’s story is directed by Samuel Bayer, a debutant and music video director known for his work with Nirvana, Metallica, and The Cranberries. “Nightmare” has undergone a renovation and modernization – Bayer has intensified the colors in the latest style, smoothed out the rough edges with some computer effects, and, to top it off, brought the Internet to Elm Street. Sacrificed to these new technologies are all the charming trinkets that made the original “Nightmare,” paradoxically, feel lived-in. For example, where the original Nancy consulted the Guinness Book of World Records to see how long she could stay awake, the remake’s characters pore over medical textbooks. And where Craven’s heroine relied on an alarm clock, this Nancy is saved only by an adrenaline shot.
The respect for the original manifests here in a strangely straightforward form. Craven initially intended for his Krueger to be a child molester rather than a murderer, but he had to abandon the idea because a high-profile case involving a pedophile was being investigated in California at the time, and the film’s producers feared a scandal. Bayer, perhaps as a tribute, has realized this original idea, and the new Krueger, played by Jackie Earle Haley (who previously faced scrutiny for unhealthy sexual preferences in “Little Children” (2006)), feels appropriate here.
It’s all the more paradoxical that the film itself, like its characters, behaves as if it’s unaware of Krueger’s existence or his extensive creative biography. Devoid of any self-irony or sense of humor, it demands a huge discount from seasoned Krueger fans who are silently pleading for “a sign, even just a wink.”
A Nightmare for a New Generation
And it seems that’s precisely the point. The new “Nightmare” is intended not so much for fans of the original franchise as for a new generation of viewers. In this sense, Bayer has executed his task, “Watchable, as they say,” clearly and in full accordance with the initial budget: by simplifying the high art of the nightmarish, which was so inventively frightening in the early films, he has created a glossy remake without plot holes or unnecessary digressions, unoriginal but functioning quite well.
Indeed, it’s watchable. The main thing is not to remember that Nancy’s chubby, religious friend was previously played by Johnny Depp in a crop top.