First off, I'm not a fan of slasher films. At best they annoy me, at worst, they disgust me (Saw is the most disgusting waste of a film budget I've ever seen.) I don't even really consider them a member of the horror genre-they're like horrors deformed little bastard cousin. This isn't to say I haven't been entertained by the occasional one-I liked the Halloween series, for example. One film, however, that I have always felt was misclassified as a slasher was "A Nightmare on Elm Street." Now yes, the sequels were slasher films, but the original, I think, transcends that genre into full blown horror. Of all the horror movies I have seen, only two have ever scared me: The Exorcist, and A Nightmare on Elm Street. The new reboot is all that the first was and better. In my opinion, this came down to three factors: The deaths, the use of sleep and sleeplessness as a story driver, and Freddy himself.
Now, yes there is plenty of death in Nightmare. You expect it (The claw on Freddy's hand isn't a backscratcher), and you shouldn't be surprised at its presence. However, unlike the deaths of the original, Freddy's methods of execution in the new Nightmare are far more cruel and brutal than before. He doesn't, for example, eat anyone with a bed. He does, however, slash people open brutally, stab them through the throat, and do it all in such a menacing way that realizes perfectly Freddy's personality as a psychopath. There is gore, but nothing too excessive, merely enough to be horrifying without being nauseating.
Sleep and sleeplessness figured big in the original Nightmare, but it lost its focus in the sequels, being replaced by Freddy's horrible puns and almost likeable personality. This movie brings back the sleep factor and the suspense affiliated with it. Freddy can kill people, but ONLY if they fall asleep. The lines between sleep and reality begin to blur, and so the audience is sometimes left wondering whether Freddy is going to pop out, knives a'flashin' at any moment.
While sleep and death certainly made the new "Nightmare" effective, it is Freddy himself, both design and character-wise that leads me to regard the remake more highly than the original. In the original Nightmare, Freddy is confirmed early on as a child murderer, and serves as a being of pure, unadulterated evil. The newer Freddy is more ambiguous, and we even doubt his guilt for a portion of the movie. Also, instead of being a mere child murderer, the new Freddy is a sexual predator; a child molester. Thus, he is given a whole new level of evil as a character, and any sympathy the audience might have had for him evaporates with almost chilling suddenness as we realize the full scope of Freddy's evil. Gone also are Freddy's horrible and macabre puns, replaced with evil laughter at the pain of his victims. There is no humor to the new Freddy; he horrifies instead of amusing us. While his iconic design is not completely changed, per se, Freddy's burned features are given an overhaul that make him, once again, more horrifying. The more realistic burn injuries that he carries make the audience uncomfortable; they repulse and yet beg pity, and when contrasted with Freddy's repulsive character, serve to make him more horrifying.
All in all, it's not an art film. However, it's not a mere slasher film either. It impressed me, and even scared me a little. Freddy is the triumph of this movie. While most of the characters are a step up from the crap cardboard characters of the old series (minus the first) it is the revamping of Freddy as a horrifying, evil, disgusting character, bringing the scare back to him, that is truly the triumph of this movie.
*** 1/2 out of *****
