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A Nightmare on Elm Street (Blu-ray Review)

I’ve been a big fan of horror movies since I was kid, and I’m not picky about the type. I love zombies, werewolves, vampires, serial killers, creature features – you name it. Good horror movies, and bad – I usually love them all.  One thing I don’t have warm and fuzzy feelings about is the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. I usually find horror movies very entertaining, but not actually scary. As a child/teenager I found Freddy  Krueger to be downright scary.

Some of the other “big names” in the horror business might scare a lot of people but in my mind, I always thought they were no big deal. I’m pretty sure I could out run both Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers. Since vampire and werewolf movies aren’t based in reality, I’m not overly concerned with meeting my maker at the hand of some supernatural being. But a guy who is the definition of evil and can kill you in your dreams – THAT’S SCARY and I’m not okay with it! It had been at least 10 years since I’d seen Freddy, so I got my Snuggie, locked the doors and windows, and put A Nightmare on Elm Street in the Blu Ray player. I’m happy to say I survived the experience, and even enjoyed myself a little.

Film  

This is a re-imagining of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, directed by Samuel Bayer. It is not a sequel or a prequel, and it doesn’t require any knowledge of the other movies to appreciate or understand it. Although this is a remake, the filmmakers made a very smart decision to keep some of the important iconic elements of the original Freddy Krueger. Freddy is as terrifying as ever, in his striped sweater, fedora and a glove of knives. I doubt Freddy Fans would have stood for a movie that left any of those elements out. They also wisely chose to use the creepy “one two…Freddy’s coming for you” song. The plot too, remains the same. Very simply, a weirdo pedophile gets burned alive by the parents of his victims. He then takes revenge on the children (now teenagers) in their sleep although it isn’t ever explained why he chose to wait until they became teenagers to start invading their dreams. The teens soon realize that they are all having similar dreams and that when you die in your dream, you die in real life. After Freddy invades their nightmares, many attempt to avoid sleep which leads to uncontrollable “micro naps”. The lines between the waking world and the dream world blur and the characters are constantly in danger from a very vengeful Freddy.

Watching A Nightmare on Elm Street, I started thinking a lot about the dilemma that the kids faced –how to kill Freddy. Freddy was murdered and takes his revenge on his victims while they are dreaming. In the dream world, Freddy is in complete control and cannot be killed. Eventually, they come to the conclusion that the only way they can kill Freddy is to lure him out of the dream world into ours, which will make him mortal. This is the part I have a problem with. If Freddy was sent to the dream world to terrorize people after his own brutal death, doesn’t it stand to reason that killing him would just send him back to the dream world again? If it were me, I would have been thinking of a way to contain Freddy in our world since killing him obviously doesn’t have the intended effect. I’d be afraid that killing him twice would really make him angry. It’s possible I’m over thinking this.

One thing that’s new is the look of Freddy. He used to look like he was wearing a mask, now he really looks like a burn victim and you can tell a lot of time and care went into creating his new look. Initially, I thought no one but Robert Englund could play Freddy Krueger. Now I can admit that Jackie Earle Haley was an excellent choice. In this film, you see him as Fred Krueger who is a gardener at the preschool and of course later as Freddy Krueger – undead homicidal maniac. Haley does a great job filling Freddy’s shoes, or striped sweater, in this case.

Overall the writing was good, but I think this could have been a much scarier film. It seemed to me that Freddy Krueger had an excessive amount of dialogue. The more he talked the more human he seemed, and a lot less frightening. The image of Freddy chasing someone, knives at the ready, is scary enough. He doesn’t need to explain why he’s so angry and doesn’t need to verbally taunt his victims non-stop.

Video  

This is a seriously dark movie, and the video quality does not disappoint. Freddy’s victims are repeatedly drawn into his dark, dank, steamy basement that serves as his hunting ground and the video quality is more than adequate to see the terror on their faces despite the ever present darkness.  Speaking of the darkness, the black levels were deep and inky and maintained good detail most of the time.   I did notice dirt in some parts and the color palette kept changing from a blue-grey steel look to a warmer orange hued look which may have been what the director intended.  Some of the scenes looked soft but I liked the wide-screen (2.35:1) picture quality overall.

Audio  

This film made very good use of the 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound. There was a lot of creepy breathing, and scary noises that kept me looking over my shoulder. The atmospheric feel of the movie was enhanced by using every channel extremely well especially by rain and stalking scenes.  I definitely felt like I was in the middle of the action. This isn’t an action flick with big explosions and gun fire, but the blood curdling screams are heard loud and clear and thumps from the sub-woofer don’t disappoint either.  Dolby Digital 5.1 French and Spanish tracks and subtitles are also available.

Special Features  

This disc has some deleted, alternate, and extended scenes as well a new Maniacal Movie Mode that doesn’t work as well as it could have if it had just been used as another extra.

Alternate Opening – Interesting to watch, but I’m glad this was not the opening they used. It was a good decision to start the movie in a creepy diner and start off with a nightmare right away.

Alternate Ending – Again, I think the ending in the film makes a better ending. In the alternate ending you see Freddy go back to his unburnt former self. This ending has a whole different feel to it, and I prefer the movie as is.

Freddy Krueger Reborn – Offers a lot of insight into the planning of this film. Filmmakers and actors discuss in detail how long and hard they worked to get the film made. It is clear they are all fans of the original films and took care to do it justice with their reinvention of Freddy Krueger.

Maniacal Movie Mode – This is basically a picture in a picture featurette. You can turn the maniacal movie mode on or off during the film. When the featurette pops up, there doesn’t seem to be a specific rhyme or reason. It doesn’t specifically relate to that particular part of the film currently playing so I think this should have just been a, stand alone featurette. Watching this and the film at the same time is confusing. I caution you not to turn Maniacal Movie Mode on for your first viewing because you will miss a lot of the film, and will find the featurette distracting.

BD-Live – Not very interesting as all it has are some previews for upcoming releases.

Final Thoughts  

This remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street is less campy than the original classic horror franchise it should still appeal to long-time fans. Freddy Krueger has a more realistic burn victim look and is as terrifying as ever. I beg fans of Robert Englund to give the new Freddy a chance. Visually, this is a very dark film which shows well on Blu Ray. I hope to see a sequel to this movie because as horror fans know, the bad guy never really dies.

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8 Responses to “A Nightmare on Elm Street (Blu-ray Review)”


  1. Sean Ferguson

    Welcome to the club!

  2. Gerard Iribe

    This will still be a rental whenever I get around to it. Then again, I’m probably the only one who enjoyed the Friday the 13th and Texas Chainsaw remakes.

  3. Aaron Neuwirth

    Welcome indeed, and I appreciate what you’ve written here, but I really hated this movie. Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes horror factory has yet to make a remake that I have been positive towards. And you made the perfect point early on: what would be achieved by killing the guy in real life who has dream powers due to being killed in real life the first place?

  4. Sean Ferguson

    I think both Jami and Aaron are right but I think you could apply that logic to all of the other horror mainstays like Jason too. All of them seem indestructible so for every one of these movies, audiences are basically waiting to watch all of the cast get killed by the bad guy.

  5. Aaron Neuwirth

    Oh yeah, I get that for sure, logic will be set aside for box office totals. But generally it is a new cast of characters getting killed in each new unnecessary sequel, they don’t necessarily know about someone like Jason’s past exploits.

    The people here literally learn the back story of Freddy, know that he was murdered and has now come back to haunt their dreams, and their plan is to murder him again…

  6. Brian White

    Welcome indeed Jami! Impressive first review!

    Although I was a huge fan of the 80’s films I could not get into this one at all when I saw the press screening. I wanted to love it SO MUCH, but ultimately I did not 🙁

    I agree with Aaron’s comment slightly…although Michael Bay’s co. hasn’t won me over yet, I do really love the remake of texas Chainsaw Massacre. Friday the 13th was great until the stupid ending.

    My 2 cents

  7. Jami Ferguson

    Thanks for the warm welcome, everyone. I can definitely see that this movie might not be everyone’s cup of tea. Maybe I liked it so much because I had such low expectations going into it. Overall I found it entertaining.

    Gerard – you aren’t the only one who liked the Friday the 13th remake. I found Texas Chainsaw Massacre less enjoyable, but still not a total waste of time.

    I think the key to most horror movies is shutting your brain off a little bit. Its rare to find Oscar worthy acting (or writing) in most of these things. Usually, I’m just hoping for decent special effects.

  8. Rafael

    Hey, I just stumbled upon this site by accident, but loved the review. But the comments really cought my attention. I’m a horror movies lover myself, and I wanted to say that I incredibly loved this remake. I liked it better than the original (even though the original is way better). Call me crazy.
    And about what Jami commented here on Nov 6th, I think horror movies could have great acting and writing, but you would need big budgets (or newbie geniuses – like the Blair Witch Project guys), and the producers will only give big budgets to the great filmmakers, who are not always “horror-filmmakers”. Too bad.