A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

This is the 2010 Platinum Dunes remake of the Wes Craven classic from 1984 starring Robert Englund and Helen Langenkamp. Now the remake was highly talked about and there was a lot of discussion around whether they would get Robert Englund back to play the role that made him famous. And they went with an interesting decision, they chose Jackie Earle Haley who came to prominence to me as Rorschach in the 2009 Watchmen. Now I am not a fan of remakes and the original version of this film that launched Freddy Kreuger into our world is one of my all time favorite films. So I was not very hopeful but excited to see how they would re imagine this classic and restart the franchise.

Well what a disaster this turned out to be, you have a Freddy Krueger that is not Robert Englund and while Jackie Earle Haley was adequate in the role he was not the wise cracking child killer we knew in the 80's. They missed the point of the film to me, now they attempt to tell a slightly different story which is good, put your own mark on it. But they missed the point, the characters were totally unbelievable and you did not care and while they made the story their own they kept putting in scenes from the original, the wall scene and the claw in the bath. The biggest let down for me though was the special effects, the scene where Freddy comes out of the wall over Nancy is pitiful CGI, they would have been better with a rubber sheet and somebody putting their head into it. And the final scene of the film was laughable based purely on the quality of the CGI, this in today's age where they can convince you that there is an alien who does not exist is talking to live action actors it is disappointing.

Overall I was disappointed even though I had low expectations, it has to be 1 star not worth seeing. There will be people that will watch it as a completest but please avoid it other than for this reason.

Freddy Vs Jason (2003)

The film so many fans of both series wanted to see after is first raised as a possibility in the late 90's and the highly anticipated film of the genre. And to be honest it did not disappoint me, I had my doubts on it working however it worked in so many ways. It covers the best parts of both series and has an interesting battle between Freddy and Jason and some interesting uses of their respective weapons and strengths.

They have an interesting story and you do not need to know the full history of either franchise to enjoy this film, it does help if you have an understanding of the mythology of the franchises. They still struggle to create characters outside the bad guys that you care about enough to not want them to die but it is part of the fun of both series.

This is a 4 star film it goes up if you enjoy the genre and either of the franchises, I will say that it is more Jason in a Nightmare on Elm Street than Freddy at Crystal Lake but well worth checking out.