Original Freddy Krueger actor Robert Englund was asked for his thoughts on the 2010 Nightmare on Elm Street series star correctly identified a major issue worth criticizing with the re-imagining. The remake of A Nightmare On Elm Street got the worst of both worlds when it came to the movie's reception. On the one hand, the 2010 version was understandably criticized for failing to expand on the original movie. On the other hand, the Nightmare on Elm Street remake also failed to keep one of the original movie’s most vital ingredients.
The former problem stems from the 2010 remake recreating numerous memorable scenes from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street verbatim, resulting in a movie that's almost redundant. In the mistake-ridden Nightmare on Elm Street remake, advances in CGI technology could have made Freddy Krueger’s kills much more memorable, but the decision to so faithfully repeat Wes Craven's 1984 original movie starring Robert Englund missed this opportunity entirely.
Original Freddy Krueger performer Robert Englund was replaced by actor Jackie Earle Haley in the remake, which Nightmare on Elm Street fans and critics alike agreed was a bad idea. However, the longtime franchise star found another fault with the horror movie redo that had nothing to do with his recasting after he'd iconically originated the role. Speaking at Belfast Comic Con in 2016, Englund commented that the only partly improved Nightmare on Elm Street remake failed because its teens never got a chance to be ordinary, meaning viewers weren’t all that invested in their dreary, depressing ordeal. He's right, as the 2010 version of the story never gives viewers any reprieve from its darker elements.
What Robert Englund Said About Nightmare On Elm Street 2010
Robert Englund said, “You don’t ever see any of the people happy-go-lucky, they’re never untainted. You need to see before and after so you can invest emotionally with the children. They’re practically zombies from the get-go because they’re haunted by Freddy, and I think that was a miscalculation.” While director Samuel Bayer’s remake was likely aiming for a darker tone than Wes Craven's original A Nightmare on Elm Street, Englund is correct to cite this as one of the movie’s biggest failures. It is hard to care about the Nightmare on Elm Street remake's scares when the characters seem to be dead-eyed and disinterested in their fate. The remake’s attempts to take Freddy more seriously resulted in a set of unconscionably morose teens, making their deaths more of a relief than a tragedy.
In contrast, director Wes Craven’s original A Nightmare on Elm Street gives viewers plenty of time to get to know the movie’s heroes long before the slashing starts, making their deaths feel more tragic and less inevitable. Craven’s Scream series repeated this trick, spending almost as much screen time on character banter and relationship drama as they did on the stalking and slashing. Making viewers care about the kids in A Nightmare on Elm Street got the audience to care when they died, something that Robert Englund is correct to note was missing from the Nightmare on Elm Street remake.
