5.2 | / 10 |
Users | 3.3 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.3 |
A re-imagining of the horror icon Freddy Krueger, a serial-killer who wields a glove with four blades embedded in the fingers and kills people in their dreams, resulting in their real death in reality.
Starring: Jackie Earle Haley, Kyle Gallner, Rooney Mara, Katie Cassidy, Thomas DekkerHorror | 100% |
Thriller | 67% |
Mystery | 19% |
Video codec: VC-1
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1
English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
Digital copy (on disc)
DVD copy
Bonus View (PiP)
BD-Live
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 1.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
You're not real. You're not real. You're not real.
The brutally awful remake that is A Nightmare on Elm Street will haunt viewers and shape their nightmares more so than the
disfigured slasher Freddy Krueger could
ever dream of accomplishing. Considering all of the recent studio
remakes of Horror movie legends, A Nightmare on Elm Street is easily the worst. It's absent the brutality, ugliness, uneasiness, and excess
gore of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre; the grittiness and atmosphere of Halloween; and the relative stability, flow, and fun of Friday the 13th. What should have been the best of the bunch --
considering the series' legacy, characters, themes, and ideas -- is instead a picture with absolutely no purpose, no rhythm, and no heart; it's
seemingly content to simply recreate the most famous scenes from the original film and plop them into the middle of a barely-cohesive narrative
supported by poor acting, terribly dull characters, sluggish pacing, generic atmosphere and music, and a Freddy Krueger who looks more like a
deformed space alien than, well, Freddy Krueger. Props to the movie for a few decent special effects and a fair bit of gore, but even the worst Saw movie can boast that much. What a disappointment.
Over there, behind you. Is that another negative review?
A Nightmare on Elm Street's 1080p Blu-ray presentation looks nice enough but contains a few nagging problems that linger throughout the movie and drag its overall score down several notches. On the plus side, the transfer appears nicely filmic, retaining a moderate layer of grain throughout. There's no evidence of noise reduction, and detail holds up well, though both the picture's slightly soft texture and mostly dark elements don't allow for eye-catching textures. Fortunately, detail is strong enough, as evidenced by the way the image handles the usual suspects -- facial detailing and clothes -- but also in the way it delivers on several more nuanced elements, such as accumulated raindrops on a glass door or the texturing of carpet. Colors are muted and give way to a dark and slightly green-tinted image, but appear stable and true to the film's intended visual scheme. Blacks are deep and accurate, but flesh tones capture a decidedly reddish tint. Aside from the bouts of softness, A Nightmare on Elm Street's Blu-ray transfer is also home to semi-regular but very minor compression artifacts, as well as intermittent banding, the latter noticeable in its heaviest state during a boiler room scene midway through the film. A Nightmare on Elm Street looks fine throughout, but it suffers through a few problems that shouldn't be quite so readily evident on a fresh-from-theaters high definition release.
A Nightmare on Elm Street slashes onto Blu-ray with an impressive DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless soundtrack. This is a very full and satisfying listen that opens with creepy and well-implemented music that floats through the soundstage with a dreamlike quality and is punctuated by a hauntingly tight and foreboding low end. The music feels spacious and threatens to engulf the listener in the terrifying dream world; it never plays too loudly but that slight subtlety and delicate surround support seems just the perfect tone-setter for the movie. The surround channels come to life throughout and deliver some heavier and more pronounced discrete effects, including the obligatory thunder and rain that drench the soundstage and send several shaking blasts into the living room. When a character is sent bouncing off of her bedroom walls, the thud with each hit is perfectly reproduced. Slighter but no less effective sounds also find their way into the mix; creaky attic floorboards or the din of a bustling high school hallway are nicely and realistically realized. Dialogue is fine, save for Freddy's voice which often sounds detached from the rest of the track and always seems like an element taken from another soundtrack and plopped into this one. Otherwise, this track delivers a full-powered sonic assault that makes excellent use of the entire 5.1 configuration in the way it maneuvers sound around the soundstage while also ensuring that pinpoint effects placement and a few audible surprises support the film in a way that makes this the disc's best asset.
A Nightmare on Elm Street features an honest assortment of extra goodies. First up is WB Maniacal Movie Mode, another of Warner's
exemplary supplements that chronicles the making of the movie through a picture-in-picture window. This is an extensive supplement that runs the
same length as the film and with only the
occasional gap. It features the filmmakers and cast candidly discussing their thoughts on the picture, including the inspiration of the original and the
effect it had on their lives, swapped scenes, Freddy's appearance and the mixture of practical and digital effects, set construction, special effects
artistry
and the replication of the original film's key visuals, costume choices, editing decisions and pacing issues, and plenty more. The passion for the film
and the
material is evident; it's too bad the end result wasn't as strong as it should have been, but regardless, one can't help but find some appreciation for
the
film and the filmmakers after watching this extra. It's very well put together and much more fascinating than the movie itself; viewers are
encouraged
to check it out.
Also included are several brief Focus Points (1080p): Makeup Makes the Character (3:34),
Micronaps (2:38), The Hat (2:31), Practical Fire (2:32), The Sweater (2:20), The Glove (2:24), and The
Victims (3:51). Next is Freddy Krueger Reborn (1080p, 13:54), a piece that looks at the icon that is Freddy Krueger; the differences
between this
remake and the original; the dark nature of this picture; casting Jackie Earle Haley; designing the characters' costume, weapon, and makeup; and
framing and lighting the character in the movie. Also included is BD-Live functionality, an alternate opening (1080p, 1:11), a deleted scene (1080p,
0:58), and an alternate ending (1080p, 6:12). Disc two features both DVD and digital copies of the film. The latter, sampled on a fourth-generation
iPhone, delivers a stable image that features strong details and a color scheme that's balanced and nicely reflective of the picture's intentionally dark
visuals.
Compression artifacts are visible but not overwhelming. The soundtrack is crunchy and lacks definition; dialogue is choppy and muffled while sound
effects and music play as a bit tinny but are nicely spaced between the two small headphone channels.
A Nightmare on Elm Street is arguably one of the worst studio films of 2010 and easily the least of all the recent 1980s Horror icon remakes. The picture never finds a flow, instead playing as little more than a string of scenes copycatting the original and assembled in such a manner that they construct the flimsiest of plots that manage to get across that Krueger haunts dreams and kills teenagers but offers little else of substance. The picture attempts to create a backstory for both murder and victims that go back several years, but it falls by the wayside thanks to shoddy filmmaking, an absence of cohesion, poor acting, a generic script, and lazy direction. Even the film's gloomy atmosphere only screams out "cliché" and fails to add any sense of creepiness or urgency to the picture. Worst of all is the new but certainly not improved Freddy Krueger. A remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street should have been good; this movie isn't. Warner Brothers' Blu-ray release of A Nightmare on Elm Street features a good at-a-glance but nevertheless somewhat problematic 1080p transfer, a high quality lossless soundtrack, and a decent enough selection of extras. Horror fans will at least want to rent; the temptation to see the movie is too much to resist, but chances are hardcore genre fans, admirers of the original, and casual viewers alike will all leave this movie disappointed.
1981
Limited Edition
1980
1984
1987
Unrated Director's Cut
2009
2018
Director's Cut
2005
Collector's Edition
1988
2017
2003
2019
Collector's Edition
1988
Collector's Edition
1981
Collector's Edition
1978
2012
Uncut
2013
Limited Edition
2009
Unrated Director's Cut
2009
Unrated Collector's Edition
2007
Unrated Director’s Cut
2008