Nightmare on Elm Street: DVD Review

Nightmare on Elm Street: DVD Review

Nightmare on Elm Street

Rating: R16
Released by Warner Home Video
Freddy's back for a new generation.

In this reimagining of the once popular Elm Street series, the teens of a small American town are dozing off - and being plagued by visions of a man in a red and black striped jumper and with a burned face.

After a series of deaths, one of them, Nancy (Rooney Mara) along with her friend Quentin (Kyle Gallner) try to work out why they're being tormented - and how to stop Freddy (Watchmen's Jackie Earle Haley) from killing them all.

It's always going to be difficult to redo the iconic 1984 film A Nightmare on Elm Street - that was always one which defined a generation of horrors and had a major impact on the genre.

So it's not that the team behind this one doesn't try - they do and the successful updating finds Freddy Krueger given more of a sinister backstory which is more relevant and shocking to our times and sensitivities.

The cast do okay with their roles; they're all fairly disposable and the relative lack of big names (outside of genre TV shows) means you're not quite sure who's going to make it to the end.

I'm not sure though that this Freddy has power to sustain a series of sequels which the original did.

Extras: Go behind the scenes of how the team reinvented Freddy Krueger for a new generation

Rating: 5/10