| Nightmare on Elm Street Thoughts (and Spoilers) | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: May 24 2010, 01:45 PM (258 Views) | |
| kismetrose | May 24 2010, 01:45 PM Post #1 |
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I went in expecting a movie based on the Nightmare on Elm Street concepts, but a horror movie made in the recent style, with technology like CGI thrown in somewhere just because. I wanted to see what they did with the new film in regard to symbols, plot, and characters, because I was pretty sure I knew how the thing would turn out. And while I wasn't wrong, the new Nightmare on Elm Street made some interesting choices. In this incarnation, Freddy comes back due to the return of repressed memories, which is a nod to 80s psychology that I wasn't expecting. The term doesn't resonate as much now as it did in the 80s, when hypnotists and psychologists alike were uncovering horrendous memories left and right, feeding into the hysteria about all kinds of abuse. But it *does* lead to the teens in the movie being haunted by much younger versions of themselves, which is powerful and sad when you think about it. It also leads to the old "secretive and controlling parents versus the teen victims" routine, which would have been more effective if the parents had been given stronger parts. They even had the indomitable Clancy Brown as one of the 'rents, but they didn't use him much or put him to full effect. When he delivers the line, "I hope you never have to make the discovery that your child has been abused," the impact gets lost. I found myself missing Nancy's drunken mother from the original; as frustrating and crazy as she was, she had resonance because she'd been damaged by the things she'd seen and done. The dreams in this film start to tell a story, leading the teens to remember more and more. The writers make it seem like Freddy might have been innocent when the parents tracked him down, cornered him, and burnt him alive. His cries are particularly pathetic and you get a moment of sympathy for the devil. One of the teens even jumps to the conclusion that the children lied about being abused (which is also a step back to the 80s, when we were starting to actually believe kids when they came forward). But it just doesn't follow. Instead, Freddy leads the teens down a breadcrumb trail so that they'll fully remember what happened when they were young - so they will suffer even more when he hunts them again. I thought that was a particularly vicious and horrifying idea, and definitely worthy of a villain. A nasty idea was also behind the death of one guy. We see his body die but the scene goes back to his dream, where Freddy tells him, "Do you know that the brain can remain functioning for several minutes after the heart stops beating?" It's not enough for your body to die; you need to stop being conscious to get rid of Freddy. One nasty thing that I wasn't quite expecting was the complete sexualization of Freddy and his interactions with Nancy. Freddy made some short references and tongue-gestures in earlier films, but this Freddy is only suggestive in the way he invades her space with his body. He licks Nancy up the side of her neck, and says a number of things that are very clearly come-ons and outright sexual threats. By the time she is held to a bed by an invisible force and Freddy is leaning over her, picking at the buttons on her little-girl dress, we understand that it isn't death she's afraid of. I could go on about observations and suggestions, but I'll quit while I'm ahead. It's enough to say that the franchise is just that - a franchise that we've seen time and time again. The original Nightmare was a powerful statement about various real-life horrors of the 80s. This Nightmare had a decent budget, but it doesn't really have a statement of its own to make. |
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12:14 PM Jul 11