1st & 2nd reviews from tonight's AICN screening of NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET remake!

Hey folks, Harry here with the first reader review from tonight's NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET screening which really shocked the hell out of me how much I enjoyed it. Seriously. Here's the first review I got... Now excuse me, I must write mine.

Harry, I want to thank you for the opportunity to be a part of the advance screeening last night of NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. I lost my job last Thursday so a free movie was a good idea, but DAMN what a movie! I abhor remakes in general. Whether it is an American remake of an American movie, or us trying to remake something CLASSIC from overseas and turning it into the biggest pile of elephant dung imagineable, I avoid them like the plague. However when you did the write-up about how the horror genre seems to go in cycles, and how we're looking at the rennaissance basically of OUR classic monsters, I thought I'd give this one a try. Glad I did...SO damn glad I did. I told the exit-poll guy FREDDY'S BACK and I meant it. This is how he should have remained, not the comedic "genius" with all the catchy one-liners. He should have remained dark, creepy, unsettling and just damn fucking nasty. Jackie did that with his interpretation of Krueger. I liken what he did to what Heath did with the Joker. Sure the last persons to hold the respective mantles of the Joker and Freddy did outstanding jobs that will always stand up there amongst the best, but it takes new blood to truly reinvent the tried-and-true, and that is what I saw ont he big screen last night. Jackie Earl is the Heath Ledger of the NIGHTMARE franchise now. The cast was just as cool as well. It was nice NOT seeing runway models trying to act their ways out of shredded paper bags. It was refreshing seeing these characters who genuinely LOOKED tormented, like they actually had NOT slept for days. That really added to the overall outcome, and it really added that long-lost "pull you in" factor that horror movies seem to have forgotten. After seeing it I would have paid if I could to see this movie, and on my Facebook I did exactly what you said to do, I did my own little review telling people to go see this movie. My friends know me as a horror fan and a remake avoider, so if I'm raving about it I am cetain they'll at the very least give it a shot. And i hope they do because we all needed to be reminded of why we were afraid to fall asleep all those years ago. Once again thank you for the chance to be a part of this screening. i hope to be lucky enough int he future to see more specail screenings. Keep up the great work, the excellent site and thank you thank you THANK YOU once again. All the best, Brian

And here's Javi with his take on it all...

Harry, one of the lucky people who got to go through the security check to see A Nightmare on Elm Street tonight. Let me get some disclaimers out of the way. Growing up and being a somewhat sensitive lad, my parents didn't let me see rated R horror movies, which was fine by me-the box art on these relics that are called VHS tapes was usually more than sufficient to scare me. The key art for Evil Dead 2 with the piercing eyeballs staring at you from the skull still gives me the heebee-jeebees. Now having established that, I still grew up terrified of Freddy Krueger. How could you not growing up in the 80s? He was EVERYWHERE-including a weekly tv show! The first Nightmare I saw was Wes Craven's New Nightmare. Talk about confusing! I later went on to see parts 1 and 2 and Freddy Vs. Jason and I plan on seeing part 3 as soon as I finish imparting my thoughts. So, I may not have seen them all, but I feel I have a healthy respect for the character and his relevance to pop culture, especially when it comes to his place in the horror genre. The second thing I want to address is how I feel about remakes/reboots/re-imaginings. I think it's safe to say that many have strong feelings on the subject and I myself have bounced all over the spectrum. Can't Holly wood come out with original ideas? If it ain't broke, don't fix it, etc. Do we really need to remake Psycho shot for shot with modern production values to for modern audiences to appreciate it? I also happen to be a big comic book reader and it used to bug me when a story was retold. For example, Batman: Year 3 and Legends of the Dark Knight #100 do not depict Robin's origin verbatim according to Batman #1. It took me a while to grasp it, but characters like Batman, Superman, James Bond, and yes, Freddy Krueger are part of our modern mythology. We are no longer sitting around the campfire telling stories and passing them down. We may read a book or sit in the dark looking at flickering images, but we are still passing along stories and those stories have to be updated to keep the legend alive. So how good a job do director Samuel Bayer and the Platinum Dunes boys, Andrew Form and Brad Fuller, do in terms of keeping the myth alive for 21st century audiences? A DAMN GOOD ONE. It's been 26 years since Freddy's cinemtaic debut and 7 years since he's last graced the silver screen. What the new Nightmare on Elm Street has to deliver is terror for the next generation of movie goers and it does it very well in a well paced movie, devoid of MTV music video editing. Sure, there are some quick cuts for scare, but this is no exhausting to watch film made by Neveldine/Taylor. There is a mystery to be unraveled and a story that unfolds with characters that get more frayed as the movie goes on. The film has a great atmosphere and I love the nonsensical change of scenery that could only take place inside a dream, where you step inside your house, only to see that your front door led to your old school. The dream world has subtle distinctions as well, be it from slightly vibrating bookcases, to the edges of the frame being slightly fuzzy and distorted, adding a heightened focus onto Freddy. Freddy. Ah, Freddy. Could anyone else outside of Robert Englund have pulled this off better than Jackie Earle Haley? I seem to remember Billy Bob Thorton being rumored for the part, but I don't think he could bring out possible sympathy for a character who is so deeply deeply vile. Not to say that Freddy is deserving of sympathy, but the way the story unfolds, you think he might be worthy of it at one point. I don't recall all of Englund's mannerisms, but Haley right from the start has Freddy's fingers scissor back and forth with anticipation of what's to come and I love it! There seems to be some influence from Alien and Batman Begins in terms of how Freddy is revealed as we see pieces and snippets of him that build over the course of the film. Haley even gets his own "Where are you?!?!?" "Here!" moment. The makeup is disturbing and made slightly more realistic for modern audiences, because let's face it, everything has to be more rationale, real, and gritty these days, again, like Nolan's Batfilms and the recent Bourne and Bond movies. But, there is no doubt, THIS is Freddy Krueger, sinister quips and all. The "one liners" are delivered not with camp, but menace and things are kept relatively scary-no jokes about being sucked into a videogame and playing with power here. The rest of the cast is surprisingly effective as well, with a few genre players to boot. Clancy Brown (the Kurgan/Lex Luthor), Kyle Gallner (Smallville's Kid Flash/Impulse) and Thomas Dekker (John Connor) are fun to watch if you want to picture in your fanboy mind that Lex Luthor is burning Rorschach alive. During the Q&A, the producers point out how they didn't want this cast to resemble the Abercrombie & Fitch-ness of Friday the 13th. Bayer pointed out that they didn't want people seen on the CW, which Fuller and Form point out they do have one who fits that bill with Gallner. This movie though is not about teen stars looking their best, however. The ones that make it longer than others look like they are pulling all nighters, with circles under their eyes. Rooney Mara still manages to radiate beauty though and the bath scene raised a chuckle out of me with Freddy's glove making a hasty retreat. Not too much is made of this Red Bull/Monster drinking generation, but Red Bull does make an appearance. One great bit that I love and wish was explored just a little more was a line that Freddy has. After killing one of the kids and we see him die in the real world, we cut back to the dream world and see him still being tortured by Freddy. Krueger points out that the brain is still alive for 6 minutes after death and the fun isn't over yet. How sucky is that?!?! To die but still have to die til your mind has used all it's oxygen as well?!?! It was a great concept that was mentioned and then the story moved on. I wish they would've played with that idea just a little more. For those curious, there is no red front door at Nancy's and no cameos by previous cast members. Everyone felt that if John Saxon showed up, or Robert Englund was in the background mopping the school it would only pull people out of the movie. And you know what? I think they were right. The movie is just fine as it is on it's own two feet. Some might have a quibble that Freddy isn't a child murderer, but a child molester, a fact that Bayer points out was Craven's original intent, but was not allowed to due to politics of the day. I feel the change makes Freddy more sinister especially as he goes after his possibly (?) former prey. Maybe he can go after the parents in the next installment, which I DON'T think will be in 3-D if the producers and the audience have anything to say about it. Having only seen Platinum Dunes remakes of Texas Chainsaw, Amittyville, and Friday the 13th (I missed the audience and Harry maligned The Hitcher remake) I would have to say this one is the best of that crop. Some can say that's not saying much, but I found this to be very well made with lots of love and respect for the original material. Let's face it, Englund is to Freddy as Shatner is to Kirk and it takes some balls to mess with something that has worked for a quarter of a decade. Thankfully, Bayer and Co were up to the task and if you go in with an open mind, I think you'll enjoy it. After all, it's not a PG-13 watered down remake and what else are you gonna see this weekend? Brendan Fraser in Furry Vengeance? Producer Brad Fuller doesn't think so! Harry, thanks for setting this up and moderating the Q&A. Best, Javi