The A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise is as personality-driven as its contemporaries are not. A reasonably competent stuntman stand in passes muster for most masked maniacs. But not so the Springwood Slasher, who’s as quick with a crack as he is with a scratch of a knifed glove.
So when Michael Bay and company decided to engage younger audiences, and to do so without Robert Englund – it raised many an eyebrow.
And the results speak for themselves, confirming suspicions and sinking this one to the bottom of series entries in terms of esteem.
But ironically, it’s not Englund’s absence that is what makes this entry in the canon shoot blanks, it’s the tonal shift from over-the-top death set pieces, to a more dour, dark and yes, serious approach to the subject matter.
It’s something nobody asked for.
After all, it’s crazy deaths, Vaudevillian quips, and fantasy dreamscapes that made the series so engaging to begin with. So, despite a game cast, which includes the solid Katie Cassidy (of Black Christmas / When a Stranger Calls retreads), things fall flatter than Illinois’ topography.
It also doesn’t help matters that it tries to capture lightning in a bottle twice, with a death that’s cribbed from the first film – and incidentally, one that even folks who’ve not seen A Nightmare on Elm Street are familiar with, given its A-lister star.
So, what we are left with is a movie absent any of the characteristics that made ALL the other entries entertaining in their own right, despite the silliness – a workmanlike, capable, but forgettable dud.
**3/4 (out of 5)
Check out the Really Awful Movies Podcast for a fuller discussion of 2010’s A Nightmare on Elm Street.
Really Awful Movies 