For all of the hate this movie got upon release, I was expecting a real pile of crap, but I was pleasantly surprised by a lot of what this movie had to offer, from the seething anger of Jackie Earle Haley’s Frederick Krueger, to the ferocity of the kills. Also, the expanding of Freddy’s backstory to put it more in line with Wes Craven’s original vision of Krueger was a very welcome minor alteration of the well-known story. I particularly liked (SPOLERS) the revelation that pre-school Nancy had been Krueger’s favorite playmate shortly before his death. It made the story nice and personal, and it wasn’t a ridiculous leap to make. It felt organic.

The movie isn’t perfect, but then again, neither is the original. A lot of people forget how flawed the first movie really is, while at the same time damning this remake for being anything less than horror perfection. But you get what you need with this film: a terrifying monster and some gruesome deaths. I liked it. It was too slick, as these horror remakes always are, and the teen actors were all too pretty and polished. Also, the protagonist managed to be even less charismatic than Heather Langenkamp, which isn’t easy by a long shot. She was a wearyingly passive lead.

Enough kind words cannot be written about Haley’s take on this horror icon, who had been turned into a knife-gloved comedian from about three too many sequels, is here taken back to a level of simplicity not even the first film showed us: a furiously, savagely angry fucking pervert. This Freddy is mean and pissed off.

Maybe I’m just missing out on what every other critic saw when they were all lining up to take craps on this, but I liked it.

THE METRICS

• Story: 3 of 5
• Freddy: 4.5 of 5
• Genuine Scariness: 2.5 of 5
• Dream Creativity: 3 of 5
• Nancy’s Spunkiness: 1.5 of 5
• AVERAGE: 3 of 5

Serviceable. Recommended if you like this sort of thing, in which case you’ve probably seen it already.