A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) dir. Samuel Bayer, Platinum Dunes
Moving into the slasher section of the countdown, why should the Man of Your Dreams be except from the reboot crazy that all the rage in the 00's?
Dean Russell (Kellen Lutz) has been having some rough nights. He stumbles into the Springwood Diner, passing out in a booth. This proves fatal, as before his friend Kris (Katie Cassidy) and waitress Nancy's (Rooney Mara) horrified eyes he cuts his throat open.
Going to the funeral, Kris sees a picture of her and Dean as children. Which is odd, as she clearly never met him before high school. When Kris falls asleep, however, she gets a bit answered as a burned man with knives on his fingers (Jackie Earle Haley) starts showing up. Kris starts staying awake as long as possible, even getting back together with her ex-boyfriend Jesse (Thomas Dekker). Jesse proves useless as the next time Kris falls asleep she doesn't wake up. Jesse also gets covered in her blood.
He manages to get to Nancy's house and tell her what Kris told him. Nancy is freaked out, both by Jesse's tale, his current state, and the fact that she' been dreaming of the same burned man. Jesse is arrested and soon found dead in his cell. This doesn't end the matter for Nancy and with her boyfriend Quentin (Kyle Gallner) in tow she decides to start digging.
First step is with her mother, Gwen (Connie Britton). Gwen breaks down and tells them the truth, basically Nancy, Quentin and most of the other kids all attended the same preschool. Everything was fine until Nancy came home one day and told her parents that school groundskeeper Freddy Kruger (Haley) had a special room in the basement of the school.
Lead by Nancy's father Alan (Clancy Brown) the parents of the kids formed a vigilante party but Kruger skipped town and no one ever saw him again. Nancy doesn't quite believe that last part and tries to find the other students to confirm what happened...except that she can't as she and Quentin are the only students from the preschool still alive. Weird too, as all the others would die in their sleep.
Nancy and Quentin have to race against the clock. They have to sleep some time, and Freddy's waiting...
Disappointing; the effects are good but the kills were too basic. Plus, instead of a child killer Freddy is now a child molester. Still bad but the film handles it with the grace of a hand grenade. "Oh no, we killed an innocent man and now his ghost is back for re-ah, no he was guilty as hell. Never mind". If you're going to dismiss a plot point so quickly, why even introduce it the first place?
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