A Nightmare on Elm Street - 2010

Director: Samuel Bayer

Writers: Wesley Strick & Eric Heisserer

Starring: Jackie Earle Haley, Kyle Gallner, Rooney Mara, Kellan Lutz

"Wake up, Nancy, wake up. Nancy, please. Please don't do this please. Nancy, come back. Please wake up. You promised." A decade after the death of pedophile Freddy Krueger (Haley), his now-teenaged victims begin experiencing similar dreams of a knife-clawed Krueger out to kill them all.

I've never been one for horror movies. "Scared" is not an emotion I have any desire to experience any more than absolutely necessary. And while there where a few moments of poor writing ("if we survive the next 24 hours" being one, as well as when/how Mara's character determines how to lure Krueger into the real world) stand out, the mains all bring decent performances, especially Haley as the new nightmare killer. In addition, the movie was genuinely scary. When I can't watch something in theaters, I do the best I can to replicate the theatrical experience by watching in total darkness. I'll admit I jumped once or twice, and turned the lights back on sporadically as well. Guess that means that slimeball Michael Bay (whose studio Platinum Dunes is responsible for the recent spree of horror remakes) deserves some of his ill-gotten gains after all. C