1. A Nightmare on Elm Street
A Nightmare on Elm Street isn’t just a bad remake, it’s a bad movie in general. Of the big four slashers (Nightmare, Halloween, Friday the 13th and Child’s Play), three of them have had remakes. Both Halloween and Friday the 13th, for all their flaws, tried to do something different with the properties and had some sort of artistic merit to them. While the end result of both of those films is somewhat of a mixed bag, A Nightmare on Elm Street is a complete failure on every level. This is all the more disappointing considering its promising trailer.Jackie Earle Haley isn’t a terrible Freddy, but he just doesn’t make much of an impression. You would never guess that Rooney Mara would go on to be an Academy Award nominee based on her performance in this film (it is not good). None of the dream sequences are creative or even dream-like. It also suffers from a similar problem as The Haunting: spelling things out for the audience. Freddy’s history as a child molester was implied in Wes Craven’s original, but it’s explicitly mentioned in this remake. Not helping matters is the fact that the only memorable parts of the film are those that are lifted directly from the original (though they’re nowhere near as effective). Interesting fact: this remake also stars Katie Cassidy. It’s a good thing she got on Arrow, because between this, When a Stranger Calls and the Black Christmas remake (which is bad but still a lot of fun), she seems to have a knack for picking really terrible movies to act in.
What are your least favorite horror remakes? Let me know in the comments below or shoot me a Tweet!
