So what happens when you remake a classic 1980s horror movie like A Nightmare On Elm Street? There are good remakes out there, after all, not matter how much people want to whine and complain when they get announced. However, the A Nightmare On Elm Street remake from 2010 is not one of those good ones. So how in the hell did it spark a love affair with horror movies that led to six years of Fright-A-Thon articles, thousands of dollars spent on boutique physical media releases, t-shirts, decorations, conversations, and whatever else has gone into my own personal journey? Well, let’s dive in and see.

I was always terrified of scary movies as a kid. My sister forced me to watch The Exorcist at an early age, and it was very much not my thing. I was a small kid, I hit puberty late, I was always short, so that made these feelings of terror that much larger in my mind. Freddy Krueger was chief among those horror icons that absolutely scared the sh*t out of me. He was a child murderer and he killed you in your dreams. You couldn’t fight back. So I didn’t really watch horror movies going into my adolescence and teenage years like most of you out there. Like my late blooming into adulthood, I was a late bloomer in the horror genre.

So that makes me going to see A Nightmare On Elm Street (2010) on opening night in April of 2010 that much more puzzling. Why did I agree to go? I have no clue, it was probably peer pressure. So we loaded up into my friend John’s dad’s car and went down to the local United Artists theater (The UA, if you were a 15-year-old at the time). The movie was rated R, so we needed a parent to go. I’m sure John’s father was thrilled to be taking a group of teenage boys to a crowded theater on his Friday night.

I had not seen the original film up to this point (unless you’re my mother and you swear you woke up to me watching a VHS copy of it when I was very little by myself). So I had no expectations of what the film was going to be about. I ordered my large popcorn and some sort of sugary monstrosity of a soda and sat down. The theater was tingling with electricity, kids screaming, popcorn flying, and the movie hadn’t even started yet.

The remake of A Nightmare On Elm Street came from Platinum Dunes, the same people who brought you other horror remakes of the 2000s and 2010s like Friday the 13th. It brought in Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy, Rooney Mara as Nancy, and also starred Scream King Kyle Gallner. It was a darker telling of the original story in more ways than one.

I do remember reading the back of the popcorn bag A LOT during this screening. I was terrified of everything that was happening on-screen. My friend’s dad was laughing at me during the movie because I was so scared. And yet, through it all, I wanted more. This remake of A NIghtmare On Elm Street was not up to the original in quality or impact, at least for most people. So somehow it made enough of an impression on me to kick me off into where I am today with these films and the genre. This also doesn’t take into account my mom hearing about me seeing the movie, and putting an old fedora on my bed, waiting for me when I got home that night.

These days, Freddy is my guy when it comes to horror movie icons. You have to pick one, some people love Ghostface, some love Leatherface or Jason or Michael Myers, but Freddy is my number one. He’s the most interesting and through all the entries in the series; his character is different every time. The remake gave us a dark and dreary version with Jackie Earle Haley, which is the highlight of the film. Even with horrid CGI effects and makeup, his performance shines through as one that is still scary, to this day.

It is still strange to me that this movie is the last we’ve seen from the Nightmare series, still. Even then, I still have to thank the Nightmare On Elm Street remake for making me into the horror fan I am today.

What do you think of the remake? Let me know in the comments.

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