and the brits continue to do it better.....

"shark in the Water" by V.V. Brown sounds like a so cal summer jam. Suprise suprise it's from the U.K.

1,2, Freddy's Commin for you......

PLATINUM DUNES has had a checkered past with horror films. For one they’ve only made 2 ORIGIONAL films, and about a thousand remakes, including this one. They have been pretty evenly hit or miss for me. I LOVED the Texas chainsaw massacre, and its sequel. I HATED the Amityville Horror and THE Unborn, and thought The Hitcher was good, but not anything to write home about. Well, this time around they…..made the best remake possible given the source material.

I recently rewatched the first nightmare on Elm Street and was disappointed to realize how badly it has dated. Not just the “cheesy 80’s effects” that are easily overlooked for a lot of films of its time. The acting was atrocious, and the scares, though trend setting for its time, fall flat on this current jaded audience. I was actually looking forward to this remake as the actual plot is still creepy as hell and has tons of potential. This is Platinum Dunes best picture to date. That being said, I can’t help but feel like this film was held back from what it could have been had the filmmakers not felt obligated to pay homage to the original so much.

The cast is across the board good. The teens (who are all at LEAST 25 years old or older in real life, lol) are surprisingly likable, smart, and don’t waste time wondering what’s going on. Most thrillers have that obligatory scene where someone goes to the library and does some research and discovers the huge secret. That scene comes at about the half way point, and I appreciated the swift pacing. Also along the lines of pacing, the order in which the kids are killed was fantastic. Just when you start to relate to one girl, who I just assumed was the lead, gets killed in the first act! A nice “psycho”-esqu touch. However with such a swift pace comes a price, and that’s character development. The original had at least 2 or 3 scenes where the kids could just be kids, and you found out about who they were as people. Here we dive right in, which I guess is expected for a slasher film, but when it excels in every other category; I wish I was also able to say I actually LIKED some of the people dying on screen.

Jackie Earl Hailey was a genius idea to play Freddy. He won an Oscar to playing a molester in LITTLE CHILDREN after all. The writer and Hailey find the absolute perfect balance of sick twisted one liners, and foul menace. He’s not the goofball he became in the numerous and horrible sequels, but he’s not played completely straight either (he has a “wet dream” joke that was perfectly gross and funny at the same time).

Special Mention must be made to the cinematography and direction. The way the film slips into the kids dreams and back out again is really creative and handled differently every time, with lots of really cool details (like water drops running backwards as a hint to tip you off that you’re in a dream) and although there was plenty of gore, it was never gratuitous or over the top. This 'aint got nothing on hostel or saw in that department. It makes up for it though with its subject matter. They handle Freddy’s back-story head on, gross kiddy porn pics found in the basement and all. There’s even a scene where the teens remember just what Freddy had done to them, and one girl sees the photo’s Freddy took of her, and it’s disgusting and scary and…..not the kind of moment you’d find in a typical slasher.

I’d highly recommend this if you like suspense films. It’s not so much a “gore” movie, with the emphasis on visuals and creeping you out. I truly hope this film does well enough to re kick start this franchise. The “Dream” angle it has going for it really does have endless untapped possibilities, and this was a perfect reintroduction to one of film’s most famous villains.