A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) 7 out of 10

The movie starts out with a dream sequence. The man who is asleep is Dean Russell and this is the first time we see Freddy and they did a pretty good job of making him darker. Then he is waken up by Nancy Holbrook. Kris Fowles his girlfriend sits down and talks to Dean telling him it’s only a nightmare but Dean disagrees and you know he is not crazy because when he was cut in the dream and woken up he had a cut on his hand. In the end of the scene Dean looks like he’s committing suicide but is being controlled by Freddy.

The Title flashes and we are now at Deans Funeral and Kris now starts seeing images of Freddy at the funeral. She confides in her ex- boyfriend Jesse Braun but Jesse dismisses them as just nightmares but Nancy believes they are something else. Nancy’s mom has to leave and while she’s gone Jesse come’s over and talks to Nancy they both end up falling asleep and Jesse is awaken to his girlfriend freaking out and ends up being cut to death. This is one of the scenes that’s almost exactly the same as the original but its only one of few this movie does a good job of doing its own thing.

                Jesse gets apprehended by the police and taken to jail where is killed by Freddy as well. Quentin Smith who has always wanted to be with Nancy is now helping Nancy figure out who is Freddy and why he wants to kill them. Nancy asks her mom but her mom doesn’t tell her anything. Nancy knows her mom is lying to her so later Quentin and Nancy sneak in her room and find an picture of her, Quentin, Dean, and Kris. Nancy confronts her mom and her mom says she was only trying to protect her. Her mom tells her about how Freddy like children a little too much, how he used to be the groundskeeper at the Pre-school, and how she was her favorite. Nancy’s mom says there just repressed memories turning into nightmares. Quentin now believes Nancy’s mom is right and goes on with his life.

                During swim practice Quentin gets dragged under water and when he comes up you see the parents chase down a defenseless and pathetic Freddy. The parents burn him to death and Quentin is waken up and tells Nancy that he believes that Freddy wants to kill them because they lied to their parents and got them killed. Nancy and Quentin set off to the old pre-school.  On the way there they stop at a drug store to pick up some stay awake pills and Nancy goes into a dream and pulls out a piece of Freddy’s sweater and she gets cut up in the dream. Quentin takes her to the hospital.

                At the hospital Quentin steals some adrenalin and takes Nancy out of the hospital because they were trying to put her under. They start heading back to the pre-school and when they arrive they find a secret room. In this room Quentin finds pictures of Nancy with Freddy they never show the pictures but the idea of what’s on them is creepy enough. Nancy and Quentin know now they want them dead for telling their parents the truth. Nancy come up with a plan to pull Freddy out of the dream and kill him in the real world. Quentin agrees to stay awake and watch Nancy. However Quentin falls asleep and is hurt by Freddy but Freddy hears Nancy and stops to go after her. Nancy tries to get away from Freddy but can’t and Freddy reveals the plan he wanted to keep her up so long that she would go into a coma and Freddy and her could be together forever.

                Quentin struggling to wake her up sticks some adrenaline in her and she wakes up and pulls Freddy into the real world. Nancy cuts of Freddy’s hand and kills him and then burns the place down with Freddy’s body inside. However you here from the firefighters there was no body pulled from the building. Quinton and Nancy drive away in an ambulance. Nancy returns home with her mom and thanks her saying I know you were trying to protect me. As she’s saying that she sees Freddy in the mirror and he jumps out stabs her mother in the back of the head then pulls her in the mirror.

                As far as remakes go I think this one is pretty good in gives winks to the original while bringing something new and I thought they did a good job. Freddy is scary again which I enjoy. He says a few one-liners but doesn’t overdue it. But Robert England is Freddy and it kind of sucks not having him however Jackie Earle Haley does a good job in the role. The special effects are fine but lack the charm of the original. The ending while predictable was kind interesting they way Freddy pulls her into the mirror. Overall I recommend it it’s not in insulting remake, it’s a remake that I feel the creators are doing in for the love of the series.

The Thing (2011)

The Thing is a prequel to the John Carpenter classic The Thing which I love and so I could not wait to see this movie. Now the movie starts out with 3 Norwegian artic explorers the 2 up front are telling a joke well the sucker in the back is doing all the work and the guy who’s doing the work picks up a signal. They stop and the ice breaks beneath them and find a space ship. Then you get the title screen and after that’s done we meet are main protagonist a woman named Kate Lloyd and she is a artic scientist, and Dr. Sander Halvorson needs her for something she isn’t told what it is but she is convinced and they set off.

                                You figure out what the team wants her to do which is getting the alien out of the ice which they do. Now some dialogue takes place they establish character at this point, and their not that great you really don’t care about any of them with the exception of maybe Kate. The Thing breaks out’s and it’s up to the crew to stop it. The Thing gets to one of the crew members but they do end up killing the thing and this is where the movie starts to get good. Dr. Sander Halverson dissects the thing and you learn that the guy he killed and sucked into his body has new like flesh. Kate also finds a metal plate and one the crew members says that used to be in his body and now Kate is wondering what is it doing out of it.

                Kate then starts looking at the Cells and see’s the thing’s cells taking over and replicating the guy who got killed cells. Now if you seen John Carpenter’s Version you know what this means. Some of the crew members decide to leave and seek help because one the members got hurt while fighting the thing. However Kate discovers fillings on the floor of the bathroom and blood in the shower she put the pieces together and figured out what the thing is doing and flags the helicopter down. The helicopters crashes and before it crashed you see the thing pop out of a guy it looks terrible I mean really bad.

                After the accident Kate tells the other crew members that they can’t leave like they want because the thing is in one them, they don’t believe her.  Juliette tells Kate that she saw one of the crew members clean up the blood in the shower and Juliette knows where the keys are to the Artic Tanks when Kate and Juliette are alone the thing come out of Juliette and attacks Kate.  Kate comes up with a plane the scientist come up with a way to test their blood and her and another guy will make sure the Artic tanks don’t’ work. Then for some reason the guy show’s Kate grenades maybe he wanted to look cool. Anyways 2 guys come emerging out of the blindness of the snow Sam Carter and Derek Jameson  they were part of the helicopter crash so the crew thinks that they are the thing but Kate convinces them to lock them up instead of killing them.

                After all of that you see the lab blow up and crew figures that it was the thing and go at peoples throat but Kate tells them there is another way she tells Lars to open up and he has fillings so he’s not the thing she does this to everyone until there is to groups and she tells Lars and another member to go get Derek and Sam and they do but they escape and Lars goes missing. In a panic the guy comes back pounding at the door Kate lets him in and tells them the thing is out there. Derek and sam Come through the back door and end up killing one of the crew members in self-defense. Sam and Derek take control and tell everyone to get into the recreation room here the thing reveals itself and kills everyone but Derek and Kate. The Thing takes over Dr. Sander Halvorson body gets one of the Artic Tanks running and sets off.

Derek and Kate follow to the things space ship and they fight the thing inside Kate is almost killed but destroys it by tossing a grenade in it and Derek sets it on fire. Derek and Kate escape and Kate tells Derek how she knew he wasn’t the thing it was his ear ring the thing can only copy organic material but the ear ring was on the wrong ear and she killed him,

Then the credits flash but wait there is a helicopter and the guy come out of it and starts yelling and Lars comes out and so does a dog. Now this is the best part of the movie because earlier you seen this dog get killed so you know exactly what it is so does Lars and they both jump into the helicopter and Lars starts shooting at it.

Now I like this movie it’s fun, but there are problems the biggest being that the effects are terrible I much prefer the ones in the original they look way better and more organic. Also they kind of repeat a lot of what John Carpenter put into the original which ruins the surprise because I already seen it. Plus giving us clues about its shaped shifting abilities was a good idea but is ruined by showing the thing before the helicopter crash they should of has just had the helicopter crash to keep it more of a surprise. But I did like the idea of an origin story that was a great idea instead of just remaking the original Plus the ending is superb I love how the set up the next movie. Overall it’s not as good but still good in its own right.  I recommend it especially to fans of the original.