Teenagers Nancy, Quentin, Kris, Jesse and Dean are all neighborhood friends who begin having the same dream of a horribly disfigured man who wears a tattered sweater and a glove made of knives. The man terrorizes them in their dreams, and the only escape is to wake up. But when, one by one, they start dying violently, the friends realize that what happens in the dream world is real, and the only way to stay alive is to stay awake.
I did jump a few times, and I liked Haley's dour malevolence, but overall, the new Nightmare on Elm Street is a by-the-numbers bad dream.
– Owen Gleiberman,
Entertainment Weekly,
7 Sep 2011
fresh:
Freddy's back -- and he's slicker and more sinister than ever.
– Christine Champ,
Film.com,
6 May 2011
rotten:
It's the Bay touch you feel in the way actors register as body count, characters go undeveloped, and sensation trumps feeling. A nightmare, indeed.
– Peter Travers,
Rolling Stone,
14 May 2010
rotten:
This is the worst yet from Michael Bay's horror production company Platinum Dunes, which also brought you rubbish re-makes of Halloween and Friday the 13th.
– Nigel Floyd,
Time Out,
6 May 2010
rotten:
Jackie Earle Haley's Krueger is a blast, but the child-molester twist is more depressingly clinical than dream-logic harrowing.