A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

In this film and the superior 1984 original, the premise is the same: a fringe member of the early-childhood education job sector, Freddy Krueger is burned alive by a pitchfork mob as punishment for the kind of crimes that ensue when desire meets access. Krueger then kills the children of the mob in their nightmares. Horror requires a suspension of disbelief, which is actually an exercise of imagination. What did Freddy really do to young kids? Just how evil is he? How could a subconscious allow this to happen? Where the original film titillated, the redo is obvious and therefore pointlessly unpleasant. The redo exploits its audiences' anxiety over these traumatizing crimes. The original left the audience to wonder and the space to later process their reactions. Where the redo force-feeds reality, the original was almost sensitive. –Hillary Titley