A Nightmare on Elm Street
New Line Cinema | Release Date: April 30, 2010 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
35
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
13
Negative:
10
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
38
Rolling StonePeter Travers
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. Read full review
30
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
For all the filmmakers' talk about reinvigorating the franchise for a new generation, and all their attention to technical details, this is a sloppily conceived remake with no passion for the genre or this story behind it, a movie that assumes its audience is brain-dead and likes it that way. Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterMichael Rechtshaffen
The back-to-the-beginning approach unimaginatively goes through the motions, offering scant justification for its boring existence, at least from an artistic point of view. Read full review
30
VarietyDennis Harvey
While the 1984 film has aged, its now-familiar jolts still pack more punch than this pic's recycled ones, which sometimes register so tepidly as to cause snickers. Read full review
25
New York PostKyle Smith
Though Freddy is basically the same guy as in the 1984 original, his back story is different. For a few minutes the movie threatens to become interesting -- then retreats. Read full review
25
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
I stared at A Nightmare on Elm Street with weary resignation. The movie consists of a series of teenagers who are introduced, haunted by nightmares and then slashed to death by Freddy. So what? Are we supposed to be scared? Read full review
25
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Director Samuel Bayer, a veteran commercial and music video director responsible for Nirvana’s “Smell Like Teen Spirit Video” back when the original Nightmare series was still a going concern, brings a slick visual sense but not a hint of vision. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
Don't blame Haley, though. Wesley Strick and Eric Heisserer's screenplay goes in the wrong direction entirely, dropping Freddy's sick sense of humor while turning him into a generic bogeyman. Read full review
20
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Using blasts of shrill, high-decibel noise in place of actual scares has become a common horror-movie tactic, the cinematic equivalent of botox, silicone, and penile-enhancement surgery. Producer Michael Bay and director Samuel Bayer deploy the tactic so regularly in this remake of Wes Craven's 1984 classic that after a while I just plugged my ears. Read full review
12
Washington PostJen Chaney
Good ol' Fred loses any sense of playful shock he once possessed and turns into a generic figure meticulously manufactured to simultaneously gross and freak us out. It doesn't work. Read full review
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