So on Friday I went to see the new version of “Nightmare on Elm Street.” The original has always been one of my favorites, so I was wary. After the suckfest that was the “Clash of the Titans” remake, was I ready for another disappointment? The recent horror film remakes have mostly been disappointments for me, be they remakes of Japanese/Asian films or remakes of classic American films.

This one I feel was MUCH better than some of the recent remakes, such as “Halloween” and “Friday the 13th.” I couldn’t even make it through “Texas Chainsaw” to be honest, it just grated on my nerves and I can’t stand those “back woods killer” horror flicks anyway.

Everyone under the sun knows what this movie is about, and if you don’t you should be slapped on your ass with a wet fish! Rent the original if you haven’t already seen it for sure. I’m not going to spend time recapping the movie. I’m going to steal Sean’s method of movie reviews for this one. So here are 5 for and 5 against for the new “Nightmare,” then my final verdict.

5 For . . .

• Freddy is a child molester rather than killer in this one, which works in this day and age (as opposed to the “Adam Walsh” period of the 80s). They give a good back story without the snore fest that Rob Zombie dragged out far too long in his remake of “Halloween.”
• There are several jump out of your seat moments in this one. Yes even I got got!
• The acting, for the most part, is top notch. Of course they did use the usual “let’s cast adults as high schoolers” approach.
• There is a fairly good twist in the movie as well, which I won’t give away. Bravo for actually doing something new that works!
• It really is one of the best remakes of a horror film to come along. Not perfect, but not too bad.

5 Against . . .

• They changed one of the best lines of the movie “This Is God!” and made it bland and dull.
• The story was out of whack in comparison to the original. I found myself saying one too many times “this is supposed to happen later!” or “this happened to a different character in the original!” It’s not that it didn’t work, it just felt like they were picking the most memorable scenes to reuse but wanted to try and do them differently.
• The new Freddy look, while looking more realistically like a burn victim, just wasn’t as scary. The sense of dread also wasn’t there, just a lot of seat jump scare tactics.
• Nobody can replace Robert Englund in this role. You can’t help but just feel something or someone is missing from the movie. That would be Robert.
• The new Nancy was atrocious. I mean nothing likable, I really loathed her. Not only was she the school outcast, she was some bohemian hippy painter and WEAK. The original Nancy was strong and took on Freddy on her own. In this one she had to have her boyfriend help her figure out half the mystery as well as help her fight Freddy.

If you love horror movies, I’d give this a see it. If you are a purest and every little change will annoy you, wait to rent it. I’m sure it will be on DVD within 2 months.