Nightmare on Elm Street

I was genuinely surprised with how similar the 2010 remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street was in comparison to the original 1984 version. In fact, I felt that the film suffered because of this. Most movie remakes offer some kind of new twist to the original story, though this one really doesn't bring anything new to the narrative of the original. Because of this, anyone who has watched the original will find this film almost painfully practicable. The story follows Nancy and her group of childhood classmates as they are slowly, but surely, all murdered by Freddie Kruegur, a child rapist from their past that was murdered in a horrific fire. The murders take place in these strange dream-like settings, in which the victims must try to survive until they eventually wake up from their nightmares.  

The most notable and famous weapon of this series is the infamous knife-glove-thing that Freddie uses. This weapon fits exactly into the category that is described in Clover's article. The glove consists of four knives - four weapons that are very phallic and are only effective when used in close proximity to the victim. Especially when the viewer knows that Freddie was a child rapist before his death, it is very easy to make the connection that this glove with knives attached to it is an extension of Freddie's masculinity.


When using this oddly specific weapon, Freddie and his victims are inside these sort of "dream sequences". All of these particular sequences occur in a "terrible place," as Clover calls them. Whether it's the abandoned hallways of the preschool, or the dark spooky basement in which Freddy had originally lived, the characters are almost constantly facing some form of the "terrible place,". All of these places are dark, narrow, and damp, all qualities one would also associate with the womb of a woman. The camera often focuses on dripping water and steam in these scenes, which really emphasizes this warm, damp atmosphere. These spaces are also very small, which not only prevents the victim from running very far, but it also allows an extra sense to intimacy between Freddie and his victims.

Freddie Kruegur himself, fits the description of the "psycho-sexual killer" to perfection. Not only does the movie straight up state that he was in fact a child rapist, but through his actions we can see these tendencies play out frequently. When with Nancy for the first time, he tell her how she was always his "favorite" and he proceeds to lick the side of her face. Then, in the final scene between the two, we see Nancy in Freddie's "favorite dress," a simple white baby-doll. This really infantilizes Nancy, which appeals to the pedophilic tendencies of Freddie. He also places a single knife-finger on her and slowly, but gently trails it up her body and stopping at her chest. When watching this, it's very hard for the viewer to distinguish whether or not this scene is going to end with a murder or a rape. For me personally, I found the sexual imagery from Freddie to be very, very unsettling, far more so than any of the gore this movie had to offer. 

Freddie of course doesn't only kill women in this film. However, the film treats the death of men and women very differently. The male characters have much shorter death scenes in which they are killed shortly after being brought to the "terrible place."  In contrast, the female characters not only have much longer death scenes, but they also have multiple dream sequences. Kris, for example, has multiple encounters with Freddie before her eventual demise. Her death scene is also the most dramatic. Her body is thrown around like a rag doll and she writhes around and screams in a way that could only be described as both sexual and horrifying. We see her lifted in the air when she receives her final blow, a fatal swipe to her chest. Kris's final moment forces the audience to focus on her chest as she bleeds out. She also lets out one final gasp, similar to how one would experience a climax. However, rather than a sexual climax, Kris is experiencing the climax of her life. 

 From the beginning, it is very obvious that Nancy it our "final girl." She belongs in the modern category of "relatable teenager," if not almost overly so. She is edgy and gloomy and she seems to be the black sheep in her school. She is very "relatable" to the teenage audience of this film. Also, as the "final girl," she also is not passive in any way. Although her male friend Quentin doesn't seem to be very willing to investigate what is happening within their group of friends, Nancy is able to convince him to have an interest and the two of them embark on this mystery together (with her being more so the leader of the two). She also fights back against Freddie and her sheer will to survive and stop him makes her continue forward when all hope seems to be lost. Even in the end, she is able to rescue herself without the help of any man. She is also made out to be pure, as she seems to not be very experienced with men (or people in general) as seen with her interactions with Quentin. 

Overall, this movie is insanely similar to the original 1984 movie, and in turn it has many of the "traditional" categories in relation to gender representation that Clover had mentioned in her article. This movie definitely wasn't any sort of masterpiece, in fact it fell quite short in comparison to the original. However, this film does give the viewers a very "traditional" slasher film in a very modern setting.