A Nightmare on Elm Street

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.

Critics were nearly unanimous in dismissing this remake as a hollow exercise in franchise management — competently shot but stripped of the original's dread and wit. The sharpest disagreements concerned Jackie Earle Haley's Freddy: a handful of reviewers found something unsettling in his performance, while others felt no amount of backstory or vocal processing could substitute for what made the character work. Audience enthusiasm, reflected in a People's Choice Award, stood in stark contrast to the critical drubbing.