It’s never a good sign for a remake when the original creator is vehemently against it. But, after viewing the reboot of A Nightmare on Elm Street, it’s not hard to see why Wes Cravin would speak out against it. In fact, it would be much harder to imagine what anyone would have to say for it.

There are so many problems, some minor, some all-encompassing, in this remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street that it’s not as difficult to decide where to begin as when to stop. The basic story, despite what this film seems to believe, everyone already knows: a razor gloved Freddy Krueger kills suburban teenagers in their dreams as revenge for being burned to death by their parents. This remake assumes not only that you don’t already know this, but that it will take you at least an hour to grasp the idea. The premise is presented as a mystery, the film starting with random deaths that the teenagers don’t understand, until only two remain alive – the awkward Quentin Smith (Kyle Gallner) and the loner artist Nancy Holbrook (Rooney Mara) – to figure out who Freddy Kruger is, what he wants, and how they can stop him.

Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children, Watchmen) replaces Robert Englund as Freddy Kruger, giving him a gravely voice and perverted delivery. His facial burns are more realistic in the reboot, but somehow bland, unfrightening, and despite Haley’s skill as an actor, Kruger never seems that menacing. Nothing seems that menacing in the film, and that’s one major problem.

Director Samuel Bayer doesn’t understand the basic mechanics of how to build suspense in a scene. There may be plenty of violence in this Nightmare, but it lacks the anticipation of violence that generates true suspense. As Hitchcock famously said, a bomb exploding may surprise an audience, but if a bomb is placed, and we see it ticking under a table before the characters know about it, we will feel much more suspense as we wait for it to explode. The kills and even the dramatic climaxes of scenes just explode without proper setup in this remake. Take even a somewhat traditional scene: Quentin and Nancy must search her mother’s house for clues as to Kruger’s identity. The scene starts when they find something. There’s no search. There’s just the result of a search that didn’t happen. Likewise, Kruger’s kills are the result of a nightmare that never happened.

Even mundane horror films, if not scary, may have something to offer an audience. But this remake has nothing to offer, unless all you want to see is a bunch of teenage unknowns wearing way too much makeup. It feels double its length, contains more than enough plot holes and technical distractions to rip you out of the narrative, and sullies whatever pleasant memories you might have had of the original. A Nightmare on Elm Street is just that: a nightmare, and not the good kind.