A Nightmare on Elm Street

“Remember me?” This is one of the half-clever, trailer-ready catchphrases (“Let’s play tag: you’re it!,” “Fooled you!” and so on) uttered by Freddy Krueger in the newly rebooted “Nightmare on Elm Street.” But really who, apart from Freddy’s terrified and bewildered new victims, could have forgotten? This maniac, with his jaunty hat and striped sweater, his ravaged face and murderous bladed glove, has been a fixture of pop culture for more than a quarter century.

Death stalks the dreams of several young adults to claim its revenge on the killing of Freddy Kruger. Chased and chastised by this finger-bladed demon, it is the awakening of old memories and the denials of a past of retribution that spurns this hellish vision of a dreamlike state and turns death into a nightmare reality.