Full Review: A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

People in the Movie: Heather Langenkamp, Johnny Depp, Robert Englund

Director:  Wes Craven

Pigeonhole:  horror/ teen slasher

The Basics: Nancy (Langenkamp) is having bad dreams.  So are her friends Tina (Amanda Wyss), Rod (Nick Corri), and her boyfriend Glen (Depp).  They all soon realize it is the same disfigured man with ‘knives for fingers’ who is terrorizing them in their sleep.  His name is Freddy (Englund), and in his world, he is in control of what happens – life and death.  But how do you protect yourself from being killed in your dreams? 

Recommendation:  A truly must see for any horror fan.  There are some intense, scary scenes, as well as some gore and splatter, so heed the ‘R’ rating.  I first watched this when I was 12 and it gave me nightmares.  I have it as one my top 10 all-time horror films.

My Take: **spoiler alert**  Wes Craven took a very simple idea, a small budget and made one of the all time great horror movies.  The ‘teen slasher’ film has been around forever, but a “bad guy” who stalked and killed victims in their dreams was a novel twist, and the results speak for themselves.  First, and foremost the audience is immediately introduced to Freddy Krueger (although we do not know his name until a little later on in the movie) who will be become one of the best known horror movie characters to date.  The opening of the movie we see clips of him assembling his right hand glove with knife blades on the 4 fingers.  But we don’t know his motivation, or his “power”, yet…  The music of the film is "80's synthesizer", and it works.  Nothing catchy, but it provides the backdrop well, and does not distract your attention.  

The dream sequences which we see the teens being stalked are more about terror than they are about killing; simple, yet scary elements keep us on edge - the screeching of Freddy’s knives on the walls and pipes, a long centipede crawling out of Tina’s mouth, Nancy being dragged under water, Glen being “sucked” into his bed, a dank abandoned boiler room.  And as far as frightening, gory scenes go, I think Nightmare on Elm Street has one of the top ones: Tina being dragged across the walls and ceiling by an unseen force and being simultaneously cut, while Rod, who has been knocked into the corner, can only helplessly watch and scream.

Another element I like that gives the movie a bit of an edge, is that teen’s parents are visibly flawed.  Nancy’s mom is a drunk, her dad is a dismissive jerk, Tina’s mom is white trash, and Glen’s parents are the “my son is too good for you” sort.  When we learn that they all were involved in a vigilante-style murder, we are not surprised, because they are not the “perfect” parents.  The sins of the parents, of course, turn out to be the whole reason Freddy is killing their kids.

The proverbial “cherry on top” for me is the ending: Nancy walks out of her house, supposedly having taken away Freddy’s power (her fear), and everything is ok, everyone is alive and well.   But then we realize it is another dream, Nancy is being taken away in a seemingly Freddy possessed car, and her mom is yanked through the small window on the front door of the house.  Classic.     

Final Thought/Extras/For Fun:  Wes Craven based the idea of being killed in one’s dreams by stories he read in the LA Times of Khmer refugees in the in the United States who had fled from the genocide in the 70’s, later dying in their sleep from night terrors… Fred Kruger was named after a boy who bullied Craven as a child… Freddy was originally supposed to be portrayed as a child molester, however, there was a high profile child molestation case going on at the time of the filming, so it was decided to make him a murderer instead… The 2010 remake has Freddy as a child molester… this movie spawned: Nightmare on Elm St. 2, #3, #4, #5, Freddy’s Dead (#6), New Nightmare, the 2010 remake, and Freddy’s Nightmares, a TV Series…