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Directed By: Wes Craven
Starring:
Heather Langenkamp as Nancy
Robert Englund as Fred Krueger
John Saxon as Lt. Thomposn
Official Rating: Great Movie (10/10)
With the inevitable remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street arriving faster than many would like, I felt that it would be the perfect time to revisit the classic movie (and its sequels) that sparked a cinematic phenomenon and influenced the genre we all know and love to an enormous extent. But, what can possibly be said about Wes Craven's masterpiece that hasn't been said countless times before? Ugh, Freddy's sweater is sooooo 1980's? To be honest, you have probably all seen this movie before and many of you have seen it more times than you could count on both hands and feet together. I'm not really talking to you; to see A Nightmare on Elm Street is to understand its brilliance and, therefore, you don't need me telling you how great it is. You know already. I'm talking to the rest of you...that one guy who has been living under a rock since 1976 and that other girl who was raised by wolves. I'm talking to you because it is high time that you experience the movie that made Wes Craven a household name, that sparked numerous sequels, and that put Freddy Krueger's charred face on lunchboxes everywhere. To be sure, pop culture has been unfairly unkind to Mr. Krueger, depicting him more like Ronald McDonald with knives than the brutal child murderer that Wes Craven created here. That is a cinematic travesty, my friends.
That is one reason why I am cautiously excited about the remake; it seems to have taken Freddy Krueger back to his terrifying roots. I remain cautious, though, because of the absence of Robert Englund who created such an iconic horror movie villain so effortlessly here. Playing the dreaded Krueger, Englund gives a career-defining performance and, even though A Nightmare on Elm Street was released more than twenty-five years ago, he can still send chills down my spine with such lines as "I'm your boyfriend now, Nancy" and "This is God." Krueger was a child murderer who, after being unjustly released on a technicality, was burned to death by the parents of Elm Street. Now, he has found a way to resume his killing: by coming through the dreams of the teenagers. The twist: when he kills them in their dreams, they die in real life. Young Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp), plagued by the brutal murders of all of her friends, must track down Freddy and bring him to justice, even though her parents and everyone else is beginning to suspect that she is slipping deeper and deeper into insanity. But then maybe she is...
Ultimately, A Nightmare on Elm Street transcends other slasher flicks by introducing an interesting psychological element that others are missing. Nancy is alone in her fight with Freddy, not because she is physically isolated, but because no one believes he really exists. Therefore, there is no one who can help her. In addition, she cannot escape Freddy without defeating him. After all, she has to fall asleep sometime, doesn't she? And, whenever she falls asleep, he will surely be waiting. That sense of escape being impossible and of having to face an inevitable nightmare make A Nightmare on Elm Street a very compelling horror movie. While other filmmakers would be fine with just slicing up a bunch of horny teenagers, Wes Craven really sought to change the genre. He wanted to redefine it...and I think he succeeded. If you look through the history of the horror genre, A Nightmare on Elm Street really made it necessary for filmmakers to step up their games. Before this, we might have settled with basic slasher flicks. After this, they needed to have something more. Sparking such a change is a defining characteristic of a classic. If cinema has changed somehow because of a movie's existence, then it deserves a lot of credit. A Nightmare on Elm Street is so purely good and innovative, it could give George A. Romero nightmares.
A Nightmare on Elm Street also sports some really horrifying special effects that will stick with you long after the credits roll. The infamous blood geyser and one character's wall-climbing demise are the most legendary, though there are many effects (i.e. the gooey stairs) that are more subtle and yet have a profound effect as well. The intense psychological elements combined with the breathtaking effects and a truly terrifying villain make A Nightmare on Elm Street one of the best horror movies not just of the eighties, but really of all-time. If it has a flaw, it is its obviously tacked-on finale, which makes very little sense and seems wholly unnecessary. In the end, though, it hardly matters and is really quite simple to disregard, especially considering Nancy's return later on in the franchise. Flawed ending aside, A Nightmare on Elm Street is a perfect horror movie that is both undeniably terrifying and vibrantly creative. Freddy Krueger is the kind of monster that could easily populate a person's nightmare and the off-the-wall situations that surround him are unsettlingly creepy. Heather Langenkamp is a flawless heroine, though her performance showcases some of her inexperience, and the struggle between Freddy and Nancy is one of horror's most iconic. In closing, if you haven't seen A Nightmare on Elm Street, then what are you waiting for? There is no time like the present. Get to it! You'll thank me later.
That is one reason why I am cautiously excited about the remake; it seems to have taken Freddy Krueger back to his terrifying roots. I remain cautious, though, because of the absence of Robert Englund who created such an iconic horror movie villain so effortlessly here. Playing the dreaded Krueger, Englund gives a career-defining performance and, even though A Nightmare on Elm Street was released more than twenty-five years ago, he can still send chills down my spine with such lines as "I'm your boyfriend now, Nancy" and "This is God." Krueger was a child murderer who, after being unjustly released on a technicality, was burned to death by the parents of Elm Street. Now, he has found a way to resume his killing: by coming through the dreams of the teenagers. The twist: when he kills them in their dreams, they die in real life. Young Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp), plagued by the brutal murders of all of her friends, must track down Freddy and bring him to justice, even though her parents and everyone else is beginning to suspect that she is slipping deeper and deeper into insanity. But then maybe she is...
Ultimately, A Nightmare on Elm Street transcends other slasher flicks by introducing an interesting psychological element that others are missing. Nancy is alone in her fight with Freddy, not because she is physically isolated, but because no one believes he really exists. Therefore, there is no one who can help her. In addition, she cannot escape Freddy without defeating him. After all, she has to fall asleep sometime, doesn't she? And, whenever she falls asleep, he will surely be waiting. That sense of escape being impossible and of having to face an inevitable nightmare make A Nightmare on Elm Street a very compelling horror movie. While other filmmakers would be fine with just slicing up a bunch of horny teenagers, Wes Craven really sought to change the genre. He wanted to redefine it...and I think he succeeded. If you look through the history of the horror genre, A Nightmare on Elm Street really made it necessary for filmmakers to step up their games. Before this, we might have settled with basic slasher flicks. After this, they needed to have something more. Sparking such a change is a defining characteristic of a classic. If cinema has changed somehow because of a movie's existence, then it deserves a lot of credit. A Nightmare on Elm Street is so purely good and innovative, it could give George A. Romero nightmares.
A Nightmare on Elm Street also sports some really horrifying special effects that will stick with you long after the credits roll. The infamous blood geyser and one character's wall-climbing demise are the most legendary, though there are many effects (i.e. the gooey stairs) that are more subtle and yet have a profound effect as well. The intense psychological elements combined with the breathtaking effects and a truly terrifying villain make A Nightmare on Elm Street one of the best horror movies not just of the eighties, but really of all-time. If it has a flaw, it is its obviously tacked-on finale, which makes very little sense and seems wholly unnecessary. In the end, though, it hardly matters and is really quite simple to disregard, especially considering Nancy's return later on in the franchise. Flawed ending aside, A Nightmare on Elm Street is a perfect horror movie that is both undeniably terrifying and vibrantly creative. Freddy Krueger is the kind of monster that could easily populate a person's nightmare and the off-the-wall situations that surround him are unsettlingly creepy. Heather Langenkamp is a flawless heroine, though her performance showcases some of her inexperience, and the struggle between Freddy and Nancy is one of horror's most iconic. In closing, if you haven't seen A Nightmare on Elm Street, then what are you waiting for? There is no time like the present. Get to it! You'll thank me later.
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