Review of A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) by Floyd B — 26 Sep 2017

Wes Craven's 1984 horror flick still holds up today. This marks the beginning of the "Nightmare on Elm Street" series and it's quite unlike its predecessors. First off, it's much more a standard horror film aimed to scare rather than induce some chuckles like it's sequels (post Part 2). Suburban teen Tina has recurring nightmares about a badly burned man with knives for fingers. Her friend Nancy admits to having the same recurring dream. Tina is brutally murdered in her sleep by the man in her dream and Nancy believes that there is truly a man trying to kill her and her friends in their sleep. Her mother admits that there was a child murderer named Fred who through a glitch in the legal system was set free causing angered parents in the community to take matters into their own hands and thus killing him. Now Nancy must face Fred to stop him from seeking out his revenge.

Fred Krueger isn't the wisecracking villain here, he's a true monster in this film as we see in the first killing in the series which is quite brutal and gory. There are more chills in this film than future installments well constructed by Craven. There are flaws, some plot holes and a painfully weak ending but still a better than average horror film.