Review of A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) by Campbell P — 31 Aug 2015
It's ideas like Nightmare On Elm Street that make movies so fun to watch. If you can pull together an interesting story such as entering the minds of innocent people and slaughtering them, that's pretty incredible.
Nightmare On Elm Street is the story of a group of teens that are haunted by a child murderer that enters their dreams and tries to slowly pick off all of them. Wes Craven has the most creative ideas for his films but this is crown jewel.
This film can make anyone (including myself) super paranoid given that anyone can relate to this movie because everyone dreams. It's not like other slashers like Friday The 13th that only include small minded people trying to outrun a killer.
In Elm Street you have no way of avoiding Freddy and there's no way to escape seeing him. The characters in the film were really relatable and actually smart people which was a change (a good one), and they all seemed like a real group of friends that would hang out together.
The characters react to their dreams in the right ways and put forth a lot of expression as to how they're feeling and that's credit due for the acting. The whole cast was pretty good but the performances themselves were real campy and over the top for some.
Rod really needed to tone down his acting at times. Like all good horror movies, this movie gives out some scares. There's more than a few suspenseful jumps that still put me on edge since they became random near the close.
Freddy Krueger is super creepy and campy at the same time but still is a really fun slasher. The soundtrack was creepy cool and brought forth really sinister atmosphere. There are a few plot holes though in terms of how Nancy got Freddy's hat and how nobody saw him when she grabbed onto him.
Small moments like that made me stop and think for a second but it's not too much to bother thinking about. Nightmare On Elm Street gives birth to a great new slasher that provides scares throughout the whole film and satisfies.
B+.
This review of A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) was written by Campbell P on 31 Aug 2015.
A Nightmare on Elm Street has generally received very positive reviews.
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