Review of A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) by Victor T — 08 Jan 2015

Nowadays some people consider Wes Craven as a "Master of Horror", a title that he doesn't deserved by the way, mainly because of two films: The first "Scream", which was Kevin Williamson´s baby not his, and the first installment of the beloved franchise "A Nightmare of Elm Street".

A group of teens is tormented on their dreams by a mysterious burned man who loves to torture them but he slowly starts to kill them one by one. One of the teens, Nancy Thompson, starts to investigate this mysterious man and tries desperately to make her parents believe the truth before this mysterious figure kills all of her friends.

When it comes to beloved and iconic "horror/slasher films", there are three franchises that are always brought up: "Halloween", "Friday the 13th" and "A Nightmare on Elm Street". But even if all three franchises are iconic, the one villain that is commonly acknowledged as the best of the three is undeniably Freddy Kruger but unfortunately that's not enough for a film to be memorable. "A Nightmare on Elm Street" may be considered iconic but this first installment is not the masterpiece that most people consider it. As every 80´s low budget slasher film it counts with dreadful acting, the characters are just one-dimensional stereotypes, almost all the dialog is laughable and an over the top campy vibe; sure you may argue that a slasher film is not about acting or characters, and you are right, but if you regard a film as a masterpiece then it should count with high quality acting and writing (the perfect examples of masterpiece slasher films are: "Psycho" and the original "Halloween"). Despite those expected flaws, "Nightmare" provides some memorable and creepy imagery, creative special effects due to the low budget, an intriguing, almighty and mysterious slasher who, despite the fact that in this installment is not used very much, still manages to get a handful of scares out of you; and a creative concept of using dreams as the slaughterhouse which is the main reason that this film managed to be memorable because it bends reality with the subconscious in a effective way that plays with the audience´s expectations and makes each kill fun and imaginative.

"A Nightmare on Elm Street" is a highly creative and fun slasher film that counts with a handful of scares but its campy vibe and dreadful writing take away this film´s potential. This is by no means a masterpiece but when compared to some slasher films, it definitely stands out. It guarantees a fun time but if you are looking for a topnotch scary film, there are better films out there.