Review of A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) by Trevor R — 30 Apr 2014

Excellent performances from Englund and Langenkamp (as Krueger and Nancy, respectively) along with Craven's energetic directorial inventiveness help propel this classic of the slasher genre despite script and budget limitations. Thankfully, this movie was also released before the weird time that filmmakers got it in their heads that teenagers in horror movies are supposed to be stupid and unlikeable so we can root for them to die (?).

Dreams as a playground for fear is a great concept (even if the stretching-arms moment is a total bust) that gets well explored; the first major death scene in the film, especially, is jaw-dropping even today.