Review of A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) by Phillip B — 20 Jan 2014

Freddy's first outing, picking off teens in 'Nightmare on Elm Street'. It's been called intelligent and horifing, but was it enough to convert a Hard-core Jason Fan? (Spoiler, no.).

Let's start with the teens themselves, well the two of note anyway. Nacy is a pretty fantastic character. I enjoy her head on approach for dealing with Freddy. She may be affrid of him (for very good reason) but that dosen't stop her from activly ploting to take the guy down. Although I'm not a huge fan of the guy, even I had to smile when the intro credits read ?Introducing Johnny Depp? It's always a treat to see early work of an A-list actor. Especially when it's in something like this. He gives a really solid performance.

The blood effect used for Depp's death was puzzling to me. It was so over the top, Evil Dead II territory. Which in that movie it is for laughs, but it seems Nightmare was trying to play it straight and it just felt really silly. The best death was Tina's. It was brutal enough to be effective without becoming over the top.

The ending left me more confused than anything. I've seen enough horror flicks to see the False happy ending coming. I also understand the concept of leaving the ending open ended to keep the folks guessing. But the endings contradict each other and leaves you with no idea of how things really ended.

Now onto the man himself, Freddy. I love how he operates on this plane between reality and the world of dreams. It opens the door to all kinds of things that you don't see in a typical slasher. The thing that was the real let down to me is that Freddy is capable of so much -off screen- but when he is on screen he's kinda lame, neither creepy or intimadating or even goffy in a intentional way.