Review of A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) by Stefan N — 22 Dec 2013
With the beginning of the repetitive slasher genre, comes a movie that intriguing, terrifying, and well-crafted. Unlike the sequels, Freddy Krueger is a shadow, our hidden fears, and horrifically evil.
He is played perfectly by Robert Englund and no one will be able to ever improve his performance. Wes Craven toys with the idea of dreams. Dreams are never perfect. One moment you jump down a hole and fall out of a window.
He also approaches the story with as much realism as possible. No one believes that this could actually happen. Cops investigate it as a homicide and the teens take sleeping pills to avoid dreaming. The key element of the fear is the possibility for truth.
Who knows if the death of our neighbor was due to a mugger or Freddy Krueger. The body count is minimal and Krueger is actually scary. (SPOILER) At the end of the movie, I was so absorbed that I was nearly in tears when Nancy's mom dies, because I knew that there was nothing she could do about it.
(END) I was always captured by the story, and I cared about the characters and their situations. A true gem in the horror and slasher genre.
This review of A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) was written by Stefan N on 22 Dec 2013.
A Nightmare on Elm Street has generally received very positive reviews.
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