Review of A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) by Ryan H — 05 Aug 2012

Perhaps it's not a great script to go off of for characters seeing as Nancy's friends are getting picked off one-by-one and she doesn't ever seem upset by the fact, but it's still one hell of a great film.

Seriously, who can come out of this without hearing the chant, "one, two Freddy's coming for you..." He's shown so little that we are afraid to go to sleep at night worried that we will see more of him.

It's not like Wes Craven shows him so much to the point that the audience gets their fill within the film. The idea is so brilliant that it deserves credit on its own: a killer of children comes back to murder the children of the parents who killed him.

He doesn't come back as a ghost though. No, he comes back in dreams. Craven isn't happy with the characters falling asleep and doing some kind of blackness around them and Freddy pop up. The man deserves all the credit for creating an absolutely terrifying dream world.

Nancy and the others have no clue when they fall asleep. Tina doesn't want to fall asleep again after waking up with a cut on her arm in the beginning. But their dreams are much like reality until things go completely out of whack.

While on the subject of Tina, her death is so creepy and done in the best way possible, minus Rod. Why oh why did he have to show Rod at all during this scene? Him screaming "Tina!" instead of doing anything was just ridiculous.

It took some of the intensity away. And it seemed like they didn't quite know where to go between the time of Rod's death and the funeral. Overall there's no doubt why people put A Nightmare on Elm Street up there with the greatest slashers of the 80s and why people wanted to keep making them.

It's such an incredible concept that lets you go so many places. I love the scene when Nancy's walking around her house and realizes she's in a dream when the stairs turn gooey. Then there's the shot of Nancy in bed and Freddy stretches the wall above her.

The crucifix keeps coming down but she doesn't think much of it. At first no one can believe that their dreams are real, but Nancy picks up on it quicker than the others and wants to find a way to stop it.

I think the two shots that will stick with me more than anything will be the one where Nancy's pulled under her bathtub and she finds herself in a deep area of water and keeps fighting to get through the hole and back to reality.

The other shot I loved was when Glen's pulled into his bed and then blood comes out like a volcanic eruption. For some reason people don't talk about the comedy in this. I felt like there was plenty of intentional comedy.

After Glen dies the ambulance shows up and one of the cops says he doesn't need a stretcher, but a mop. It's so insensitive and funny the way they go about it. Also when Nancy goes to sleep to bring back Freddy her father tells a deputy to watch out for her, then when she starts screaming he tells her everything's fine and doesn't do anything.

I think I know where the name "Deputy Doofy" in Scream came from. A Nightmare on Elm Street is a quintessential 80s slasher/monster horror. We don't care too much about the flaws because it's just so entertaining.

Wes Craven's not trying to be ultra-realistic, so when someone reacts to something in a strange way we just give ourselves to the world. I'm glad I finally got the chance to see this after such a long time of wanting to.

Now on to watch The Dream Warriors and New Nightmare.