NIGHTMAREONELMSTREET

A Nightmare on Elm Street:

A Review

"One, two Freddy's coming for you,
Three, four better lock your door,
Five, six grab your crucifix,
Seven, eight got to stay up late,
Nine, ten never sleep�again."

This is what rings out eerily from this movie and is possibly the creepiest school yard rhyme ever, until of course, you and your school mates try and learn it off by heart at the age of seven.
Directed by Wes Craven, who also directed the much feared rape/revenge exploitation movie, The Last House on the Left, regains his form from those days in 1972 to produce this 1984 instant classic, which is one of the most famous horror movies of all time. What with his notoriety today, due the lackluster slasher flicks, Scream 1, 2 and 3 (only liked by the modern teeny bopping, post ironic, self-aware teenage come twenty-something,) Wes Craven's classic slasher stands tall in the horror movie halls of fame.
Spawning a string of inferior sequels, A Nightmare on Elm Street is a horror institution. The main character, Freddy, being the killer was made by Craven to be a feared and despised maniac. How did he try and do this? He made Freddy a child killer. However, the majority of fans of this series soon forgot this point and by part 2 were cheering for Freddy to win, of course, what else would Freddy do?
The film tells the gruesome tale of a child killer, Freddy, who back in his day of slaying innocent children was lynched by angry parents after his release from jail following a trial. The result was this, Freddy vowed to come back and seek vengeance for his lynching in which he was horribly burnt to death. How would he seek his vengeance? He would kill the children of his lynchers in their dreams. When they fall asleep, they would never again wake up. The premise is far fetched and soars a little higher over other such slashers as Halloween and Friday the 13th (which also fell into a pit of far-fetched plots), but still, this film doesn't try to be anything it isn't. Just a fun and scary, Hollywood horror romp.
Using the now infamous and often referenced glove with knives for fingers, Freddy slowly stalks his victims in their nightmares, pursuing them in the shadows, exposing them to terror whilst he runs amok in his striped jumper and dusty Fedora hat. Out of the main characters, the numbers slowly begin to drop as more and more are slain in their sleep, often resulting in classic death sequences ending in one case with a sea of blood gushing from a bed onto the ceiling! Finally, someone has to put a stop to this terror and it is up to Nancy to grab Freddy in her sleep in a violent fight and drag him back to her world to finish him off!
Although not the scariest of movies, this is a damn site more horrifying than Craven's later efforts from the mid 1990's. Freddy is also an icon of the video age of the 1980's and is one of the most famous horror movie serial killers standing alongside Michael, Jason and Leatherface. However, it is unfortunate to see his character descend into a James Bond style of one liners and less than scary performances from Robert Englund (who cameos in the god awful trendy slasher, Urban Legends.) What is good to see is that Englund plays Freddy in all the Nightmare movies, consistency is a virtue in slasher franchises and is hard to find, at least we can find it here. The special effects are well carried out, except for the laughable ending where Nancy's mother is pulled through a tiny window in the house's front door. For this shot, a rubber doll was used, and you can tell, really easily. However, this is only one flaw, there aren't many more as this is pure Craven horror movie making. A great installment in the series of slashers that adorned our video shelves in the 1980's. One minor niggle I have with this movie is that the lighting is typical Hollywood, for the most part you can see everything that happens and there is barely any, if any, psychological terror (which is needed for true scares and screams from the normal horror movie buff.)
The script is short and snappy and gets the story told with minimal fuss and none of the traditional "who's that dark shape in the trees over there" incidents. Although, we still get treated to the mind-numbingly stupid occurrences of "what was that noise, I'd better go and investigate in my night gown" moments. At the time, this movie starred all unknown actors, another virtue in true slasher horror. However, this film was the first feature for a little someone named Johnny Depp. Yes, Edward Scissorhands himself stars in this movie, and acts his part wonderfully.
A famous slasher film of the slasher age. A true classic among its peers and a great film all round. Although not pant-fillingly scary, this is still a creepy little film that should still bring a shiver or two screaming up the back of your neck. Watch it, this is classic Craven, and by the looks of things, we won't be seeing anything else like this from our old Wes anymore. Just remember, "Freddy's coming for you!"