A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984)

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"I don't know who he is, but he's burned and he wears a weird hat and a red and green sweater, really dirty. And he uses these knives, like giant fingernails..."

"A Nightmare on Elm Street" is one of the world's most notorious slasher films. Not only did it introduce us to Freddy Krueger, and his entire twisted and demented world of dreamland murder, but it also introduced the start of my favorite actor, Johnny Depp's, career. Many see Freddy Krueger to be the one who took the slasher genre a further step forward, I agree. Before this movie, slasher killers were large, silent men, who stalked teenagers carrying knives or machetes. That's the kind of slasher I prefer, however, Freddy introduced us to a new style of slasher. He gets you in your dreams. A scary concept, since everyone dreams every night, whether you dream or not. He can control the dreams, too, which means that there is absolutely no escape. Too many this was an even scarier concept than an escaped mental-patient who is after his siblings, or even a derranged mother bent on killing in order to avenge her son. There was no escape from Freddy Krueger, it seemed, unless you were to stay awake for the rest of your life. In the slasher genre, there is what I've heard referred to as the trinity of horror: The Father (Michael Myers), The Son (Jason Voorhees), and The Evil Spirit (Freddy Krueger). All three of whom, represent parts of the slasher genre history where real progress was made. John Carpenter's "Halloween" and his character, Michael Myers, practically represent the beginning, or creation, if you will, of the Slasher genre. Sean S. Cunningham and Victor Miller's "Friday the 13th" brought us into the eighties, where the Slasher movies were the most famous horror movies being made famous. And Wes Craven's a "Nightmare On Elm Street" and it's character, Freddy Krueger, took it a step further, and brought the psychological aspect out. "A Nightmare on Elm Street" for many, was the best slasher. While I disagree with this, and give my vote to Michael Myers and "Halloween," I will agree that the movie was definitely one of the best in the slasher series, and I also fully agree with their Trinity of Horror because they're completely right. "A Nightmare on Elm Street" is great for many reasons, like the fact that psychologically it's a terrifying movie. It also brings us one of Horror's greatest icons, Freddy Krueger, and it's quite possibly one of the best movies out there.

Wes Craven directs this epic movie. Craven has given us many great horror movies over the years, and is known for his hand in other well known movies such as "The Last House on the Left (1972)," which was his first foray into the directing business, and he also gave us "Scream," "Scream 2," and "Scream 3." He's known for these movies and more, but most prominently, I can say, he is known for "A Nightmare On Elm Street," and the epic job that he did directing it. Craven comes up with some of the spookiest imagery that any movie has seen, as well as some awesome angles. One memorable angle is seen from the corner of Glen's room as he is being sucked into his own bed and spit up into the cieling. It has to be one of the most gruesome scenes that's ever been shown in any movie, as well as one of the coolest looking ones. He also uses his filters masterfully, giving light to the most creepy of scenes, and bending to increase the creepy effect. This can be seen in the opening sequence alone, as Tina is fumbling through everything in her dream and trying to escape from Freddy as he hunts her down. Craven also wrote the movie story and all. Craven is the master of horror storytelling, matched and surpassed, in my mind, ONLY by John Carpenter. Craven spins a web of awesomeness, with well developed characters, an interesting and terrifying plot, and every other aspect of a movie that is needed. It's hard to believe that one man was behind the powerhouse that the "A Nightmare on Elm Street" franchise became, the same as it was heard to believe that just one man was behind what "Halloween" became. Craven gives us one of horror's greatest icons, as well as one of the spookiest slashers there ever was with "A Nightmare On Elm Street." He spins one horrifying movie, as well. I don't only praise this for giving us Freddy, Jason's biggest challenge, I praise it for the landmark that this film is, and how it is spooky and freaky in almost every sense of the word. Come on? A killer who can get you while your asleep and defensive, but get you inside of your HEAD? That's just plain freaky. Wes Craven masters the movie, and gives us a movie that uses every aspect of a horror movie that is needed to scare people.

The visuals of this movie are 80's visuals, so compared to what we have today, they don't seem to be anything special. However, when this movie came out, as I've been assured by many, they were landmark visuals, and some of the most terrifying visuals that could have been in any movie at the time. There are many things to be mentioned about the visuals in this movie, but I want to start with the point of view. I liked how in this movie they showed you Freddy, but he was just sort of an inigma that no one could really figure out. He was a strange boogeyman in your dreams, usually shrouded in shadows, and creeping along the way, dragging his razors across things. You saw him coming, but you didn't know what to think, and it really brought an eerie feeling to the movie that kept you at the edge of your seat for the entire movie, and almost chewing your fingernails whenever Freddy appeared onscreen. The looks of Freddy himself consist of some of the most ordinary things, a striped, red and green Christmas sweater and a fedora don't really seem to be very scary, but when you add Freddy's glove with the knived fingers, and the fact that every inch of him is burned and charred, Freddy is one scary motherfucker, and someone whom I would definitely NOT want to fuck with. The blood in this movie looks surprisingly realistic for a film that came out in the era that it did, and that really helps the movie along even more as Freddy goes about the kid's dreams and kills and maims them as the sleep. You'd expect this, though, with some of the kills that take place in the movie. Speaking of kills, one thing you can always count on with Freddy Krueger, are interesting and inventive kills. There are a ton in this movie, but the one that I always remember most is Glen's death, as he is lying in bed, Freddy's hands come up, and pull him into a void, with all of his stuff. The void in the bed then proceeds to spit blood, like some kind of twisted geyser, into the cieling. It's very gruesome, and it's one that'll stick with you in your mind for years to come, I'm sure. The one visual in this movie that I had a problem with was in the ending sequence, when Freddy pulls Marge Thompson through the window of the door. It just looked so fake. I find it hard to describe in words, but her legs shot up, and she went through it. It was definitely not the best feat of visual work in the movie, but it's only the one part so it's not THAT big of a deal, and I know it's an eigties movie, but it does bug me a little bit. That aside, the visuals of this movie are defintiely done very well, and really help the movie's creepiness along nicely.

The storyline of this movie is something that I've touched on a little bit already, but here I want to go into more detail. With the last few slasher movies that we've gotten, like "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," "Halloween," and "Friday the 13th," we get killers that are silent, big, and creepy, with interesting storylines for each of them. "A Nightmare On Elm Street," however, gives us a killer who can speak, who can taunt his victims, and who can ultimately play with them as they are dying. That's what makes Freddy so fucked up. Not the fact that he's all burnt to shit and likes Christmas, but the fact that he can get you in your dreams, while you're asleep and defenseless, and before the death he can taunt you and play with you, and make you more scared than you've ever been in your entire life. Freddy plays mind games on so many different levels it's not even funny. He gets at you, and that's what makes this such a horrifying psychological thriller, BECAUSE he gets at you. Freddy may be a pranskter to some, and it's kind my thoughts, too, but there's more to him than what is shown by his jokes. That's something that Craven definitely accomplishes with the storyline of this movie. Freddy Krueger is a jokester, but at the same time, Krueger also is a deadly killer, who can really fuck you up before he really decides to finish you off. You're not safe from Krueger at all, and that is where Craven creates a definitive horror Slasher, who managed to make it all the way to six sequels, and a face off against Jason Voorhees, one of the other most popular horror slashers out there. The storyline of this makes for some pretty scary concepts that are played out nicely, and were helped along by the interesting visuals created to depict some Freddy's more interesting kills, as well as the fact that he gave us one interesting villain to make the movie go forward. "A Nightmare on Elm Street" will always remain in the Hall of Horror Fame as one of the most iconic movies of the ages.

The movie starts out with a blond girl, Tina (Played by Amanda Wyss of "Fast Times at Ridgemont High") who is in a strange environment, being chased by a man in a fedora and Christmas sweater (Played by Robert Englund of "Dead & Buried"). We see her back into what seems to be a boiler room, but suddenly the man is there, and grabs her, but soon we flash into reality as Tina wakes up. It was just a dream. Soon, her Mother (Played by Donna Woodrum who was an extra in "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!") and her Mother's boyfriend (Played by Paul Grenier in his only acting role) come in to check on her as she had obviously been screaming. Her mother tells her that she'll have to cut her nails, or at least quit dreaming like that, and Tina sees that her shirt has been tore across in one claw-like gash. The next day we see her talking to her friend Nancy Thompson (Played by Heather Langenkamp of "Nickel Mountain") and Nancy's boyfriend Glen Lantz (Played by Johnny Depp of "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street") as they are walking to school. She tells them of the dream that she had, and how she feels like someone is coming after her to kill her. Nancy and Glen try and tell her that it was just a dream, and then Nancy remembers that she herself had had a nightmare last night, too, though she couldn't really remember it. That's when Tina's boyfriend, Rod Lane (Played by Nick Corri of "Gotcha!"), who asks everyone what's up. Right away you can tell he's one of those macho asshole, and when they tell him what's going on he makes some sort of a joke about how he woke up, and Tina makes one back, and he insults her and leaves. They go about school, and that night we see Nancy and Glen staying the night at Tina's house. They tell Glen that they're amazed his parents are letting him stay the night, but he tells them that he told her he's visiting his cousin who lives next to an airport, and calls his Mom, and rigs the boombox to play airplane noises that he got from a friend on tape. It backfires however, as there are other sounds on the tape, and he almost gets caught. They go about telling their stories, and Tina tells them about the guy who was in her dreams, and how he drug his fingernails across things. Nancy then tells her about remembering her dream of a man who did the same thing. Tina tells her that the man in her dream wore a striped red and green sweater, and had a strange looking hat. He had long fingernails, too, except they weren't really fingernails, they were something he'd made himself. Like knives. They both realize that they'd dreamed about the same thign. At the instant they hear a noise outside, and Glen goes out to check it out. It's only Rod however, who scares the shit out of him. They go inside, and Rod and Tina go upstairs to "make up." As they do, Glen tries to "make up" with Nancy, but she tells him that they're there for Tina not themselves. They go to bed, Nancy sleeping in an upstairs bedroom, and Glen on the couch. As Tina and Rod finish "making up," they both go to sleep. Tina is awakened, however, to a pebble hitting her window. As she goes to check, she hears someone calling her name. She goes outside to check on it, and finds herself face-to-face with the same creepy man from her dreams before, meaning she wasn't awake. She tries to wake the others, though she fails literally, as the man finally grabs her. She starts to struggle, and wakes Rod up. Rod jumps out of the bed as Tina's body starts to flail around in her dream, and soon cuts start appearing on her body, and she is drug across the cieling and the room, dying and bleeding all over the place. Rod shouts at her, and tries to wake her up, but it's not working, so he starts screaming at whoever is doing it. As Tina's body falls dead on the floor, Rod starts gathering his clothes. Naturally, Rod's screaming had awoken Nancy and Glen who try and enter the room. As they finally break the door down, they enter in to see Blood all over the place, and Tina's body lying on the floor. The window is open, and Rod is nowhere to be found. We then cut to a scene as a man, Lieutenant Thompson (Played by John Saxon of "Desire") is entering the police station, and talking to people. He wants to know what's happened about Tina and why his daughter, Nancy was there. He enters into his office, where he finds Nancy, and his ex-wife, and Nancy's mother, Marge (Played by Ronnee Blakley of "The Baltimore Bullet") are sitting. He asks what Nancy was doing there, and then they start talking about what happened. Nancy tells him that Rod and Tina's fights were never that big of a deal, and she doesn't get how Rod could do this. Nancy and her Mom return home, and Nancy decides to go to school, despite everything that's happened. She hasn't gotten an ounce of sleep, and promises her Mom that she'll sleep in Study Hall. As she is headed to school, she walks by some bushes, and is pulled in by Rod. He tells her what happened, and she believes that he didn't kill Tina, but before she can say this, her father and the police show up, and grab Rod. She yells at her father for using her, and turns and heads to school as he yells at her for even going to school today. During English class that day, Nancy falls asleep, and has a dream where she is attacked by that man, who calls himself Freddy Krueger, who she had dreamed about the other night, and Tina had also dreamed about. She wakes herself up, by burning her arm on a scalding hot pipe in the room. She wakes up in the classroom screaming. The teacher tells her that she's going to call her mother, and that everything will be fine. Nancy tells the teacher she's going to be fine and that she just needs some sleep, and that she'll walk home, and she'll be just fine. On her way out of the school, though, she notices that she has a burn on her arm from the pipe in her dream. Instead of going home, like she said she would, she heads to the police station and talks to Rod about what happened in the room, and whether or not he got a good look at the guy who did it. Rod tells her what happend again, and that there was no one seemingly IN the room, but there HAD to be. He tells her that he's not crazy, and asks if she believes him. She says she does and leaves. Now Nancy must face a terror that she's not going to be able to handle by simply calling the police. She's going to have to battle this demon in her dreams. The trouble, however, is how to KILL a dream. The cast of this movie all do fantastically. They deliver their performances greatly, and really get down all of their respective character's individual feelings, emotions, worries, and all of those other characteristics VERY well. The prize performance of this movie belongs to Robert England who portrays Freddy Krueger, and very well I might add. He really makes this one really creepy killer, and in turn, one really creepy movie. Heather Langenkamp also does a great job with her character of Nancy, and becoming one of the three most legendary slasher-movie-heroines of all time; the other two being Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode in John Carpenter's "Halloween," and Adrienne King as Alice in Sean S. Cunningham and Victor Miller's "Friday the 13th." Definitely a great job on the casting of this movie.

All in all, this is one of the most iconic horror movies of all time, and if you haven't seen it yet, then I really urge you to go out and make an extreme effort to see it. It is one of the scariest films of all time, and at the same time one of the funnest films of all time. It really covers all bases, and when I say it is iconic, I MEAN it is iconic. The Director of this movie does a superb job by utilizing strange and interesting angles and filters to really make the kills in the movie look great, as well as add a real eeriness to the movie. DEFINITELY a great job on the Directing of this movie. The Writer, who is also the Director, does a great job with the Writing of this movie, and creating a new horror movie with a psychologically demented twist to it that really makes for one of the scariest movies ever. DEFINITELY a great job on the Writing of this movie. The Visuals of this movie are done exceptionally well. They create an excellent premise for the killer's point of view, as well as making the killer look incredibly awesome. The blood looks pretty realistic, and the kills are very interesting and inventive to see. It's too bad the ending sequence didn't pan out quite as good-looking as the rest of the visuals in the movie. DEFINITELY a great job on the Visuals of this movie. The Storyline of this movie, as I've stated already, was done exceptionally well, and gives us one of our most iconic horror villains of all time, while at the same time delivering us a psychologically demented, twisted, and scary movie. DEFINITELY a great job on the Storyline of this movie. The Acting ties everything about this movie together. All of the Actors and Actresses involved in this movie deliver performances as characters that are COMPLETELY Convincing, COMPLETELY Believable, and COMPLETELY Realistic, as well as deliver performances as characters that you can really FEEL FOR, though I'm not really sure how well you could RELATE TO them, on VARIOUSLY different levels. DEFINITELY a great job on the Casting of this movie. So if you haven't seen this movie, then go out and just buy it because paying to rent it would just be a waste of five dollars, when you'll just be going out to buy it right after. It is one of the most awesome and scary movies of all time, and you owe it to yourself to see it. So give it a try. I am POSITIVE that you will NOT get disappointed with this movie in the SLIGHTEST. I know I didn't!!!!!

THIS CONCLUDES PART 1 IN MY REVIEW SERIES FOR THE "A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET" SERIES!!!!! STAY TUNED FOR PART 2, "A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2: FREDDY'S REVENGE!!!!!"