A Nightmare on Elm Street - Film Review

There's something about October that makes the sound of shrieking teenagers and cackling psychopaths about as comforting as the jingling of sleigh bells on Christmas morning. I figured I'd start out the Halloween month strong by revisiting a film I've referenced on more than a few occasions. 

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Where You Can Find It: I viewed this one on Amazon Video where it is available for rent/purchase.

General Information 
A Nightmare on Elm Street is a horror slasher film that was released on 9 November 1984. It was written and directed by Wes Craven with Robert Shaye producing. Charles Bernstein handled the composing for this film, while it was distributed by New Line Cinema. This is the first of seven entries in this franchise, plus a cross-over film with the Friday the 13th franchise (Freddy vs. Jason). Additionally, there was a remake made in 2010, however it was met with relatively poor reviews. With roughly a budget of little over $1 million, this went on to score over $25 million at the domestic box office. Its success can't be overstated either, as it actually saved New Line Cinema from bankruptcy. Critically, the film holds a 76 Metascore on Metacritic as well as an incredible 94% Tomatometer rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The Story

Teenagers Nancy Thompson (played by Heather Langenkamp) and Tina Gray (Amanda Wyss) are typical high school girls until the day they find themselves plagued by nightmares where they're chased by a horrifying man. The person from their nightmares, Freddy Kreuger (Robert Englund), is covered in burns and wields a glove with knives for fingers. The girls learn fairly quick that Freddy is so much more than a bad dream when scars from his attacks carry on into the real world. Somehow, they'll have to stay awake long enough to find out how to stop him before Freddy makes their rest permanent.

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You can't outrun your nightmares for long when Freddy is after you

Although the slasher genre was well-established at this point, I admire Wes Craven's consistent ability to take tiring genres and reinvigorate them in new ways by offering fresh new spins. One of the most memorable aspects behind Freddy Kreuger is that he can talk. Unlike Halloween's Michael or the Friday the 13th series' Jason is that Freddy taunts and sadistically stalks his victims. By 1984, the slasher genre had become inundated with countless silent killers, so the simple idea of the killer talking was pretty extreme. Beyond that, the added inclusion of Freddy only attacking in dreams offers an extra layer of the supernatural to a well-worn genre.

If Freddy's sheer presence and appearance doesn't terrify the viewer, the method of hunting most assuredly did for me. Similarly to what David Robert Mitchell would pull off years later with It Follows, A Nightmare on Elm Street presents an inevitable lurking threat. A person can conceivably run from Jason Vorhees, but all the caffeine in the world won't stop someone from falling asleep and leaving them at the mercy of Freddy. It's this unique horror that separates this film from its many brethren and its success is reflected in how the slasher sub-genre would later adopt supernatural elements in the latter half of the 1980s in order to keep up. 

Special Effects/Atmosphere

Like its predecessors, I have found one of the most resonating qualities of a slasher film is its background music. Charles Bernstein delivers one of the most chilling scores for a slasher film in years, and although I wouldn't say a particular track stand out more than the others, I will say that the modified nursery rhyme of "One, Two, Freddy's Coming For You" is incredibly creepy. Furthermore, it's impressive how Bernstein's score sets itself apart from other films of its genre while also still keeping the scare-factor uncomfortably high.

 

There's a really cool use of practical effects throughout this that plays up the surreal factor of the film nicely. On his own, Freddy looks absolutely terrifying as the claw-hand is particularly unique and horrifying in design while Freddy's burned face looks grotesque. When the dream sequences happen though, things go even stranger as we see victims levitate, arms elongate, and bathtubs turn into oceans. With the exception of a scene involving a staircase made out of what appears to be tapioca, everything else works pretty darn well. I was really impressed with a set piece where someone gets lit on fire as they stay burning for a considerable amount of time. As it stands, there's an incredible level of quality to the special effects in this that mostly withstands the test of time. 

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And here I thought Freddy was scary enough with just regular arms

The Acting

As mentioned in the story section of this review, the addition of having the killer speak was quite unique at the time and it poses the challenge of finding a personality that can pull off Freddy's special brand of menace. Robert Englund meets this challenge head-on and completely hits it out of the park as the horrifying antagonist. Everything from how Englund walks and leers to how he cackles makes him absolutely terrifying to see. He's memorable in every scene he's in, which is great because I can't say the same for most of the other performers.

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Englund has an absolute blast as the terrifying Freddy Kreuger

This might be the film that introduced Johnny Depp, but I found everyone but Englund to be particularly middling with their performance. Langenkamp is probably the worst of the lot as I just never found her delivery to be all that remarkable or interesting. She's essentially on par with Friday the 13th's Adrienne King, but King didn't have nearly as many lines as Langenkamp does, so her presence is a bit more glaring. 

The Best of the Best: Robert Englund terrifies as the nightmarish Freddy Kreuger.

The Worst of the Worst: The remake.

Calhooey Score: 7/10 - Good

Would I Recommend?

5

It's worth staying up late for

A Nightmare on Elm Street continues to hold its own as an innovator within the slasher sub-genre. Robert Englund's memorable performance as Freddy makes this worth seeing however I'd likely still place Halloween as the best of the pre-1990's horror slashers. I highly recommend checking out Wes Craven's Scream after watching this one as it's fascinating to see how Wes Craven continued to reinvent his craft with every decade of doing horror.

-------------------------------------------------Spoiler Comments-----------------------------------------------------

• One of the things I continue to love about both this film and Scream is how Wes Craven misdirects at the beginning by quickly killing off what we all assume to be the protagonist (Tina) before switching perspectives to the real hero, Nancy.
• Also, Wes Craven seems to have some type of vendetta against blondes...
  
• I get that Rod is worried about being framed for Tina's murder, but if hiding in a bush is the best place he can think of, I think he'd just be better off turning himself in.
• I still laugh every time Lieutenant Thompson asks his daughter why she felt the need to go to school.
  
• I also understand that Rod died while being suspected of both murder and suicide, but that priest was a total jerk at his funeral. There are people mourning his passing and he decides that this is the time to deliver the "live by the sword, die by the sword" line.
• Also, I guess Tina didn't get a funeral.
• Freddy is lucky that Lieutenant Thompson doesn't dream. John Saxon might have to Enter the Dragon if the two ended up fighting.
  
• Considering Nancy's mom roams room to room in their house drinking from various stashes of vodka, I am not surprised that Nancy's dad seemingly works both the day and night shift at the police station. 
• It must've been some technicality that Kreuger got off on for them to just release him after he murdered twenty children. I feel like that would make international news.
• Also, Nancy's mom keeps a child-killer's murder weapon in her basement years after she conspired to burn him alive... 

----------------------------------------------------References--------------------------------------------------

(1) A Nightmare on Elm Street. (n.d.). A Nightmare on Elm Street film image. IMDB. Retrieved from: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087800/.

(2) A Nightmare on Elm Street Horror gif. (n.d.). Freddy chasing Tina gif. Giphy. Retrieved from: https://giphy.com/gifs/filmeditor-horror-wes-craven-l2YWFaVhFNy7GmIlG.

(3) A Nightmare on Elm Street Horror gif. (n.d.). Freddy with long arms gif. Giphy. Retrieved from: https://giphy.com/gifs/filmeditor-horror-wes-craven-3otPotpLc7AebV3KUw. 

(4)Leedy, J. (n.d.). Robert Englund as Freddy cutting his finger gif. Jillian Leedy. Retrieved from: http://jilliancleedy.com/jillianleedy/31-days-of-halloween-countdown-day-10/2015.

(5) Belle-deesse. (2017). Freddy in the bathtub gif. Gif Abyss. Retrieved from: https://gifs.alphacoders.com/gifs/view/25625.