Saturday, January 3, 2015

A Nightmare on Elm Street(1984) Review

9/10

The year is 1984, the slasher genre has been filled with Jason, Michael, and many other conscious killers.  Never in our dreams could a person imagine a villain like Freddy Krueger, except Wes Craven, and the poor poor teenagers he decides to terrorize.  "A Nightmare On Elm Street" was a film of its own.  It wasn't another film about camps or a guy running around in a mask, but it was a "dead" child murderer climbing into the minds of children in their sleep, and torturing them to their eventual death.  This movie was groundbreaking in American cinema, and it was a huge hit to audiences and critics alike.  It is definitely something special when a slasher film can get 96% positive on Rotten Tomatoes. This film spawned sequels for the next two plus decades, and I don't see the legacy halting anytime soon. Even though I can't call this my favorite horror flick ever, I definitely see it as a masterpiece that will never be forgotten. 

The film begins with a nightmare. A nightmare in the mind of a teenage girl named Tina.  In this dream, a grotesque man with burnt skin and knives for fingers chases her, and claws her stomach.  Tina wakes up in shock. She sees this as just a dream as usual, but she looks down and sees the knife marks on her stomach.  Her mother doesn't see the injury as anything other than scratching in sleep, but something is definitely wrong.  Tina then spends the night with her friend Nancy, and their boyfriends Glen and Rod.  Rod and Tina spend a night together, and a frightening event takes places that changes the lives of these four teenagers forever.  

The originality of this film is priceless.  Outside of the fact that the killer Freddy is in the dreams of these children, it is even more brilliant that anything that takes place in the dreams also happens in real life. I have never seen something like this released before, and regardless of the sequels, spoofs, and wannabes, nothing will ever capture this horrific plot better than the original. Wes Craven definitely had a stroke of genius when he made this film, because he made the single most complex and intelligent slasher film in history. 

The cast in this film is really perfect. The acting was so realistic, and possibly better than I have seen by any complete cast in a horror film.  Heather Langenkemp was perfect in the role of Nancy. She was an extremely likable person. A very cute, and almost innocent girl.  She is also very strong willed though, and gives Freddy one heck of a battle.  Johnny Depp is really cool in the role of Glen, because unlike Rod, he is a very nice guy, and is good to Nancy.  This was one of his first roles ever, and I think it might have been one of his better performances. He was very charismatic in the role, and he brought him a lot of the laughs to the film with just natural lines.  Robert Englund was absolutely awesome in the role of Freddy Krueger. He fits almost every characteristic of a horror villain. Creepy, brutal, and he can have a really great sense of dark humor.  I usually like a silent victim, but Freddy's one liners really help his darkness, and make it more convincing that he is a child murderer. 

The horror scenes in this film are quite impressive if you ask me.  There is a lot of gore in some of the scene, and even though the body count is very small in this movie, you never forget the scenes.  When I first watched this at the age of 13, I was so mindblown by the blood explosion scene of a character I can't name because of spoiler alerts. I actually watched the scene like ten times in a row it was so perfect.  Even though the movie is bloody as can be, it was actually possibly the tamest horror movie I've ever seen. There is only about 3 death scenes, and there is only a small amount of profanities. There are no drugs used at all, and there is only one implied scene of making love.  This movie really proved that you didn't have to make a horror film trashy to make it good.

Outside of the gore, the other special effects were really well done for a slasher film.  The way that characters were thrown around on the ceiling and such was so cool, because it looks extremely realistic.  Another really neat special effect was Freddy stretching the ceiling as he tries to get through it.  This scene was extremely unique, and I hadn't seen cgi that good until "Terminator 2: Judgement Day." A lot of the slasher films before this were low budget, and they didn't have any special effects, but this one was the first, and it was another way of proving this film as a pioneer in the genre. 

I really liked the ending of this film. I won't give away what happened just in case readers haven't seen the film, but it is cool, because it is unexpected, and it isn't just a happy ending like you'd want it to be.  I actually laughed super hard at the scene, because it is immensely random, and it was staged perfectly. 

Overall I find this film to be really great!  It was my first slasher film I ever saw, and watching it again today has actually been super refreshing. While I like series like Halloween or Friday the 13th more, it is nice to see something different. I highly recommend it to any fans of horror, and I also believe it is a great starter for anyone that wants to explore the genre. 


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