A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

[baumer]

Discuss

[A Marvel Fanboy]

One of the best horror movies ever made.

[baumer]

There really are, when you come to think of it, not that many films that are truly frightening. The kind of film that gets under your skin and eats away at you. The kind of film that stays with you days ( and nights ) after you see it. There certainly aren't any that come to mind from the 90's. But along with films like Aliens the first Halloween, Angel Heart, Last House On The Left and the first Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the first Nightmare is terrifying. And that is owed all to Wes Craven. The sequels of this film are really trash and that is because Robert Shaye may be a good business man but he certainly does not know how to see to it that The Nightmare series stayed it's course and kept viewers on the edge of their seat. The sequels became more comedic than scary and even though Freddy had a personality in the first one, he was still more diabolical and evil than he was funny. More Lon Chaney than Jerry Lewis. But the first one has every element in it to keep you scared beyond belief.

This film is iconic in many ways. There are those that say it is dated. I beg to differ on that point. This is a film that transcends generations and expertly amalgamates gore and tension. When you think of all of the so called horror films that have come out in the last year or so, many of them try to enthrall us with buckets of blood and special effects, but they forget that with a horror film, you must have an element of fear with it. Nightmare on Elm Street captures that better than most, and is on a level with the all time greats.

Fred Krueger, as we all know, was a child molester who was hunted down by the local Elm Street parents after he beat a court systems on a technicality. They trapped him in his basement and lit his house on fire and then watched him burn. Somehow he comes back and haunts their children's dreams and murders them while they sleep. This sets up the premise of the film and it is stated on the SE DVD that Craven got the idea for this film while reading a story in an Asian newspaper about kids dying in their sleep and telling their parents that they knew something bad was going to happen to them in their dreams. It is an interesting concept and because it is done to perfection here, it has now become one of the cornerstones of American horror.

Wes Craven has been revitalized as a master of modern horror with his very commerically successful Scream series, and as much as I love Scream, it is horror lite when comparing it to his efforts like NOES, LHOTL and The Hills Have Eyes. Those films, and Nightmare in particular, revolutionized ther horror genre. Nightmare on Elm Street is his best film and if you forget how truly scary the film is after viewing all of the inferior comedic sequels (with the exception of the last) view this one. Freddy is a horror icon and he has achieved that status because he is the true definition of fear.

10/10 Not only one of the best horror films of all time but one of the 50 best films of all time.

[The Stingray]

Great concept, great boogeyman. However, I don't think this one holds up as well as, say, the original Halloween.

[ddddeeee]

Fantastic. One thing that does annoy me, is that Wes doesn't stick to his own rules. If Freddy is powerless in the real world then how come he can vanish after Nancy hits him with the chair and then come out of the mattress? The sequels are more gulty of this but it's still annoying. I also don't like the obligatory ending.

 

The rest is awesome though. I really love Nancy, the opening murder is classic, and the scene when Freddy jumps through the window is as scary as anything I've seen. One of my favorite films.

[K1stpierre]

This is a classic for me. Not so much the sequels, but this original here is amazing. Loved it. An 'A-' for me.

[Blankments]

I liked it. Pretty tense, even though I'm not a horror fan. A

[baumer]

I find it still holds up today, 30 years later.

[Omario]

Classic horror. Terrifying in its time but makes me chuckle now.  Nearly made me wet my bed as a kid. Freddy is still my number 1 horror villain.

 

A

[baumer]

Yesterday was the 30th anniversary of its release.  

 

I watched it again, last night.  Still as terrific as the first day I saw it.

[Thrylos 7]

A+ .

Iconic, different than most slashers , scary and with a wonderful and charismatic villain (who, unfortunately became a parody of himself in the sequels ) . Its sequels make me think that it's a good thing that we didn't get a sequel for "the thing " .

Edited November 11, 2014 by Thrylos 7

[John Marston]

Good movie but weird and unsatisfying ending

[Blankments]

A Nightmare on Elm Street is a very compelling horror film. Although never really scary, Craven directs strong tension throughout the ninety minutes of terror, along with featuring some creative deaths. Langenkamp's performance also adds a lot to making the film work, being a very good mixture of naivety and resistance. Krueger's design is still incredibly creepy today too, which prevents the film from feeling dated. Only the last five minutes of it are truly dreadful in quality though, going for the cliche "one last scare" vibe that really doesn't work for the film. A Nightmare on Elm Street is a horror classic worth checking out, still standing out today thanks to very good direction. B-

[RobinHood26]

B (85)

[baumer]

The ending, that most people dislike, had nothing to do with Craven.  He wanted to make a film that was a one off.  Bob Shaye was the only one who believed in Craven's script.  Craven was rejected by 20 or more studios and producers before finally letting Shaye and New Line produce it.  Shaye wanted to make it for about $100,000.  Craven told him it would have to be at least 2 million to make the film he needed to make, based on what was in his script.  So Shaye spent a year raising the money and he got it all.  

 

So he had a bit of say when it came to making the movie.  He didn't interfere with anything else creatively, but he insisted that the end be left open for a sequel and hence the ending we got.  Shaye wanted Krueger to be driving the car the kids were in, Craven refused to do that so they came to a compromise and had the Krueger colours on the rag top of the car.

 

Shaye was successful at the time, but on a minor level.  NL had made some money distributing foreign films and horror films that were not copyrighted.  He saw NOES as his ticket to hitting it big time.  And he was right.  

 

I don't like the ending all that much either.  And I don't really care for the sequels.  But without Shaye's help, NOES might never have been made and NL might not have become the studio it did.  

 

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