Movie title: Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Release Date: November 16, 1984
Type of movie: Horror movie
MPAA Rating: R
Our rating: 9/10
Re-watchability: 9/10
Nightmare on Elm Street is a movie in the slasher genre that John Carpenter’s “Halloween” (1978) initially created. It follows the same formula that many slasher movie flicks follow. But what it does this differently than other slasher films. Instead of a masked Killer stalking around in the dark silently killing his victims, this film features a killer who kills you when you are most vulnerable and least able to defend yourself, in your sleep and even in your dreams. When Wes Craven, a veteran of horror movies, made this movie he followed a specific formula while also putting his own twist on it as only he can. By the time Nightmare was being written, the world had already been introduced to Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees. It was time for a new take on this genre and time to flip what people thought they knew. Instead of a killer who silently stalks and kills you, Wes Craven decided it would be infinitely more scary if the person who kills you is someone from your own nightmares, and does it while you sleep.
Nightmare on Elm Street introduced us to the world of Freddy Krueger. Freddy is honestly someone who made people afraid to fall asleep. Instead of playing on those fears that we could be quietly killed by a masked serial killer in the dead of night, Nightmare played on our fears of falling asleep after watching a horror movie. Who hasn’t had a nightmare after watching a horror film? By taking that one step further and making the horror real, Wes Craven scared the bejesus out of us with a movie that made even falling asleep scary. It played on that fears of falling asleep after watching a horror movie by making the nightmare real with a character who stalks and kills people in their sleep and nightmares. This type of slasher movie has never found its equal. Although the original Nightmare on Elm Street spawned 6 sequels, none of them ever achieved the same level of the fear and horror of the original film. It blended everything perfectly, to create a true horror film that played on our greatest fear of all, literally dying from our nightmare dreams of horror and death.
What Nightmare did so well was to blend reality with what happens in our dream world. A movie that made you question if a character was awake or just imagining/dreaming they were. By making the audience question what was and was not real, you ended up questioning if you really were awake or not. One can’t help but think the Matrix was heavily influenced by that same concept. Are we just dreaming through our daily lives? Could we be asleep somewhere stuck in a nightmare?
The truth behind Nightmare on Elm Street is that when a movie such as this comes out and is so well done, why do any sequels? Money is the only reason. The desire to capitalize off the good will toward the first film. The truth is too many horror films play off horror themes established by earlier horror films. The creation of new horror, fear and terror is simply not that easy to achieve, so many horror films are simple modifications of tried and true formulas that have worked before. This movie didn’t need a sequel, and none of the sequels to it is nearly as good as this original. If you really like horror films, I would encourage you to watch the first Nightmare on Elm Street and skip the rest.
The main villain is Freddy Krueger, played by Robert Englund. Interestingly, Freddy barely shows up in the movie. In fact you only see him a handful of times throughout the show. Freddy barely talks in the movie. a though he does have a few lines. Some of the deaths in the film are just insanely gruesome to watch. Such as pulling a victim into their bed and then showing blood spewing up towards the ceiling of the room.
A great movie is one you enjoy re-watching as much or nearly as much as the first time. In terms of re-watchability, the original Nightmare on Elm is extremely good. Horror films are not like other films in that it isn’t the acting which draws us to them, it is the level of horror and fear they incite in you. In that respect, Nightmare on Elm Street is a great show to re-watch. Even after 35 years, this remains a great horror film that scares you nearly as much the second time as the first time you watch it.
In closing, I would say this is definitely a movie to have on your watch list for Halloween or anytime in the month of October preceding Halloween. I’ve found this movie has held up well to the test of time and would recommend to anyone who is new to the slasher movie genre or horror movies to go check it out. I first watched of this movie years and years ago, but I still enjoy watching it to this day. As with all the slasher movies, just turn your mind off and let the movie draw you in. From start to finish, it’s pretty good.
Thank you for reading.
Jason
P. S. We will be reviewing the remake of Nightmare on Elm Street at some point this year.
