A Nightmare on Elm Street

Rating

Director

Wes Craven

Screenplay

Wes Craven

Length

91 min.

Starring

John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Heather Langenkamp, Amanda Wyss, Nick Corri, Johnny Depp, Charles Fleischer, Robert Englund, Ed Call, Sandy Lipton

MPAA Rating

R

Review

Who would have known that the director of Swamp Thing would create one of the most famous slasher villains in film history? Until he made that cult classic, his repertoire was filled with limited original fare like The Last House on the Left and The Hills Have Eyes. Then, he made A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Craven came up with the idea after reading about some Cambodian youths who died after experiencing horrific nightmares. When he wrote the script in 1981, the landscape was already populated with slasher flicks like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween and Friday the 13th, but for some reason no one wanted the story. When New Line Cinema picked it up and turned it into the legendary 1984 production, a star was born.

Robert Englund was hot off the television movie V when he donned the burned makeup of the dream stalker Krueger. He joined character actor John Saxon, Oscar nominee Ronee Blakely and a slew of fresh, young faces in bringing the genre staple to the big screen.

Heather Langenkamp starred as Nancy Thompson, a well-behaved high school student whose nightmares were plagued by a mysterious, scarred man in a dirty red and green sweater with blades for fingers. She discovers that several of her friends were dreaming about the same bogeyman and when they begin dying from wounds suffered in the dream, she begins to unravel a mystery that acts as the backbone for one of the greatest motivational devices for a screen villain. The film is also noted for launching the career of actor Johnny Depp.

A Nightmare on Elm Street is as creepy as it is original. Who hasn’t been wakened in the night by a bad dream only to reassure themselves that it was only that? Sometimes those nightmares are so realistic we have to ground ourselves back into reality before we can put the fears aside. The film taps into that phenomenon and gives it physical life. Englund’s Krueger was almost entirely a silent stalker like Michael Myers (from Halloween) and Jason Voorhees (from the Friday the 13th sequels). The one difference was that he had a voice. A rather chilling one used sparingly in this franchise opener.

Craven’s capability behind the camera and the pen are unquestionable. The story is original and cleverly enacted. Despite mostly ho-hum performances, his ability to terrify is apparent, especially when blended with Charles Bernstein’s creepy score.

As with all box office successes, sequels were inevitable and they were filled with good and bad elements that seldom duplicated the inspirational beginning to the series. A Nightmare on Elm Street has now become a part of the cultural zeitgeist of the ’80s, but looking back more than twenty years to the film that started it all, I’m astounded to see how well the basic premise holds up. Many horror films of the period managed to become maudlin and ridiculous upon future review, but not Elm Street. It remains one of the most formidable films of the era and one that will not easily be duplicated.

Review Written

September 5, 2007