A Nightmare on Elm Street holds the distinction of being the greatest film set in the state of Ohio.
Ever since I was in elementary school, I had a rather bizarre fascination with A Nightmare on Elm Street. I believe it began with me seeing a Freddy Kruger costume at the local Meijer (a hypermarket store chain in the Midwest area) and thinking it looked really cool. Also around that time in my life, I noticed at a friend's house that his dad had the Nightmare on Elm Street game for the original Nintendo. Once again I was intrigued by the image of the movie, and now I knew the title.
Soon after discovering that this man with knives for fingers came from a film called, "A Nightmare on Elm Street," I asked my mom if I could see it. She said, "no." Considering I was still around 10 years old, I suppose I can't blame the old hag. That didn't stop me from asking all of the adults that I could about the movie, and what it was all about. The more I heard, the more I wanted to see it, as well as all the other famous slasher films.
Fast forward to Middle School and I found A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors playing on AMC, and decided to watch it. Finally, I was able to see Kruger in action. I was allowed to watch it because it was on TV, but since it was censored, a bunch of the good stuff was cut out.
My appetite for the original film in the series only grew. Soon after seeing the third movie on the tube, I convinced my mom to let me see the original. I rented it from the video store, plopped down on the floor of the basement with my bud, Kevin Coppel, and prepared myself for one of my greatest longings to finally come true.
Written and directed by Wes Craven, Nightmare follows the story of a group of teenagers who each begin to have similar dreams about this madman with knives for fingers trying to kill them. It turns out that if he kills you in your dream, then you die in real life too. One by one the killer, Freddy Kruger, murders the teenagers, and what's worse is that none of the parents believe the surviving teenagers about what is going on.
Nightmare is kind of like a horror version of 8 1/2 (1963). Craven cleverly blurs the lines between dreams and reality so that neither the characters nor the audience are sure of what is real until some sort of macabre image appears. This makes for some fun guessing games and suspense. Craven also takes advantage of the fact that these are dreams that the characters inhabit. Unlike the "ingenuous" Inception (2010), weird things happen in the dreams in Nightmare, with impossible location changes and other logic defying elements. The special effects of the film fully embraced this potential, making for some good scare moments and kills. The first kill in the film was created with a film set that rotated (the same effect is used in Inception).
One of the fun parts about the slasher genre is how it created a whole new lineup of movie monsters. There's Leatherface, Michael Myers, Jason, Freddy Kruger, and more. Each of these monsters give distinct personalities to their films, and we often return to the sequels for the monster, not so much the story. Nightmare spawned seven sequels and a pointless remake in 2010. Of the sequels, most are pretty meh or bad. However, Part 3 (1987) is enjoyable, and the seventh, Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994), is actually really good, setting the groundwork for Craven's later film, Scream (1996).
A Nightmare on Elm Street holds a special place in my heart for being that mysterious movie I always wanted to see as a kid, as well as being my introduction into the slasher genre. Thankfully the film held up to my expectations, and still does so after all these years. This is quality story telling, with fun effects, and an iconic performance from Robert Englund as Kruger. This is truly one of the greats.
I presume the "hag" comment was a check to see if I am actually reading these. HA!
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