A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Directed By: Wes Craven (The Last House On The Left)
The Prologue
A Nightmare on Elm Street in my book is one of the hands down best horror films ever made. If you don’t even like horror, you know who Freddy is. And odds are, you may have even dressed up as him a time or two for Halloween. Wes Craven created a film that went on to become a pop culture icon. Freddy is right up there with Jason, Michael, and Leatherface. Topping his fellow villains in other people’s book. When DVD gave way to the on coming onslaught of Blu-rays, A Nightmare on Elm Street was a sure “must buy” for many horror lovers. But just how well does the Blu-ray look?
The Movie
“1, 2, Freddy’s coming for you.” And here he is, phantom fiend Freddy Krueger in all his razor-fingered infamy. Wes Craven (Scream movies) directs this trendsetting first in the slash-hit series. The premise is simple: Freddy (Robert Englund) homicidally haunts the sleep of Elm Street teens. The results are terrifying and mind-blowingly innovative. There’s another film debut too: Johnny Depp. He plays the ready steady of the hottie mcsmarty (Heather Langenkamp) who figures a clever way to flambé the fiend. But ever-say-die Freddy will be 3, 4 back for more…even returning to the screen in a killer 2010 remake of this diabolical original. Sweet dreams!
A man named Freddy who has a glove made of knifes haunts teens in their dreams and kills them! And allow me to say that even with this film coming out all the way back in 1984, it’s still creepy as hell in my book. And the story holds your attention..and makes you hold a pillow or just hold on to something or someone (as it made me do when I was a kid) as we follow a small group of teens, the lead Nancy, Tina, Greg (Johnny Depp in his first movie), and Rob as they go through all this creepy torment from our red and green sweater wearing pal…Also we can’t forget we got John Paxon as Nancey’s Father around here to.
There are some classic scenes that still hold strong today, like the “bathtub” scene, the murder scenes of a couple people..you know the ones right? The one were a person is dragged all over the room and another where a person is sucked into the bed and a monster wave of blood just SHOOTS out of the bed!!??..Good, good, GOOD stuff! Now one could say Nancey is at times a little whiny but wasn’t we all at that age? But notice when the poop hits the fan she doesn’t run, she stands up and fights! That’s what I’ve always loved about Nancey in this movie. She stands up to Freddy AND she’s way way smarter than even the adults who just think shes crazy…And why is it the grown ups always think that anyway??
If we have anything at all I can find to not like about this film, it has to be the ending. And I’m not alone, Wes Craven himself hates it and wanted to use another one..I think it lacks that ending Wes wanted, but close enough to perfect for me none the less! I think after watching this movie we’ve all had a “Freddy” dream at one time or another right? Plus this was before Freddy got all funny like he did later down the road, so this film was pretty terrifying once upon a time..Perhaps it still kinda is dealing with the subject we are deal with. In your dreams you got nobody to help you, that’s a creepy idea and it was capitalized on here perfectly.
The Conclusion
It’s hard to find a perfect transfer from these older films, but I’d say outside some grain, A Nightmare on Elm Street looks about as good as an 80s film could look, given the budget ect. The worst part about the transfer is the fact that some of the lesser gimmicks do end up looking a little fake, but if you want old movies in HD, it’s going to be a give and take. Outside that, the film it’s self is about a perfect as a film can get in my humble opinion.
The Rating (10/10)
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