#34 - Nightmare on Elm Street

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Trash-o-rama
Written and Directed by: Wes Craven.

Plot: Deranged, undead murderer (Robert Englund) kills teenagers in their dreams, subsequently killing them in real life (I’ve heard that ‘if you die in your sleep, you die in real life’ thing many times and am still not sure that it is true. I’ve died in my dreams before with no adverse effects. I also smoke in my dreams too. Weird). It’s up to one girl (Heather Langenkamp) to stop him.

Review: This movie is the best. It’s follows the slasher movie formula pretty closely, obeying the general rules, but it is probably one of the most imaginative films in the genre.

First of all, whoever came up with the concept (Wes Craven I guess) deserves a pat on the back. It’s just a really fucking good idea. About half the movie is set in peoples dreams, which means they can do whatever the hell they want, completely forgoing any form of logic. That’s awesome in and of itself.

Secondly, the execution is bomb (I can’t believe I just used the word ‘bomb’ in that context. Fail). Instead of just doing whatever, they did whatever really well. Yeah!

And then there’s the Johnny Depp factor. Honest to God, it enhances the wow-ness of this movie. Way more wow than Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween or Kevin fucking Bacon in Friday the 13th. But then, I don't really like Kevin Bacon all that much. He's just... ucky. Or something. I dunno, I just find him generally offputting. I think the rest of the population agrees with me on that. I mean, I don't see him all that often so...

But anyway, Freddy is pretty cool too, and it’s not surprising he became such an icon. I mean, he’s annoying as fuck but he’s got that cool glove thing which makes up for it. I wish I had one of those. I would totally kill the shit out of some jerks.

So, you know, good for him.

And another thing: out of the Holy Trinity of slasher movies, this one has the best sequels. Probably because they have the ability to do whatever the shit they want. Instead of being locked in the same tiresome cycle, they can just do some random retarded shit. It’s awesome.

This is a kick ass movie. This is also a suck ass review. Fuck.

Favourite Part: Johnny Depp’s death scene was quite spectacular. So much blood….

Other versions: Supposedly there is a remake in the works. Bah.

Sequels: Freddy’s Revenge (meh), Dream Warriors (pretty good), The Dream Master (I forget), The Dream Child (weird), Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (good stuff), Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (interesting concept, crappy movie), Freddy vs. Jason (oh yeah).

Click here to read my original review (May 6th, 2007).

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