Thank you, Wes Craven!

Rating: 10/10 (18 October 2010)

A boiler room. A man with dirty hands is building something. We hear him breathe. There's water dripping and smoke everywhere. The man shows us what he made. A glove. A glove with razor-sharp knives attached to his fingertips. The title of the movie appears. A title every fan of horror cinema should know and remember. A Nightmare on Elm Street.
What's not to love about this film? It's intense, original, scary and has a great feel to it. It's dark, funny at times and really shows some groundbreaking stuff. I mean, the death of Tina Gray is something you will not forget for a very long time. But let's not forget those little scenes; the moment where Tina appears in the school when Nancy falls asleep, the moment where Nancy falls asleep in the bath or where Glen gets pulled into his bed, following a re-enactment of the elevator scene from The Shining, only this time located in a teenagers' bedroom. Wes Craven shows us things we haven't seen before and things we won't forget.
But there's another reason why A Nightmare on Elm Street is different from a lot of other horror films. The characters are believable, likable and you really want to see how they make it out. Heather Langenkamp is the ultimate girl next door (next to Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween) and the same goes for Depp and Wyss. No horny blonde teenagers who have so little braincells they almost beg to be killed by the murderer in the woods here. And it's not just the teenagers, what to think of Blakley and Saxon, who are terrific as the parents of the main character Nancy Thompson.
But last but not least we have the killer. No cliché killer here. Freddy Krueger is the ultimate boogeyman. His looks, his sadistic laugh, his powerful one-liners, it just perfect. Robert Englund, who at that time was known best for his role as the friendly Willie in V, clearly has a lot of fun playing the character. A character that without any hesitation can put himself next to Frankenstein and Dracula.
And that just leaves me to praise  well, everything else. The soundtrack by Charles Bernstein, the camera-work of Jaques Haitkin, the effects by Jim Doyle, the make-up by David Miller, they all do such a great job. Sure, at times the movie might seem a little dated, but it's fascinating how many scenes still have a tremendous impact on the viewers, even today. You might even say A Nightmare on Elm Street was far ahead of its time. Any way you slice it, you can clearly see there's blood, sweat, tears and love in this film. And it shows.
Thank you, Bob Shaye; for taking a risk and producing this film. Thank you Robert Englund; for giving us one of the best monsters in cinema history. And most of all, thank you Wes Craven. Thank you for giving us one of the best horror films of all time. Thank you for giving us A Nightmare on Elm Street.