Hugely enjoyable and imaginative

Rating: Null/10 (20 February 2015)

A hugely enjoyable, clever and imaginative slasher film which very effectively explores the nature of reality and imagination. Robert Englund is excellent as Freddy Krueger, who works brilliantly in no small part because his screen time is so limited. However, the entire cast is very good, particularly Heather Langenkamp, Johnny Depp (whatever happened to him?), John Saxon and Ronee Blakley. The film is often extremely frightening, never more so than Tina's death scene, and Freddy Krueger makes for a terrifying and highly memorable villain, not least because big knives scare the bejesus out of me!
One that I particularly loved about the film is that Nancy is such a strong, intelligent and resourceful character and a fighter. Rather than accepting her fate, she tackles the situation head-on and develops a plan to trap and defeat Freddy. Speaking of the dead child murderer, I have an adorable one-year-old Golden Cocker Spaniel named Freddie. I naturally knew who Freddy Krueger was but, had I seen the film prior to a year and a half ago, I would have given my dog a different name!
On the negative side, the film's music is occasionally rather irritating. It also loses some of its momentum in its last half an hour and it doesn't seem to have same level of imagination as the rest of the film, though the ambiguous ending is excellent. On the strength of its first hour, I'd have given it full marks.