Nightmares of Wes Craven

Rating: 8/10 (6 August 2017)

Wes Craven's had played upon the subconscious nightmares of average Americans in his first two movies The Last House on The Left and The Hills Have Eyes. Both these movies were a typical motif of the 70′s exploitation grindhouse flicks, damned as B cinema, but which in years later would have a cult following of their own. They had certain elements common to 70′s Grindhouse flicks, copious amounts of gore, sex, nudity and violence. But most importantly they seemed to play upon the insecurity of the average American to the 60′s free sex, free living, flower power movement. In the Last House, two teen girls, out for a quick fix of hash, on a weekend, get into trouble, as they are kidnapped, gagged, taken to the woods, raped, tortured and finally kiled. Craven seems to set the line between the good folks and the bad folks, the bad folks, were guys who got stoned, were slutty, and horny. In an ironic indictment of the free sex mood, a particularly graphic scene, shows the two teen girls, forced to have sex with each other in front of their tormentors. Craven draws the line even more clearly in The Hills Have Eyes, where the good All American family, is stranded in the middle of nowhere, and they have to deal with the bad guys, the a family of violent thugs with a cannibalistic tendency.
In 1984, Craven came out Nightmare on Elm Street, a movie , that actually preys on a common fear, of nightmares. So many times we would have had nightmares, waking up in sweat, and wondering what if it really had happened. Interestingly the word nightmare originates from an Old English word referring to demons called incubi which were thought to sleep on the chests of people. This could be one reason, why the nightmare device has always been a favorite of horror fiction writers.
Traditionally horror movies have worked on the idea of something unseen somewhere, coming out and attacking us. Poltergeist played with the fear of ghosts coming from a TV set, and much later The Ring, toyed around with the idea of a spirit coming from an old video casette. The very reason why Nightmare is to date regarded as one of the best in the horror genre, is that its not just your routine, evil spirit comes out and goes slash, cut, slash on screaming victims. Nightmares have often been said to be the outcome of our inner fears, so Craven here by suggesting that our inner fears could actually end up coming true, puts in a psychological, Freudian sub text.
One of the scariest opening scenes, a young teen female of around 15, by stalked by a mysterious stranger.What i loved here is the way, Craven, shows the credits in every frame, the girl leaves behind, and we have the blades ripping through the fabric.
The opening murder is quite a shocker, following a standard cliché of slasher flicks-With great sex, comes sudden death. What I loved here is the way Craven, shows this from the POV of both the girl and the guy. On a side note, some kinda underlying message too here. Nancy(Heather Lagenkamp) the heroine, who refuses to have sex with her guy Glen( a certain Jonny Depp)is the one who survives. Tina her pal, who has a hot romp under the sheets gets killed. Something on "Don't cross the line", which Craven showed in The Last House on the Left too.
Not giving too much of the story away, but what works here is some absolutely creepy stuff, particularly one scene where Nancy gets pulled into a dark pool, while having her bath in a tub.
It has a total kick ass heroine in Nancy, who seems smart, sassy, feisty, quite a change from the dumb low IQ scream queens of horror flicks. And yeah Freddy Kruger one of the nastiest characters you can ever imagine.
This Nancy vs Freddy Kruger face off stands on par with Clarence Starling vs Hannibal Lecter, Ripley vs the Alien. And Heather Lagenkamp while no Jodie Foster or Sigourney Weaver, does a fairly good job. Also good to see John "Enter the Dragon" Saxon, in a support role as the heroine's cop father.
Craven also creates the necessary creepy mood here, with good light and shadow effect, especially in the surrealistic dream sequences, and also the climax. Though shot on a very low budget, the movie does not have a tacky feel to it, and the special effects are well done. The 80′s feel is there though, especially with some of the blood spilling scenes. Craven however did not take much interest in the sequels, though he wrote for the 3rd part, with the result, that like any other franchise, this also went downhill, as the subsequent versions just dumbed down the intelligence of the original to make them more audience friendly.