A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Rating: 10/10 (17 March 2020)

The film A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) is a shock film where a group of high school students, including Heather Langenkamp as Nancy Thompson, are being stalked and killed in their dreams by a decease child murderer Fred Krueger (Robert Englund). Nancy's father Lt. Donald Thompson (John Saxon) is desperately trying to find who is committing these murders but when Nancy explains who is doing this and how, no one believes her. Nancy knows that if she is to survive this, she must learn to out-think her adversary.
The film begins with a focus on fear as the central theme when Nancy and her classmates didn't understand why they were suddenly having nightmares. When Tina Gray (Amanda Wyess) began to describe the man from her dreams Nancy couldn't believe that she had dreamt about the same person. After Tina's death the fear grew to why someone would murder her, but once Lt. Thompson caught who they thought had committed the murder, the suspect ends dead shortly after. Both victims gave the same portrayal of the man in their dreams to Nancy before their deaths and the same man in own dreams had to connected but why the kids from this town or how someone could die in their dreams. It wasn't until Nancy's mother, Marge Thompson (Ronee Blakley), explained that her and many other parents in town took the law in their own hands and murdered Fred Krueger by burning him alive after he was released from jail because a search warrant was signing improperly. The central theme switched from that of fear to that of survival, once Nancy understood Fred's motivation for revenge for the towns action on him. She was no longer the victim but was bring the fight to Fred on equal playing ground. She began reading up on making booby-traps and antipersonnel devices and planned on bringing Fred out of her dream by having a hold of him as she woke up.
Once in the real-world Fred could be hurt like any normal person but like a classic villain once their powers are gone, they are cowards and he fled back to the dream world. He returned one last time to bring the fear back to Nancy, but she understood him now and without fear his was powerless and she turned her back to him and he vanished.
The lighting in this film is outstanding as they you a lot of high lights at different angles to give the settings in the night sequences a lot of long shadows and dark spots to give that eerie feeling. The setting of the boiler room gives that glow and reddish tint as if there is a fire always burning somewhere close, but plenty of dark secluded areas that are perfect for someone to jump scare from. Though some of these scenes are dark they make it a point that the actors faces are always lite enough so you can make out their expressions as in fear, the facial expressions are just as good as a scream. The little lighting in the dark broiler room when Nancy calls out Fred to face her and doesn't the in frustration is so vivid and without that lighting, we may not have seen it as well.
The sound effects in this movie were excellent through the use of subjective point of view as the boiler room you can hear the chains rattle back and forth and the release of steam from the pipes as it gives that unnerving hissing sound. The continuous sound of water dripping from somewhere was always present and of course the frightening screeching sound of the knifed glove on the pipes and other metal objects. These sounds radiate thought the scene and give you the sense that you are in the boiler room with them and the fear of the unknown where it's coming from.
In 2010 a remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street was released on the same focus of fear and played homage to the original. However as many say it's hard to beat the original and for this film it is true. As you couldn't get the feeling of fear in the remake as you could with the original. I think most of this credit must be given to the actors in the original as there was a connection that emitted on the screen.
The film shows that we don't have to live in fear of the unknown if we understand it. We can rise above the fear and defeat it by taking the fear that gives it power.