nancy thompson and her friends are stalked in their dreams by the horrific 'dream master' himself - Freddy Krueger!!!

Rating: 8/10 (17 December 2008)

Wes Craven does a perfect job in rejuvenating and refreshing the horror genre, first with this elaborate 'slasher', and secondly with 'scream' more than ten years later. Taking the successful elements from both 'Halloween' and 'Friday the 13th', Craven created what many think is one of the best horror films of all time - and I certainly have to agree it is impressive.
Firstly, the character of Freddy is well-written - he is a guy that is in control of the characters and therefore the audience. You have no idea what he is going to do next, and the people he kills are slaughtered with the right amount of gore to please the slasher hungry viewers without becoming considerably cliché.
There is imagination and suspense to make this an exciting and original approach to the genre. The characters aren't simply thrown in to get bumped off, and for once I liked them all - especially Johnny Depp's character in his screen debut. Usually the teenage victims don't know whether they're awake or asleep - to deliberately confuse the audience - and balances the boundaries between reality and dreams. The film was followed with many sequels but this is by far the best. There is a surreal quality to the film that hasn't been surpassed and Freddy is one of my favourite horror villains - he has a voice, a witty personality, and is played by Robert Englund every time.
Overall, this is great. I recommend any fans of the genre to watch it, but I won't say it's the best horror film ever - there are a select few that are in my opinion better - but don't think this is just an ordinary slasher film, because it's awesome.