One of Cinema's greatest accomplishments

Rating: 10/10 (6 October 2004)

'A Nightmare on Elm Street' may be the greatest horror movie ever made.
**SPOILERS**
Teenager Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp) is having a weird series of dreams. In her dreams, she is being assaulted by a strange man in a torn red and green sweater. She confides in her friend Tina (Amanda Wyss), who tells Nancy she is having the same dreams. Suffering from several sleepless nights, Nancy decides to have a sleepover with her boyfriend Glen (Johnny Depp), Tina and her boyfriend Rod (Jsu Garcia). Rod and Tina immediately have sex with each other, but after it's done, the strange man from their dreams returns and kills Tina before Rod's very eyes. At the police station, Nancy's policeman father (John Saxon) asks what happened, but nobody knows anything, not even Rod. Convinced she is suffering from amnesia, he orders her to go home and get some rest, but is still tormented in her dreams by the mystery man. She asks her mother (Ronee Blakley) what is going on, and she reveals that the mystery man is Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund), who was a child molester that the parents in town killed after he was released from prison. She tells Nancy that he can invade the dreams of the children of the people who killed him, but never told Nancy because she didn't believe his threat to come back. Nancy must now deal with the fact that Freddy is coming after her and her friends, and that no one is safe from his terror.
The Good News: This is perhaps the most-well known horror movie in history, and it is also among the best. What makes the movie so good is that it takes the tired and routine slasher-film formula and injects new life into it by making Freddy have a little more personality than just about every other slasher, as well as making the kills so creative. This is due also to the creative idea of having Freddy go after everybody in their dreams, thereby allowing people to never by safe awake or asleep and giving Freddy the power to do anything in the dream world. He rules the dream world, so he can do anything to people in that world. The best example of this is the first time we meet Freddy, by outstretching his arms out at least six feet long and chasing after Tina. That is brilliant in its execution and design, as well as the idea to do a scene like that. I also would like to say that this film made me jump so much for a movie made at that time. I jumped at least five different times during the movie, which for an eighties movie is a lot. The highest one was the scene where Nancy is walking along this dark walkway and is mentioning hoe she isn't afraid of Freddy, who then pops out behind her and grabs her. The other big scene is towards the end, where Freddy is in our world, and Nancy has him in her room, but can't see him because her room is covered in pillow feathers. She exclaims that it must've been a dream, and then Freddy pops up next to her from underneath the bed. Classic, as well as so many other scenes. Who can't love the bed scene with Johnny Depp getting sucked in, and then one of horror's greatest gags shows. It is a memorable scene, and for those who haven't seen this, see it for that one scene, it is shocking. This also formed many great slasher rules that movies like 'Scream' poked so much fun at. 'Don't run up the staircase when the front door is a few feet away,' 'People of authority never believe the truth about the killer,' 'Parents are always hiding a very dark secret that comes back to haunt them,' 'It never really is the end, even when you think it is,' and tons more are highlighted here. It may not be the first to have them, but it had a ton of them showcased. I could talk for years about why this movie is so good, but I think you need to see it for yourself to know what I am talking about.
The Bad News: Other than maybe showing some more nudity, this film has no faults.
The Final Verdict: For the few who are interested in horror movies that still haven't seen this landmark movie needs to. It contains a lot of classic scenes that will take your breath away, and so much has been inspired from this movie that its greatness knows no bounds. Everyone needs to see this, I can't recommend it enough.
Rated R: Graphic Violence, Brief Nudity, Adult Language, and an off-camera sex scene.