Craven reinvents the '80s slasher genre

Rating: Null/10 (20 May 2003)

(****1/2 out of *****)
Along with "Halloween" and "Friday the 13th," this was one of the three most successful series in the 80s horror genre. This is easily Craven's best movie to date (including the semi-horror/semi-satirical "Scream" series). He puts an original spin on the (by-then) standard slasher formula by making his killer, Freddy Krueger, a deceased child killer who lives on in the nightmares of the children of the neighborhood parents who burned him to death in his boiler room when the courts were unable to convict him. Unlike its increasingly silly sequels, this movie doesn't overexpose Krueger (played by Robert Englund) and, instead of having him crack lame one-liners throughout, tries to make him an evil and frightening character. There are a number of imaginative and memorable scenes: a bloody Amanda Wyss being lifted and dragged across the ceiling by the invisible Freddy; Freddy's arms extending across the alley and his steel-clawed fingernails scratching and making sparks along the brick wall as he pursues Heather Langenkamp; future star (and serious actor) Johnny Depp being pulled into a hole in his bed and discharged in a geyser of blood; and there are plenty more. Some of the ideas are borrowed from earlier movies and books, but Craven still deserves credit for doing something inventive with the typical slasher movie. The cast also includes John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Jsu Garcia and Charles Fleischer.
HIGHLIGHT: In the creepiest scene, Langenkamp follows her dead, bloodied and bodybag-covered best friend (Wyss) through deserted school hallways and down into the shadowy boiler room.