May contain spoilers. My favourite film from the whole Nightmare franchise

Rating: 8/10 (13 October 2014)

The first and probably the best film in the Nightmare franchise thanks to Wes Cravens brilliant script and directing. But also due to Robert Englund who in my opinion is the one and only Freddy Krueger. At the beginning of the film Freddy is named Fred Krueger as that was his name before he became a dream demon. He was a child molester that was burnt to death by the neighbourhood parents and has come back to take revenge on their children. This is the first film that Johnny Depp appeared in and kick started his carer into the film industry and becoming a very famous actor. He plays Glen the boyfriend of the lead character Nancy played by Heather Langenkamp. These actors are far beyond the age that they are portraying in the film. Heather plays a 16 year old and is a 20 year old actress, Depp plays a 17 year old but is 21 at the time but the strangest and biggest age gap is that of Tina (Amanda Wyss) who in the film is 15 but was 24 at the time. When I first saw this film I was young and wouldn't have known any difference but watching it now I can tell that these actors and actresses were too old to play the age portrayed in the film. Although we know that Tina and Rod are about to/having sex this is not something that is shown, unlike horrors made now where there are large parts of the film that have sex scenes in it. Tina is also a 15yr old that is having sex, now in the UK this would be illegal and I'm sure back in the 80s this would be very frowned upon unlike now where it is the norm. When Nancy's hair changes colour she says "God I look 20 years old" this is probably a reference to Heathers real age. The 1st time we ever see Freddy is when he has his long arms and scrapes the metal around him and then cuts his fingers off. This Freddy however is never used again in any other of the Nightmare movies when I think he should have been. Also in this film he has no stripes down the arms of his jumper yet in later films there are stripes on the arms, so how and why did this get changed? In another scene Nancy asks Glen to watch her sleep then within her dream asks him if his still watching. If he was still watching how could he have been in her dream? When Nancy is having her dreams monitored and comes out of her dream with cuts and brings a hat out of her dream she is still not believed. Even though there was no possible way she could have brought it into the room as her mother was constantly watching her. The best part of this film in my opinion is Johnny Depps death scene. As I have yet to see another death like it in any other film and is such a strange, unexplainable death. Overall the acting of all characters is much better than those in poorly and cheaply made modern films. This was like I said earlier Depps 1st film and clearly made an impression on other directors such as Tim Burton as he now acts and voices in many of his films. Although not Robert Englund's 1st film he was kept on as Freddy for the whole of the original Nightmare series where as other 80's characters such as Leatherface and Jason were never continuously played by the same actor through all of those franchises. Since these films he has had multiple acting roles and has even directed his own film. Overall I give this film an 8/10 mainly thanks to the brilliant acting, directing and of course the bed scene. As a horror collector I also collect figures and other merchandise and from this film although some figures have been made I feel there are more bits that should be made. I would love for the phone to be made into a life-size prop that's available to all and not limited. Although they have now done a phone with the 2014 30th anniversary figure. I would love for there to be a diorama made of the bed scene as it is my favourite part of the whole franchise and is probably many more people's favourite scene. Other good dioramas that would be good if made would include Freddy ripping out of the bed at the end and then when he turns into the car. Before becoming Freddy he was burnt alive and in this film there is a scene where Heather sets him alight. Surely this should be a figure that's made as it's what makes him look like he does. I shall review my figures in a separate review and will eventually be reviewing all of the nightmare series possibly including the awful remake if I can survive watching it again.