Terribly Boring and Simply Atrocious

Rating: 1/10 (20 June 2011)

This movie was one of my least favorites thus far. Not only was acting poor, and special effects laughable, but overall, film was pretty atrocious. The universal concept that our dreams can haunt (and in Nancy's case, harm) us itself is fantastic. However, the delivery is less than acceptable.
The first fifteen minutes were the scariest, simply due to chaos, confusion, and the setting. After that, it becomes more comedic than anything else. I will admit that while the movie itself was less than frightening, its after-taste is simply creepy. I mean, the fact is that this girl was being hunted out of revenge, and her every move is stalked by this shadow of a man.
I have plenty of qualms with the movie, but the following is definitely number one. I've yet to see the remake, the prequel, or the sequel, so I'm just wondering who Freddy is. I don't think that it's enough to say; "Oh, Fred Krueger was a child murderer so we 'offed' him." No. There are plenty of scumbags in every neighborhood who deserve death time and time again, but we, ordinary citizens almost never intervene. Did Freddy commit an atrocity that hit close to home? It also wasn't very clear when Freddy was actually murdered. Yes, Nancy's mother was involved in the killing along with some other renegades, but how much time has passed? Were they themselves children, or was this some sort of PTA rally? Either way, it's these crucial details that make the story actually come to life. Without them, I honestly have a difficult time focusing, so this movie distracted me in that sense.
Now, onto the special effects; honestly, they weren't nearly as terrible as I had planned. While none of them were realistic by any means, they were this surreal kind of creepy that I thought was done very well. I'm actually curious about the geyser of blood. How did they create such an optical illusion? I mean, maybe they had a blender-esque machine forcibly shooting the gunk into the air, but I just don't know. I thought that special effect was really well done. Then again, I've been known to watch television shows from the sixties, so my perspective is a little different than the average teenage kid.
All in all, I will not waste money or time on the sequels.