Inventive entry into the horror genre

Rating: 7/10 (5 February 2010)

Sleep is an essential part of life; it allows our bodies and our minds to relax and recharge for the next day. It is also the time when we are the most vulnerable. When we are asleep, we are blissfully unaware of what is going on around us. Wes Craven's landmark horror film, "A Nightmare on Elm Street" takes advantage of this often overlooked part of life and uses it in unusual and effective ways.
Nancy (Heather Langenkamp) is your average sixteen year old girl. She's got good friends and a great boyfriend. But when her friend Tina (Amanda Wyss) is brutally murdered, and her boyfriend Rod (Jsu Garcia) is arrested for it, Nancy's world is turned upside down. However, Tina had a nightmare the night before she died, the same one that Nancy and Rod had. As her friends keep turning up dead, Nancy begins to realize that there is someone who is killing her friends in their dreams, and what happens in their dreams, happens in real life.
This all sounds highly convoluted, which it is, but Craven explains it pretty thoroughly. The premise is golden, and Craven, never one to shy away from taking risks, exploits it for all it's worth. The crossing of this boundary opens up a lot of possibilities, not only for the staple events in a horror movie (gruesome and inventive murders), but some philosophical questions about this given boundary.
Unfortunately while the film can boast a highly original premise and story, it's not that scary. Maybe it's because it's not particularly well-acted. Amanda Wyss and Jsu Garcia aren't particularly good thespians, even within the broad constraints of the genre. Heather Langenkamp is solid as the spunky heroine. For once, the heroine of the horror film isn't as dumb as a brick or supremely wimpy. She's brave, and more importantly, pretty smart. Johnny Depp shows us a glimmer of his talent as her boyfriend, Glen. Ronee Blakely is okay as Nancy's mom, who knows more about what's going on than she's telling. However, the real star of the show is not Robert Englund (who is very creepy as the film's sadistic villain, Fred Krueger), but John Saxon. Saxon is great as Nancy's sympathetic, but incredulous father. He acts just the way a normal father would act in the given situation.
Wes Craven is known as the Master of Horror. While he's made a number of solid horror movies, I don't agree with that statement. His films are engaging and competently made, but they aren't all that frightening. The one thing that Craven has that no one else does is a penchant for taking risks. "A Nightmare on Elm Street" doesn't follow the slasher film formula (in fact, this is just a horror film, and not a member of the slasher genre).
It's recommendable because it's a spooky story with a few shocks and tense moments.