Oh, you KNOW they're gonna make a sequel!

Rating: 9/10 (6 July 2003)

For the first third or so of the original Nightmare of Elm Street, I was trying to figure out exactly what Freddy Krueger's motive was, since he seemed to just be some boogeyman that was haunting the dreams of a few high school kids, and later on it turns out that his motive is to get revenge against the people (and their kids) that killed him. So Freddy was a child molester, and after having been released on a technicality, the citizens decide to take matters into their own hands to get rid of him. I actually like that he's back to exact his revenge for what I believe to have been a justified death, because it makes you even more interested in seeing his demise. As if molesting kids wasn't enough, now we get to see him killed for what he does to these teenagers, too.
I think that what sets A Nightmare on Elm Street apart from other slasher movies is that it has found a way around the fact that movies like this are only scary if you're really young or just really high strung. While the movie itself is not scary in the slightest, it does know about that line between consciousness and sleep and it utilizes it very effectively. You never really notice the point at which you fall asleep, you just suddenly find yourself dreaming, and this is why you never really know when Freddy could show up in the movie. This reminds me of all those times in high school that I would dream that I had gotten up and taken a shower and eaten breakfast and gone to school, and then I wake up still at home halfway through third period. The scares may have grown completely obsolete, but the movie remains interesting because it's not as predictable as so many other movies of its kind.
The whole theme of teenagers being slashed by relentless killers (often seemingly in response to them having sex with each other) is not new at all, but A Nightmare on Elm Street takes that theme and adds in the clever addition that the killer resides in their dreams and can kill them through them. The movie has no memorable score at all besides an old nursery rhyme, but it is a testament to the quality of the rest of the movie that it remains memorable even without something like Halloween's infectious film score. It may not be scary anymore, but A Nightmare on Elm Street is still a signpost of the more interesting horror films made in the 80s.