Tina! Mother! Krueger! Scream!

Rating: 8/10 (2 January 2010)

I knew someone who didn't much care for horror movies, but he kept screeching "TINA!" around me and his partner attempting to either A: scare us, B: simply make fun of the dialogue or both, in A Nightmare on Elm Street. I can say that, nor the movie itself, scared me. In fact, none of the series (so far) 8 installments, including Freddy Vs. Jason, scared me. And that's okay; it wasn't the scare factor that impressed me or kept me wanting more. It was the humor and inventiveness.
Growing up, I was a huge fan of the Halloween, Friday the 13th, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Hellraiser and A Nightmare on Elm Street series, or in other words, cheesy 1980s horror/psycho killer films. (Yeah, I know some of them started in the 1970s, but it was the 1980s that made them famous.) The one series that topped all others, even to today, was the Freddy Krueger films.
Generally speaking, the first in any series is usually the best one. I.E. Halloween, Hellraiser and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Though I thoroughly enjoyed the original A Nightmare on Elm Street, it wasn't the best and by no means is it a perfect film. But, it set the stage. It took it's predecessors to a new level. Namely in creativity. Which is one of the reasons why I liked this series the best. Well, that and Freddy is the best of all the serial killers in the aforementioned horror franchises.
Nancy (Langenkamp) and her high school pals are having bad dreams, and slowly they discover that they're all experiencing the same horrific nightmares about a man in a "weird hat, red and green sweater and knifes for fingers." What they don't realize is that even though the dreams are really, really bad, they soon become deadly when Tina (Wyss) is murdered supposedly by her boyfriend during the night.
Boyfriend Rod (Corri) is framed and in jail, but the killing continues! The kids, namely future series heroine, Nancy, attempt to put the mystery together while trying to stay awake and find out who this man of their nightmares is.
No spoiler here, but it's Willie from the original V series! Okay, it's just Freddy Krueger, known here as Fred. (At least they didn't call him Frederick.) Nancy must rely solely on herself and her instincts to solve the mystery surrounding Fred, why he's in her dreams and stop him. And seeing the people around her, her blatantly drunk mother, her "dumb jock" disbelieving boyfriend and her angry and overprotective cop dad are all of no use. (Heck, all of the cops should be fired – I loved the hesitant one in the closing when Nancy's going berserk. Hilarious.)
I guess why I rated A Nightmare on Elm Street only 8 stars is because of the laughable dialogue, the inconsistencies and irregularities. For example, some things can come out of the dream when captured, such as the hat and (spoiler – someone else) but then the trellis she doesn't even hold onto comes back with her. A feather from her pillow is seen floating but the mirror Fred crashes through survives. Nancy requests 20 minutes to capture the killer and still has time to set half a dozen traps, have a nice mother-daughter talk and fall into deep sleep. And Fred is only supposed to appear when one's asleep; yet, Nancy receives a call from him and the ending blows any of the story's mythos out the window. Literally.
I'm not just talking about goofs, as all movies have them, but they set up a premise, a good and original one in a series of horror movies that relied on a masked killer stalking in the shadows. At least they tried here to change the trend. But, unfortunately, they kept breaking their own rules. It actually would've made more sense to have him as a ghost and then all bets are off. (Granted, he's sort of a ghost, but with rules.) As for the dialogue, though some of its iconic by now, it really doesn't hold up. A few years back, I saw A Nightmare on Elm Street in the theater for a one-night presentation. Being a huge fan, I arrived way early to get good seats, but still thought hardly anyone would show up. Well, it completely sold out. And to my surprise, everyone practically laughed all the way though it and it appeared both at and with the movie. I had to, myself. Even though I grew up on the series and loved them, the movie really was silly, namely for some of the lines, acting and characters – Oh, that drunk mother! Alcohol should be part of any nutritious breakfast! I don't think the audience was really criticizing the movie, they were just having fun.
Aside from negatives, I am still awarding the movie 8/10 due to the movie being enormously inventive, original, fun and despite Fred(dy) not being in it too much, he was extremely iconic, an instant super-villain. Also, I'm glad it started a cult following since a lot of the sequels explored a lot more and were, in a lot of ways, far superior to this original one. So, it did set the stage, introduced a whole new world and just as Jaws did for swimmers, this one did for sleepers. Only, with Jaws, you could choose to stay out of the water. Here, and in real life, you eventually have to sleep. Maybe for the last time.