A great movie overall, with only one complaint...

Rating: 9/10 (3 May 2010)

Wes Craven's "A Nightmare On Elm Street" is undoubtedly a classic for the horror genre that will haunt the minds of its audience members for a long time.
Although it may not haunt the minds of many viewers today, back in 1984 this movie scared a lot of its viewing audience. Today many of us look at horror movies from that decade as "cheesy", over analyzing technical elements, the acting, and the plot. Most of us still over analyze films to this day, but keep in mind that this is only a movie, whose main purpose is to entertain its audience. Which I believe Wes Craven's film achieves its purpose.
The film overall was great with a clever concept and a simple, but eerie storyline. I had no problem with the acting in this film, or the dialogue which to me came across as passable to very believable.
I felt that John Saxon (Lt. Thompson), Heather Langenkamp (Nancy Thompson), Amanda Wyss (Tina Gray), and Johnny Depp (Glen Lantz)all delivered solid and convincing performances. Jsu Garcia (Rod Lane) delivered a mediocre to a little above mediocre performance in my opinion, lacking emotional depth and intensity in some scenes. Although with all due respect to Jsu Garcia, he didn't have a lot of scene time to develop his character and make him more three dimensional. Ronee Blakley (Marge Thompson) was convincing in her role as the over protective and overbearing, alcoholic, smoke inducing mother who made me chuckle a couple of times. The rest of the supporting cast does a good job with what they are given.
As far as special effects and stunts go, sure there are a few goof ups where you can clearly notice what isn't meant to be noticed by viewers, but to me the effect is still there.
I thought the climax was great and escalated nicely from the beginning of the film right up until the end. My only complaint with this film is the final scene of this film, which is entirely left ambiguous, only for sequels to try and explain what happened after.
Unfortunately Wes Craven's original ending was scrapped because it wasn't deemed fit for the film. The original ending would also have made it hard for a sequel to come into play...even though Wes Craven had a concept for a sequel which was rejected and was later used for the storyline of Wes Craven's "New Nightmare". Although the ending might have been a huge let down for some audience members, as the director would have chosen the "it was all just a dream" technique, to me it would have been far more superior and would have been looked at as more than just a horror movie. Mainly because the concept of someone creating a "monster" in their own dream is clever, and the idea that she has to conquer the "monster" that she created in order for her to wake up from her dream is also an interesting concept. Also, having the car simply driving away with the children skipping to the jump rope song would have been highly effective, because it would have been more of a statement stating that although you may have overcome this bad dream, it is only a matter of time before you have your next nightmare, and that you will never be able to actually get rid of bad dreams. To me this is a lot creepier then the ending they decided to go with.
On another note Nancy's final dialogue with "Freddy" makes no sense to the scene that follows, which is why it is entirely left up to the audience to decide whether it is just another one of Nancy's dreams, or her mother's dream. Either way the film finished on a weaker note because of it.
Even though the ending is entirely ambiguous, and somewhat confusing, I feel that if they had gone with the original ending people would still have been scratching their heads as Nancy would have had so many "dream within a dream" sequences. Therefore in the end result it doesn't really matter because someone will still be scratching their head by the end credits.
Overall Wes Craven's "A Nightmare On Elm Street" is a great horror movie that should be regarded as mindless entertainment, sure to haunt your memories and give you nightmares for years to come. But if not the film itself, the music score will be sure get under your skin.
****1/2 Stars Out Of *****