A Nightmare On Elm Street

Rating: 7/10 (25 September 2009)

I just saw this movie yesterday. I was impressed. It was better than I thought it would be. This movie is a true horror movie. It doesn't qualify for any other genre. It really is a movie that defines the horror genre, which is a good thing. Much of this is based on the appearance of the villain Freddy Krueger. He has one of the most frightening appearances of any villain I've ever seen. Freddy was truly crafted with genius, which is even more impressive considering this is a low-budget movie. The red and blue sweater, the fedora hat, the blue pants, the horribly scarred face, the knives. I think he is the most frightening horror villain ever. He's really great for the movie.
This movie has a few bloody sequences as most horror/slasher movies do, but there is a lot more to the movie than that. It has an interesting story, a very original script, and good characters. All of the teen characters were good. The parents were a little weak as characters but it wasn't a big problem. It is really important for a horror movie to have good, memorable characters. A little bit of humor is also good. Horror movies are not just about jump scares and watching people be slashed to death. There should always be suspense, tension, plot, and atmosphere. The Shining and The Ring have the darkest atmospheres of any movies I've ever seen. A Nightmare on Elm Street still had a great one.
Without these it's likely the horror movie is going to lose a lot of its substance. It should be somewhat believable. It shouldn't feel like you're watching a movie for every single second of it. Nightmare on Elm street did a pretty good with these though. My main problem with the movie was that while these characters were all very good, it seemed too many of them were killed off too early in the movie. Towards the end all that was left was Nancy, Freddy, and those passive parents so typical to horror movies. It seems passive authorities are more of a characteristic of horror movies than a problem though. They can still be bothersome. I thought that some of the plot went with those friends that died.
It also had a really confusing ending. In the ending, you didn't know what was a dream and what was real or if it was all a dream. Not only that but you didn't know who was even having the dream, if it was a dream. I would recommend this movie to horror fans, as it's a horror classic. I wouldn't really tell you to watch it if you don't like horror movies much, as it's very much a horror movie. Some scary movies can kind of double as a thriller, (in which thriller fans might like because it would be similar to a thriller) but this was just an all-out horror. (Which is great for horror fans, like me, but not always great for everybody else.