She is the only one who can stop it... if she fails, no one survives.

Rating: 6/10 (3 January 2010)

A repulsive, decaying figure with razor-sharp appendages suddenly appears in the dreams of four Los Angeles teenagers. It is the ghost of Freddy Krueger, a suspected child murderer killed long ago by the neighborhood parents. Now he's able to exact his bloody vengeance by killing the teens off, one by one, as they sleep. Finally, just one girl remains. Desperately, she tries to stay awake by every means possible, but even pills and massive amounts of coffee wear off sometime and when they do, she'll have to battle Freddy for her very life. It's her worst nightmare...and it's coming true.
I would like to apologize firsthand that I'm around 25 years late in seeing this film because I should have seen it a whole lot sooner, but what can I say? Anyway, ANOES is one of those films that could have been a classic with some other horror films if it were not some producers messing around with the director's true vision. Yes, in fact, producer Robert Shaye made director Wes Craven change the ending for this film (which I will certainly not spoil to you in this review). However, I shouldn't be all that scathing to Mr. Shaye because, after all, he was the one who helped Craven bring this project about and without him, we'd probably not have a franchise nor an iconic villain named Freddy Krueger to this day.
The film has a very low budget and it could be seen throughout the film through the shoddy visual effects. However, I must admit, Craven knows how to use money because some effects in here seemed like a lot of money to be pulled off. What may seem like $20 million to make is, in reality, only $2 million. With that low of a budget, the film surprisingly pulls a lot of things off. The look of Freddy is quite frightening, I must admit, as opposed of his "cleaned up" look in the later sequels, with an exception of part 7. The theme is also haunting and very notable to this day.
As for the story itself, it's very genius and original. Who would have ever thought of a guy who can kill people in their dreams? It's fantastic! The film does a great job at confusing the audience with dream and reality, one of the key things that makes the series successful and unique to other slasher films. Heather Langenkamp is the heroine in this film. She pulls off a sympathetic role for the audience to root for. Robert Englund plays the iconic villain, Freddy, and plays it perfectly, giving plenty of witty one-liners and scares, sometimes at the same time!
But where ANOES starts to fall down the hill is when it gets closer to the third act, where everything goes almost berserk and where many inconsistencies start springing up, where dream and reality cross one another. It's quite confusing. However, I got it after another viewing. But the worst part of the film is the ending. It really is that bad, and bumps the film one or two points. The ending ruins the whole point of the film and I can tell why Craven is angry. Oh, well. At least Craven got success out of it. If you're a horror fan, you must see this film because it has a franchise for a reason.