"Hey! Nancy! No running in the hallway..." One of the greatest horror movies ever made and the birth of a legend!

Rating: 10/10 (30 October 2014)

Inspired by villains Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees, A Nightmare on Elm Street was released on November 9th 1984, and the world of macabre motion pictures was granted one of its greatest treasures, one that would take the idea of supernatural horror villains to the next level, for unlike any others here was a fiend with a face that leered right at you, a voice, and a definite personality, one that devised many twisted and cruel ways in which to psychologically torture victims with a gleeful passion, and whip them into a state of panic before delivering the final blow and destroying them within the realm of their own dreams, and his name was Freddy Krueger... This is simply a fantastic film, it's an utter classic, and a veritable masterpiece among horror movies and to me it was totally Wes Craven's best work. I love everything about it, it's so fiercely unique and special and has its own dark magical lore about it that makes it stand out from the rest to this day. The music score and distinctive sound design is my favourite horror score ever, as it elevates everything so beautifully and gives the film such a strong and memorable identity. The iconic jump-rope song alone probably forms a huge part of why this movie came to be so ingrained into the collective consciousness of horror movie buffs the world over for decades.. It moves at just the right pace and never seems to rush into anything, they make the most out of and flesh-out each moment so tremendously well, I never find myself waiting for it to end. What I most enjoy about it is how it so effortlessly and eerily blurs the line between dreams and reality... Just the idea is scary, I mean it's a concept that is literally the stuff of nightmares and while I don't find the scenes dead terrifying, it definitely takes you out of your comfort zone. It's been said, but it is something that we can all relate to, we're all at our most vulnerable in that state and no one can stay awake forever. And who hasn't ever experienced that kind of dread where you're having a really bad night terror where you're not sure you're gonna escape alive? The concept Craven came up with and how he expressed and inter-weaved it so perfectly into the overall environment and atmosphere of the story was just genius. It does get a little confusing when some of the dream stuff begins to mingle with the real world, like the hysterical tongue-phone, or when Glen's poor mother goes into his room and is somehow able to see the spectacular tornado of gore that she shouldn't be able to.. I take that as a clue to what I take as the meaning behind the chilling final scene as the questionable reality and structure of the film comes tumbling down as the suspiciously happy ending turns grim and everyone is whisked away by the Freddy-Mobile and mom is hilariously sucked through the door, and even that's kinda spooky! Anyway what I think is that at some point the movie became or perhaps always was, a dream-within-a-dream, and it ended that way and never came out of it. And if you watch with that idea in mind it's even scarier as it plays into the ambiguous and occasionally even ethereal tone. My favourite part is the sequence between Nancy falling asleep in class and when she burns herself to wake up. I think it most captures what they were trying to sell, the surreal, almost hypnotic haziness of the dream-state. That's exactly what it can be like sometimes when you're dreaming, you do accept the bizarre and incomprehensible as reality because you're not aware that you're sleeping, hence why Nancy doesn't run screaming when she sees the bloody animate corpse of Tina beckoning to her or when she bumps into the chainsaw-crazy bitch from hell!!! The scariest image for me is the sight of Tina's body being dragged away by invisible hands, and the way she looks like a piece of meat as her hand flops to the ground - it's so good! The characters are all vital to the story, Heather Langencamp's Nancy most of all. She was an outstanding heroine, despite only being in one and a sorta sequels she remains the most memorable survivor girl of the series. She had a great realness to her and a level-headed resourcefulness, like she was just a regular person who wasn't so scared of dying that she wasn't willing to fight to try and solve the deadly mystery before it was too late. Her personality was strong enough to hold the center of the movie together, and although it's her and Englund both that are the stars, I find her more interesting because in this one at least, he's subtle and more of a shadowy bogeyman, a dark force to be conquered, and you root for her and want to see her kick his charred ass! Anyway that said Freddy's still awesome and very different in his original appearance, he hides in shadows and all you mostly see of his face are his amused mad eyes and he's just more threatening and ominous, and it was more than just a great-looking getup, Englund brought a lot of his own sinister body language to his most famous role. They may have made a complete clown of him eventually but as far as this film goes, he was a legitimate scary bastard! What's really amazing is that they did it all and achieved such macabre magnificence on a low budget, you feel how much effort was put into it - the movie works and always will. It more than deserves every last bit of the considerable love and admiration that it's ever got. God bless, "Screw sleep!!!!"