A Nightmare on Elm Street

Rating: 9/10 (11 April 2020)

Freddy Krueger begins his murderous reign of terror as the evil boogeyman with knives for fingers who can attack people in their dreams in A Nightmare on Elm Street.
A young girl named Tina is having recurring nightmares of a disfigured man with knives for fingers who is trying to kill her. One night while hanging out with her friends for a sleepover, she has another terrifying nightmare and is killed in the dream by the burned man. We see that she is also killed in the real world. Her boyfriend Rob is blamed for her death, but he explains to our main heroine Nancy that she was attacked while asleep which she soon believes.
Nancy starts investigating and begins experiencing dreams of the disfigured man herself. She quickly learns that the boogeyman in her nightmares is named Freddy Krueger, a child murderer who was burned alive by parents (including hers) in the town after they discovered his vicious crimes. Freddy is clearly out to kill the children on Elm Street whose parents were responsible for his death. Can Nancy survive the dream world and stop Freddy? Or will she be done in by a nightmare?
I love this film and the entire Elm Street series. There are SO many wonderful things about this first Nightmare film that set the tone for the rest of the series. The music of the nursery rhyme "one, two, Freddy's coming for you" is first heard. We get the knives/fingernails scrapping across the metal int he boiler room. All things that are shown throughout each sequel but done here first. We get some gore in the death scenes, and also creative visuals from dream sequences.
Heather Langenkamp is a great scream queen and set the tone as the strong female lead who has the ability to take down Freddy once she figures out what is going on. Johnny Depp makes his debut as an actor and you can see the talent there even from this early on. Robert Englund is in his glory as Freddy Krueger, but it is worth noting that the comedic side of the character that we've come to know is nowhere to be found in this original film. We don't get much of that side to the character until around the 4th entry.
A Nightmare on Elm Street is one of those horror films that should be seen by everyone, not just fans of the genre. Wes Craven hit a homerun with this movie and it's creative villain. Freddy Krueger owned the 80's as a legendary bad guy, and it was all from Craven's twisted yet brilliant mind. Freddy isn't your typical Jason or Michael because of the dream element and his attack in those nightmares against the teenagers. One of the best horror films ever made for sure.
9/10