The sequels were certainly unnecessary!

Rating: 7/10 (9 October 2003)

Last House on the Left' (1972) and The Hills Have Eyes' (1977) director Wes Craven brought us this eerie and unnerving horror movie which went on to create one of the most highly recognised characters in the history of horror. The teenagers of Springwood are all suffering from nightmares and in a bizarre coincidence it turns out that they are all dreaming about the same man. When her friends start being slaughtered in their sleep it occurs to Nancy Thompson (Heather Lagenkamp) that perhaps these nightmares are actually reality.
Long before Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) became the wise-cracking, anti-hero he is known as today he was a dark and menacing monster who took sadistic pleasure in methodically slaughtering teenagers. A Nightmare on Elm Street' features sparse amounts of the humour that the sequels were beset with, and is all the more better for it. By 1984 Wes Craven had established himself as one of the great up and coming horror directors. His controversial exploitation flick The Last House on the Left' had thrust him into the horror limelight and his subsequent offering, The Hills Have Eyes', won several awards and established Craven as one of the most exciting horror directors. It was therefore only fitting that A Nightmare on Elm Street' retained the ugliness and gloominess that had made his earlier films so enduring. Except for sporadic moments of black humour, A Nightmare on Elm Street' is a dark and unsettling horror movie which features a truly frightening premise. Ingeniously playing on an already fear-provoking experience, the movie takes the idea further and gives it a startling realism.
A Nightmare on Elm Street' is an imaginative, bloody and surreal movie that rises above other 80's slashers such as Friday the 13th' for its slick direction and character development. Unlike slasher villains such as Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees who were almost robotic in the way they senselessly slaughtered, Krueger is an animated sadist with a real purpose behind his killing. Craven built A Nightmare on Elm Street' on a brilliant premise and dexterously blurred the lines between fantasy and reality. That is not to say that A Nightmare on Elm Street' is a flawless movie, there are times when the film seems to drag and the acting is not always up to par. On top of this the characters, although developed, remain typical slasher movie clichés. However, considering A Nightmare on Elm Street' was made for a budget of just over $1million, the movie appears remarkably stylish and features low-grade special effects that are effective nonetheless. A Nightmare on Elm Street' blends dark, atmospheric horror with an inventive and captivating premise; a quality that is somewhat rare in modern horror.
It is little wonder that A Nightmare on Elm Street' has become one of the most popular post-1970 horror movies. I recommend this for all fans of the horror genre that have not already seen it. Featuring interesting and well developed characters, a strong and imaginative premise and a dark, foreboding atmosphere throughout, A Nightmare on Elm Street' is one of the staples of the horror genre and is certainly worth a look. My rating for A Nightmare on Elm Street'  7.5/10.