My First Slasher Flick (Spoiler)

Rating: 6/10 (20 June 2011)

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) starring Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger, Heather Langenkamp as Nancy Thompson, Johnny Depp as Glen Lantz and Ronee Blakely as Marge Thompson, is, admittedly, the first slasher flick I have ever seen, and although I have extremely limited experience on the topic (I avoid horror movies at all cost) I understand why it is a definite classic.
The story revolves around Krueger, a known child murderer, who gets off on a technicality and as a result is murdered by a mob of angry parents. To exact his revenge, Krueger stalks the parents' children when they are most vulnerable, when they are asleep, and kills them in their dreams.
The main problem I have with horror flicks is that they cause me to have nightmares (I am acutely aware of the irony). I was hoping since this one is so old, I would be able to effectively review it and point out the flaws and unrealistic scenes therefore not have any lingering effects personally. Not the case, at least not for the first half of the film. Writer/director Wes Craven's use of imagery was amazing. I was never quite sure if what I was watching was reality or a nightmare. The nightmare sequences are precise and fluid. Frightening but did not come across as cheap.
The opening scenes show Krueger chasing a victim and eventually killing her in front of her boyfriend. To top it off, he drags her bloody corpse across the ceiling. Nancy has a nightmare set during her English class. It begins with a normal classroom but quickly changes when one of the victims appears in a body bag. These were just a few of the images that will not soon leave my mind, unfortunately. Krueger definitely lives up to the terrifying icon he has been since the movie came out.
In the second part of the film however (after Nancy goes to the dream research center) is when I was able to see some of the downfalls of the movie.
There was one obvious unrealistic part I did find when Nancy tells her father to come and get her in twenty minutes, she then sets up traps throughout the house, has a bonding moment with her mother and ends up getting to bed all in a matter of ten minutes.
I was feeling pretty good when I knew the end was near, impressed with the take away lesson that things only have power over you if you let them, and then the final twist ruins it all. The ending was pretty much a letdown in my opinion. A dream within a dream within a dream!?? It contradicts everything that has happened in the entire film. I understand the reasoning behind it; to lure viewers into the sequel, but I feel they could have done it in a better way instead of creating the feeling of being cheated out of the last two hours.