John Saxon is perfect cast as Nancy's father police Lieutenant Thompson, the ineffectual authority figure completely unwilling to believe the truth, even though it comes from the lips of his own daughter. Ronee Blakley gives a wonderfully spaced out performance as Nancy's alcoholic mother Marge. In the series first outing, Freddy Krueger is something of a secondary character. However, Robert Englund makes Freddy more menacing here than he would be in subsequent outings when his character would punctuate each teen death with a wisecrack. The image is fairly rich looking and provides excellent shadow detail.
Blacks are reference quality and the image's contrast is almost flawless.
Colors are more vivid than I ever remember seeing them and they are reproduced without a hint of chroma noise or distortion. Digital compression artifacts are rarely evident on this incredibly dark movie, which is quite an accomplishment. For this release New Line Home Video has created a new Dolby Digital 5.1 channel soundtrack that proves that any movie can be greatly enhanced by a modern sound mix. The new mix completely envelops the viewer in the movie's nightmare world by creating a cohesive sound field that makes the most of the original sound elements. Sound effects aren't localized, as they would be on a new soundtrack, however they are effectively deployed to make the track highly atmospheric.