A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984)

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984)

Tagline: The kids of Elm Street don't know it yet, but something is coming to get them in their dreams.

(Horror, Drama, Nightmares) [R]

One, two, Freddy's coming for you. / Three, four, better lock your door. / Five, six, grab your crucifix. / Seven, eight, gonna stay up late. / Nine, ten, never sleep again.

You can argue all you want, but 1984 was an amazing year for horror flicks, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, CHILDREN OF THE CORN, FRIDAY THE 13^TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER, C.H.U.D., A COMPANY OF WOLVES, NIGHT OF THE COMET, etc. (you can also argue that 1982 was the worst, just try and Bing that year). In this one in case you are not familiar with this series, it's about a killer who was killed by a group of parents that killed him because he was killing kids. So, we have a lot of killing going on. He also wears the crappiest sweater he could find, a hat, and has fashioned one glove Michael Jackson style only it’s got blades attached to the fingers.

He uses dreams to get at the kids but if he kills them, they end up dead in real life. This movie is loaded with stars including Johnny Depp, Robert Englund, and John Saxon (if you tried watching this dude's flicks you would be in for over 200 movies including ENTER THE DRAGON). However, my favorite actress in this entire series also starred in this one, the impeccable Heather Langenkamp (STAR TREK: INTO DARKNESS) whom I’ve had the fortunate chance to meet. She drinks a butt load of coffee in this flick though (like literally keeps an extra coffee pot under her bed). Effects-wise this movie was pretty up to par back then, but now you can see some issues especially when Tina is attacked, and the very last scene.

Oddities – Freddy is pretty worried about his hat or hats. He actually writes his name in them. Nancy doesn’t like sleep, she hates hall passes and security. Not really sure why Nancy’s hair has shades of grey in it. She was only 20 when it was made and it wasn’t there when I met her? I also met Wes Craven once, he made a great impression and seems like a nice guy.

Conclusion. A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET is still considered one of the top 30 horror flicks of all time in most serious polls. I give it a 7 out of 7. At the time no one had seen stuff like this, for effort and imagination it falls into the category of superb.