Movie Review: A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Do I need to include a spoiler warning for an incredibly well known horror movie that was released over 30 years ago? Probably not, but here it kind of is, anyways.
A Nightmare on Elm Street is one of the most creative slasher movies ever made. It definitely has its problems, but the film’s imagination propels it above most slasher movies of the period, and most horror movies in general.
The movie begins in a nightmare sequence, with Tina’s (Amanda Wyss) nightmare, running from a dark figure that we all know to be Freddy Krueger. What the public knows most about Freddy really comes from the sequels, in which he’s far more goofy. He’s not as serious in this movie as he is in the second one, but he’s definitely dark, and not particularly cartoonish.
Tina actually becomes the first of the movie to die, in what I suppose is an homage to my favorite horror movie, Psycho, and Janet Leigh. It’s an interesting tactic that you could argue is used in Wes Craven’s Scream, as well, considering how heavily featured Drew Barrymore was in the advertisements of those movies. It’s also kind of used in Friday the 13th, with the first teen we meet in the present being the first to die in that. Here, it’s utilized better than in Friday the 13th, but it’s not done nearly as well as Scream or Psycho.
While she’s still alive, we meet Tina’s friends: Nancy Thompson, played by Heather Langenkamp; Glen, played by a young Johnny Depp; and Rod, played by Nick Corri. All these characters are likable, even if the performances aren’t great. I don’t think you’d possibly guess that Johnny Depp would become one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. I think these characters all being sympathetic despites some bad performances really points to the writing by Wes Craven.
What this movie does a good job of is making its protagonists feel helpless. Unlike in Halloween, there are parents in the picture. However, in the tradition of great ’80s supernatural movies like Gremlins, of course nobody believes the protagonist.
The first kill comes with the absence of parents, however. After Tina and Nancy discover that they share nightmares of the same creepy man with a finger knife glove (which of course Glen doesn’t believe), they decide to have a sleepover. Glen is there, too, and Rod shows up, initially looking very suspicious. Rod clears up whatever fight he had been having with Tina, though, and when they are sleeping together, Tina has another nightmare, meeting Freddy on a suburban street. Freddy’s first real appearance here is a little strange, with one not so great effect of him having extended arms. He’s still creepy, though, with his first line: “This is God” (referring to his knife glove) standing out. He kills her in a marvelous way that shows her floating above the bed in the real world and being dragged across the ceiling, bloody as Rod looks on in horror. It’s as exciting, terrifying, and well done a kill that I can think of to start a franchise, and thankfully is far from the only memorable moment in the movie.
Rod flees, and is naturally wanted for murder. Maybe unnaturally, considering there are bloody handprints all over the ceiling and I can’t imagine an explanation linking Rod to that. This is where we meet Nancy’s parents, played by the worst and best actors in the movie. Lieutenant Donald Thompson is played by John Saxon. I won’t say he’s the best thing about this movie, but I really like his performance, and he’s definitely the best actor in the movie. I guess Halloween established that in these teen horror movies with inexperienced actors, you had to get at least one veteran actor to lend the movie some credibility. We had Donald Pleasence in Halloween and Betsy Palmer in Friday the 13th. Unfortunately, we also meet Nancy’s mother, played by Ronee Blakley (Nashville), who gives an awful performance. The parents are separated and the mother is an exaggerated alcoholic. There’s no subtlety to the character, but I can’t say it ruins the movie, given that it’s not a huge part. But she is just awful.
Nancy doesn’t believe Rod is behind it, and when she walks to school the next day, Rod mets up with her to try and explain his innocence, only to be arrested by her father, who used his daughter as bait. At school, Nancy falls asleep, and is treated to a really creepy nightmare, following her dead friend in a body bag creeping across the hall. She eventually winds up in a boiler room, pursued by Freddy, and she burns her arm to wake up, and finds that she has a burn mark. While the audience already knows that what affects you in dreams affects you in real life here, this is where she learns that.
In another nightmare, she wanders to the police station and sees Rod getting hanged by his bedsheets in jail, in what the police are certain to think is a suicide. She also falls asleep in a bathtub and is pulled underneath to nearly drown in a really effective scene.
While under observation by some doctors, she falls asleep again and encounters Freddy once again. She starts flipping out in her sleep, of course, and grabs Freddy’s hat in her dream, appearing with it in the real world once she is awake. This is a neat moment, and obviously is key for Nancy as she plans to finally defeat Freddy, but the reaction by the other characters including the mother doesn’t seem justified. You’d think this would prove everything Nancy has said even to the most skeptical observer, but Nancy’s mother keeps on drinking, and when asked about Freddy Krueger, explains his backstory. He was a child murderer who escaped justice and was burned alive by the Elm Street parents in an act of revenge. She naturally thinks he’s no threat, given that the Thompsons were among the parents to participate. It’s a backstory that the series would continue to revisit, changing here and there, but remains an effective motivation for a franchise.
The final act of this film is fairly weak, to be honest. Nancy fights back with a competent plan that unfortunately relies too much on Glen being remotely competent. Glen is supposed to wake her up when she struggles, and she will have pulled Freddy into the real world. Of course, Freddy goes after Glen, pulling him into his bed and regurgitating him in blood reminiscent of the elevator in The Shining. It’s yet another great kill, and yet another one that I can’t help but think about the police examining and comically coming up with a real life explanation for.
Nancy pulls Freddy into the real world where she has some booby traps set up for him, and beats the crap out of him. Here, dreams and reality are blurred, as they would be for the rest of the film. I think it works here for now, but soon gets ridiculous.
Locked in her own house by her alcoholic mother, who eventually is I guess killed by Freddy, Nancy defeats Freddy by refusing to believe in him, taking back whatever energy she has given him. It’s not a particularly effective ending, and only gets worse in the last scene, when Nancy gets in a car with all her friends the next morning, and her mother gets pulled through a door by Freddy in a ridiculous effect. Craven didn’t want this ending, but the producer wanted a sting for a sequel, and I am definitely with Craven here.
While the ending is dumb, this movie still has so much going for it. All the kills are great, and the movie provides some haunting images that you won’t soon forget.
The movie also provides some of the coolest practical effects I’ve ever seen for all three kills, especially Tina, which was accomplished by having a rotating room, and I guess tying Rod down to his chair in the foreground and presumably a lot of hair spray. Towards the end of the movie, Freddy even gets set on fire and is on screen on fire for a shocking amount of time, even if it’s painfully obvious that it’s a stuntman and not Robert Englund, since he appears to be about 50 lbs heavier. It’s unfortunate that the effect with the mother at the end is so poor, because this movie really is otherwise a masterclass in horror special effects.
Above all, though, this movie succeeds on its premise. There aren’t too many more terrifying ideas for a horror movie; when are you more vulnerable than when you are asleep? Craven capitalizes on this concept with a clever script that slowly reveals the rules to the audience and the movie’s characters.
I’d put it in my top 10 favorite horror movies (nearly top 5), and I’d recommend it to anyone. It has its weaknesses in some of the performances and the final act, but it has so many strengths that outshine those.
Rating: 9/10
