31 Days of Halloween: Day Sixteen

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984 – Rated R in the US for Gore, Violence, sexual humor and a bad Wolverine impression)

Summary (from IMDB):

On Elm Street, Nancy Thompson and a group of her friends including Tina Gray, Rod Lane and Glen Lantz are being tormented by a clawed killer in their dreams named Freddy Krueger. Nancy must think quickly, as Freddy tries to pick off his victims one by one. When he has you in your sleep, who is there to save you?

RB Wood’s Rating (Out of 5): 3.5 metal fingers

Ah, Freddie Krueger.  Before the character so brilliantly premiered and played by Robert Englund became a parody of itself, there was this original which is bloody, violent and scary as hell.  But upon watching this for the first time since 1984, I find the movie much diminished due to the obscene number of sequels and remakes.  I took a full star off for that, as scenes in this original that were once scary now seem a bit laughable.

I say this because this film (along with the original Halloween and Friday the 13th) brought back the suspense thriller in horror form.  A throw back to the old Hitchcock films of yesteryear. The film opens with a child molester being burned to death by the parents of the children he abused (Krueger).  Years later, the monster reappears in the nightmares of the ‘modern day’ teenagers living on Elm Street.  Believe it or not, the idea for this Wes Craven tale was inspired by real-life stories of people dying in their sleep.

Unfortunately, this is Nancy’s (Heather Langenkamp) story.  I say unfortunately because her acting in this us sub-par.  Even Johnny Depp (who in his movie debut plays Glen Lantz) is wooden.  It’s a fun little flick for the season, just don’t pick up the sequels.

Tomorrow: “Mother!”

Peace