A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET
dir: Wes Craven
"We don't need a stretcher in there. We need a mop!" - Ambulance Crew Member
Brief Synopsis
A group of teenagers begin to die while asleep and begin to suspect that a killer is murdering them in their dreams.
Why It's Here
Wes Craven's concept is flawless in itself: a killer that kills you in your dreams. Dreams are the one place that are yours, no one else can intrude and they are things that while terrifying sometimes, always end and you return to normality. They are also the place where you have no real control, and for a killer to stalk them, a place where he can manipulate reality and you are powerless and unable to ever escape is terrifying. Couple that with the fact that you will sleep sooner or later, no matter what, and you have one of the most terrifying concepts ever written.
Being too young to have ever been close to appreciating the film upon it's initial release, I can only view it now, more than twenty years after the fact and see if the scares still hold up. Unfortunately, in today's world where shock-horror has taken the horror throne in America, there is little room for the immersive mental horror films of the past. That is not to say that "Nightmare on Elm Street" isn't without it's blood and guts. However, there is more than appears at the surface to this film. The teenage victims do not play the typical piñata role of clumsily tripping and corning themselves only to be satisfyingly butchered for the audiences pleasure. Instead, the teenagers of this film are pro-active and aware of their enemy. They face the convenient trouble of being kids, and as all kids know, no adult is going to help a bunch of troublesome teenagers, especially ones behaving oddly and with a lack of sleep. So the kids decide to hatch their own plan to do battle with their enemy, or stay awake to avoid him altogether, their success rate isn't terrific, but it's the thought that counts and compared to today's horror world, that's much more than our teenager victims get credit for.
Before I go and give the film too much praise for it's characterizations, we are still introduced to the typical teenage character set. A slumber party is planned, the guys want sex, the girls want gossip. There is a tough guy, the sweet and innocent girl, and the trusty and handsome neighbor with a crush (hey, is that you Johnny Depp?). All the typical cards are laid out, it's just that Craven does intelligent things with them, rather than leaving them as one-dimensional blood buckets as the "Friday the 13th" series is known to do.
The 1980's attitude, slang, style, and music all reek of time warp watching this film so many years later. It is a perfect horror film time capsule that catapults it's audience back to the cringe-worthy 80's. The film so firmly plants itself in the culture of that time, it removes a lot of the suspense elements and makes it more difficult to watch it for scares. But lets be honest here, with aging horror films being remade left, right, and center (and this film being due for a remake next year), the only people left going back for this film and ones like it are the true horror fans, not the ones looking for cheap scares to hide behind blankets from.
The music is the largest show stopper for the film in today's world. Synthetic cues alert the audience that Freddy is here, something that might have jolted audiences in 1984, now made the people I watched with laugh. The suspense is killed, today's more irritating approach to sensory-overload with shocks has numbed us to the tactics of "Nightmare". Yet, the first thing that came to my mind while watching is how the film acts as a show for the special effects. Several times, Freddy will stop approaching his victim in order to allow them to see him perform some sort of gruesome self-torture. One of which includes him chopping off his own fingers while he smiles as goo spits out; in another similar scene, Freddy cuts his stomach to show the audience the maggots and green paste that pours out. It's almost like the film is a talent show for it's visual effects, trying to best the efforts of other traditional gore effects of the day. If that is the only thing that "Nightmare" leaves for future generations, at least it realized it's one of the most important. The effects largely hold up to varying degrees and offer a reminder of how far we've come. The film's second element that manages to take the test of time is it's plot and themes.
When the kids begin to have nightmares of a burn victim wearing a Christmas sweater and a claw glove, they are initially troubled but not quite terrified. Freddy's outfit it purposely misleading. He appears behind shadows and with a strong personality, opposed to the Jason's and Michael's of the American horror world who are terrifying because of their emotionless kill-bot default modes. They weren't human, they were death machines. Freddy, on the other hand, is actually a character who enjoys his devious work. He is not bitter like Jason, he relishes in the fact that he has ultimate power in his playground and his revenge will come swiftly sooner or later. His hat, Christmas sweater and odd charisma are initial images associated with a trustworthy, friendly figure. However, as he comes closer, his charred face, evil eyes and intimating claw-glove begin to paint a very different picture. Eventually, the plot begins to thicken and we learn through a quick line of dialogue (Craven knows to get the back story done as quick as possible) that Krueger was a pedophile who the suburban parents torched alive to keep their children safe. It all makes so much sense suddenly, Freddy is the ultimate "do you want some candy" creep. The threat that parents always fear but can never truly protect their children from because they strike when the parents aren't near. Freddy acts so eccentric, because in his new world, parents are non-existent. What appears to be a demon from hell is ironically living in his own personal heaven.
Playing with the fears of nightmares and extending into fears of parents, "Nightmare" appears to hit all the right chords. It's the classic suburban secret story, where everything is too perfect to be true, with a disturbing twist. Films like "The Stepford Wives" managed to infuse a sense of creepiness into suburbia, but cult-like vigilante parents and a vengeful beyond-the-grave killer elevates "Nightmare" to a whole new level of suburban horror.
Being too young to have ever been close to appreciating the film upon it's initial release, I can only view it now, more than twenty years after the fact and see if the scares still hold up. Unfortunately, in today's world where shock-horror has taken the horror throne in America, there is little room for the immersive mental horror films of the past. That is not to say that "Nightmare on Elm Street" isn't without it's blood and guts. However, there is more than appears at the surface to this film. The teenage victims do not play the typical piñata role of clumsily tripping and corning themselves only to be satisfyingly butchered for the audiences pleasure. Instead, the teenagers of this film are pro-active and aware of their enemy. They face the convenient trouble of being kids, and as all kids know, no adult is going to help a bunch of troublesome teenagers, especially ones behaving oddly and with a lack of sleep. So the kids decide to hatch their own plan to do battle with their enemy, or stay awake to avoid him altogether, their success rate isn't terrific, but it's the thought that counts and compared to today's horror world, that's much more than our teenager victims get credit for.
Before I go and give the film too much praise for it's characterizations, we are still introduced to the typical teenage character set. A slumber party is planned, the guys want sex, the girls want gossip. There is a tough guy, the sweet and innocent girl, and the trusty and handsome neighbor with a crush (hey, is that you Johnny Depp?). All the typical cards are laid out, it's just that Craven does intelligent things with them, rather than leaving them as one-dimensional blood buckets as the "Friday the 13th" series is known to do.
The 1980's attitude, slang, style, and music all reek of time warp watching this film so many years later. It is a perfect horror film time capsule that catapults it's audience back to the cringe-worthy 80's. The film so firmly plants itself in the culture of that time, it removes a lot of the suspense elements and makes it more difficult to watch it for scares. But lets be honest here, with aging horror films being remade left, right, and center (and this film being due for a remake next year), the only people left going back for this film and ones like it are the true horror fans, not the ones looking for cheap scares to hide behind blankets from.
The music is the largest show stopper for the film in today's world. Synthetic cues alert the audience that Freddy is here, something that might have jolted audiences in 1984, now made the people I watched with laugh. The suspense is killed, today's more irritating approach to sensory-overload with shocks has numbed us to the tactics of "Nightmare". Yet, the first thing that came to my mind while watching is how the film acts as a show for the special effects. Several times, Freddy will stop approaching his victim in order to allow them to see him perform some sort of gruesome self-torture. One of which includes him chopping off his own fingers while he smiles as goo spits out; in another similar scene, Freddy cuts his stomach to show the audience the maggots and green paste that pours out. It's almost like the film is a talent show for it's visual effects, trying to best the efforts of other traditional gore effects of the day. If that is the only thing that "Nightmare" leaves for future generations, at least it realized it's one of the most important. The effects largely hold up to varying degrees and offer a reminder of how far we've come. The film's second element that manages to take the test of time is it's plot and themes.
When the kids begin to have nightmares of a burn victim wearing a Christmas sweater and a claw glove, they are initially troubled but not quite terrified. Freddy's outfit it purposely misleading. He appears behind shadows and with a strong personality, opposed to the Jason's and Michael's of the American horror world who are terrifying because of their emotionless kill-bot default modes. They weren't human, they were death machines. Freddy, on the other hand, is actually a character who enjoys his devious work. He is not bitter like Jason, he relishes in the fact that he has ultimate power in his playground and his revenge will come swiftly sooner or later. His hat, Christmas sweater and odd charisma are initial images associated with a trustworthy, friendly figure. However, as he comes closer, his charred face, evil eyes and intimating claw-glove begin to paint a very different picture. Eventually, the plot begins to thicken and we learn through a quick line of dialogue (Craven knows to get the back story done as quick as possible) that Krueger was a pedophile who the suburban parents torched alive to keep their children safe. It all makes so much sense suddenly, Freddy is the ultimate "do you want some candy" creep. The threat that parents always fear but can never truly protect their children from because they strike when the parents aren't near. Freddy acts so eccentric, because in his new world, parents are non-existent. What appears to be a demon from hell is ironically living in his own personal heaven.
Playing with the fears of nightmares and extending into fears of parents, "Nightmare" appears to hit all the right chords. It's the classic suburban secret story, where everything is too perfect to be true, with a disturbing twist. Films like "The Stepford Wives" managed to infuse a sense of creepiness into suburbia, but cult-like vigilante parents and a vengeful beyond-the-grave killer elevates "Nightmare" to a whole new level of suburban horror.