A Nightmare on Elm Street (Film Review)

1984 New Line Cinema
Written and Directed by: Wes Craven
Starring: John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Heather Langenkamp, Amanda Wyss, Nick Corri, Johnny Depp, Robert Englund
MPAA Rating: R; Running Time: 91 Minutes
The Nicsperiment Score: 7/10

Four mid-80's L.A. teens are having the same dream, about a terrifying, burned-up guy with a hat, red and green sweater, and knife-tipped fingers, chasing them. Then, one by one, he starts to catch them...except when he hurts or kills them in their dreams, the same happens to their bodies in real life. It turns out, this guy's name is Freddy Krueger...and he and the teens' parents have a past, to say the least.
Plenty of films slashed up dumb and horny teenagers before A Nightmare on Elm Street, but few combine grisly horror with humor and a fun sense of atmosphere like it does. Writer and director, Wes Craven, wanted a villain who could actually talk, and imbues Krueger, played by a delightfully hammy Robery Englund, with the ability to answer terrified teens' queries of "Who's there?" with "Freddy's here!"
The teens' acting can be a little rough-around-the edges, some of the mother-daughter scenes are groan-worthy, and the film most definitely loses itself in silliness in the final "Wait, is this still a dream?" ten minutes, but when it works, it works. A scene of one character helplessly witnessing another be shoved into the ceiling and slashed to pieces by an unseen force is just as terrifying as a later scene of another teen improvising traps to get Freddy is fun. That kind of tonal balance isn't easily managed, and it's why A Nightmare on Elm Street has been sequeled a seemingly infinite number of times, despite its flaws. Its synth soundtrack and floodlight through fog, stage-like lighting have defined an aesthetic that fuels 80's retro-philes to this day...unless this is all a dream, and we are trapped in the 80's, still.