A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984) – Review

That Freddy Kruger’s A Nasty Character– Knives For Fingernails…

The more my movie tastes begin to mature, the more I realise that I am a sucker for a good slasher, which is, undoubtedly, what the late Wes Craven’s legacy was. In fact, I’d go as far to say it was a great slasher, especially seeing that it was one the first to legitimately mix the supernatural with the genre, something that definitely hasn’t been done to death, nuh-uh.

Fred Kruger, or Freddy Krizzle, was a child killer/molester, see? Nasty character. Anyway, when he get’s let out of prison because of some convenient plot point, he’s burnt by an angry mob, made up of future parents. Do you see where this going? No? Wow, you are slow. Anyway, so he comes back as a dream demon for some reason and tries to kill the children of the mod that killed him in their dreams. So, Wes Craven had quite the imagination, didn’t he?

Despite my quite sarcastic description, the plot was probably perfect considering the context and genre. As I’m watching it well after it initially came out and after the supernatural horror ting had been beaten mercilessly by uninspired dampsack who’d rather be making a remake of a film that came out two years ago, I watch it with a different point of view than someone who rented it on VHS in ’85, it must’ve seemed revolutionary. Admittedly, I definitely found a lot of enjoyment in this film.

However, another thing that might’ve been an unintentionally funny to a borderline sociopath like myself would be the spectacular effects. Scenes like Fredalicious Krugboi cutting himself and bleeding maggots and, especially the scene in which SPOILERS FOR A 32 YEAR OLD FILM THAT MOST EVERYONE HAS SEEN Rod dies via sentient blanket YOU’RE OKAY NOW, LIL’ BUDDY made me laugh out loud, very innappropriately, the latter reminding me of a scene from Little Shop Of Horrors. Though comedic, the absurdity of the practical effects, as well as the overwhelming quality of them, added to the overall darkly funny atmosphere which I was completely digging from the film.

 

This is a metaphor for Johnny Depp’s Career.

 

Accompanying the overwhelming 80s wave that this film surfed on with it’s spectacular effects is the synth-tinged soundtrack, which was not without a little bit of false suspense building, boi.

However, as a horror film, considering that I’m talking about it in a comedic context shows it’s inability to scare anymore, which is pretty essential for a horror film. Make no mistake, the concept is a great horror premise and there are some unnerving moments, fo’ shizzle, but I missed no sleep that night and that isn’t what I was expecting from this, which was a bit disappointing. Some of the reasons for this lack of scares are, indeed, out the film’s control, like the dated effects, yet the one-liners that Freddy spits out and the aforementioned soundtrack really don’t make shake in my little cotton socks.

It ain’t all bad though, as I still enjoyed the beejeezus out of this flick, even if I wasn’t necessarily scared by it. Freddy Kruger was a brilliant character and those one liners add to the great comedy that this film is subtly lined with, though he definitely didn’t had enough screentime, which was being taken up by useless normal people that bored me half to death.

Overall, I found A Nightmare On Elm Street to be brilliantly entertaining, though not too scary. On top of this, I would’ve liked to have seen more Freddy Kruger and a bit more proper gore, matey.

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79/100

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Lots of hugs, kisses and lacerations

Milo