THE STORY: A repulsive, decaying figure with razor-sharp appendages (and an even sharper sense of humor!) suddenly appears in the dreams of four Los Angeles teenagers. It is the ghost of Freddy Krueger, a suspected child murderer killed long ago by the neighborhood parents. Now he’s able to exact his bloody vengeance by killing the teens off, one by one, as they sleep.
Finally just one girl remains. Desperately, she tries to stay awake by every means possible, but even pills and massive amounts of coffee wear off sometime — and when they do, she’ll have to battle Freddy for her very life.
It’s her worst nightmare … and it’s coming true.
THE REVIEW: The first A Nightmare on Elm Street is a classic. It’s terrifying both in its creepy back-story and the bloodletting. This is a gory movie. Every film hereafter tried to ignore the concept of a good script and replace that with gore. Not one sequel worked as well as the first. The back-story is terrifying because it taps into one of those things that disturb people most—murdering children. The easiest way to get an audience to invest into hating a monster is to have them killing children.
The original A Nightmare on Elm Street is a must see starting point for horror fans. The original Nightmare didn’t suffer from poor attempts at jokes like the rest of the franchise films. The original Nightmare is truly a terrifying movie. A Nightmare on Elm Street still holds up today and the new Infinifilm release is an amazing re-mastered version. The video quality makes Nightmare look like a new movie.
THE EXTRAS: The commentary by director Wes Craven, stars Heather Langenkamp and John Saxon, and director of photography Jacques Haitkin. Craven is surprisingly talkative and gets into the origins of the movie and interesting tidbits. Langenkamp and Saxon talk about the movie and getting into character while Haikin gets into the technical aspects.
“Never Sleep Again: The Making of A Nightmare on Elm Street” – This featurette is more peripheral. The documentary is about many different aspects of the movie, Freddy’s place in horror, and Wes Craven. This is one of the best featurettes I’ve seen in a long time as it goes into every stage of the creation of the movie. Most featurettes document the making of a movie; however “Never Sleep Again” really dives deep into every aspect of the movie from before the beginning and beyond the end.
“The House That Freddy Built: The Legacy of New Line Horror” – This featurette is more about New Line Cinema and how A Nightmare on Elm Street put the company on the map. Even those who could care less about New Line Cinema will find this interesting because of the history it gives about the Hollywood studio that went on to make Lord of the Rings.
“Night Terrors: The Origins of Wes Craven’s Nightmares” – This is another featurette that doesn’t quite deal directly with A Nightmare on Elm Street. It’s about our dreams with a discussion about why we dream and how we come to dream about the things we do. There is also a discussion about superstitions—such as dying in your sleep.
There are alternate endings which we won’t spoil. There is also a neat trivia challenge that is good for one sitting, along with a Nightmare Fact Track.
FRANKLY: Freddy is a classic horror figure that strikes fear for many reasons—mostly because he can kill us in our sleep. He knows what we’re thinking, he knows when we’re awake, he knows what scares us most, and by then its way too late. If you are going to buy any version of A Nightmare on Elm Street you have to buy the Infinifilm Special Edition.
+ Charlie Craine
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