A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984 - HORROR / SLASHER FLICK) ****1/2 out of ***** OR 9 out of 10
(So much for a nice cat nap, eh?)
CAST: Heather Langenkamp, Johnny Depp, John Saxon, Amanda Wyss, Nick Corri, Ronee Blakely, Lin Shaye.
DIRECTOR: Wes Craven
(WARNING: Some SPOILERS and compelling reasons not to drift off - straight ahead...)
IT'S LIKE THIS: I would like to know who created that creepy bedtime prayer that goes "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray The Lord my soul to keep. IF I SHOULD DIE BEFORE I WAKE, I pray The Lord my soul to take." The whole thing would be fine it weren't for that one part in the middle about dying before waking. I mean, what kind of sick person would make a kid recite that?
As morbid as it is though, that prayer and that line in particular is very fitting to the scenario the four teenage protagonists of our latest "31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN" review find themselves in. It's called A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, and let's just say it makes a pretty strong case for No-Doz pills and triple-espressos. You see, our quartet of teens have realized they are all having the same nightmare - with the same burned, scarred, Fedora-donning, red-and-green-striped sweater-wearing sicko rampaging in it. Oh, and one other important detail: he has knives for fingers.
Our not-so-sweet-dreamers are: (1) Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp), sweet and sensible "good girl"; (2) Glenn Lantz (Johnny Depp), nice and goofy "good boy"; (3) Tina Gray (Amanda Wyss), flirty and loose "easy girl"; and (4) Rod Lane (Nick Corri), hunky and rebellious "bad boy". Things get to a really bad start when Nancy, Glenn, and Rod all sleepover at Tina's because the latter's mom is out of town and she feels kind of spooked being alone in the house. What with all those freaky nightmares about the burned, scarred, Fedora-donning, red-and-green-striped wearing sicko with knives for fingers, you know?
Well, let me just cut to the chase here and state that the evening is pretty much a bust. Mainly, because Tina falls asleep and dreams about Ol' Finger Knives chasing her all over what looks like Hell's Boiler Room - and eventually gutting her like a fish. What's the big deal, you might ask, considering Tina was just having a nightmare and all? Well, folks... this is apparently not your average nightmare - and Ol' Finger Knives is not your basic bogeyman. Nope. Suffice it to say, what happens to Tina in her dream (i.e., filleted like a fucking flounder) is exactly what happens to her in real life. Anyone got the number for a really good dry cleaner? Those bloodstains are going to be a real bitch to get out of those bedsheets.
Anyway, the cops aren't really into crazy explanations like "some supernatural dude with knives for fingers killed Tina in her dream" so they go for the next, less insane one: Rod did it since he and Tina were sleeping together when she was "murdered". Before you know it, Mr. Lane is hauled off to jail for a crime that he didn't commit.
Meanwhile, Nancy falls asleep in the middle of her English class (if you saw the lesson being presented, you'd fall asleep, too) and is chased through a nightmare version of the school by Ol' Finger Knives. Fortunately, she wakes herself up by slamming her bare arm against a red-hot pipe. Unfortunately, it leaves a real burn on her skin when she comes to. Hmmmmmmmmm....
Things take a turn for the shittier when Rod has a nightmare in his jail cell that ends up with him hanging by neck from a bunch of knotted-together bed sheets (don't ask). The cops, genuine imbeciles, misread this one, too, calling it a suicide. Then, as if that wasn't awesome enough, Nancy finds out from her alcoholic mom (Ronee Blakely) exactly who Ol' Finger Knives really is.
His name was Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund), and he was the janitor at the local nursery school who was responsible for the disappearance of several children there. When Krueger's case was thrown out of court, allowing him to beat the rap, the parents from the local community banded together and pretty much lynched the sicko. Specifically, they burned his ass to a crisp in the boiler room he used to call his pad. And that, they thought, was the end of that.
No, folks. Not even close. Because it appears that Freddy K. is now getting back at the parents by terrorizing their kids (now teenagers) in their dreams. And from the looks of it, he's cleaning up like Charlie Sheen at a brothel.
Will Nancy and Glenn be next on Freddy's list? How long can they stay awake before they succumb to the need to sleep? Is there a way they can get some much-needed shut-eye without running into Freddy and his finger knives? And what happens when Nancy's mom takes her to a sleep clinic - and Nancy inadvertently finds out that she can "bring things" out of her nightmares and into the real world? Can she use this ability to beat Freddy at his own game? Will any of the Elm Street kids survive Freddy's revenge?
Whatever. I bet the kids on Maple Avenue don't have to deal with this shit. Maybe these assholes just need a change of address.
BUT SERIOUSLY: By the mid-1980s, the slasher craze started by HALLOWEEN in 1978 and ignited by FRIDAY THE 13TH in 1980 was starting to wane. After some strong early entries like PROM NIGHT (1980), TERROR TRAIN (1980), THE BURNING (1981), THE PROWLER (1981), and MY BLOODY VALENTINE (1981), too many subsequent mediocre entries gradually weakened the Slasher Sub-Genre. Eventually, it became clear that the "Slasher Template" needed to be tweaked to reinvigorate it. And in 1984, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET did exactly that.
Taking the standard "teens/young adults-in-peril-from-a-killer" scenario, then infusing it with the surreal, atmospherically dream-like fever of Italian films like INFERNO and SUSPIRIA, writer/director Wes Craven created an imaginative and terrifying film that was an instant classic like HALLOWEEN and FRIDAY THE 13TH - both of which were also influenced by the Italian Gialli Sub-Genre. It was the shot in the arm that horror movies needed in the mid-80s. The success of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET would lead to six very profitable sequels throughout the 80s and early 90s - and a financially-successful but artistically-misguided remake in 2010.
Like Dario Argento's INFERNO and SUSPIRIA, this film has many setpieces revolving around eerie nocturnal wanderings of several characters - punctuated by sudden visceral scares and colorful violence. Tina's dream sequence which opens the film and first shows us Freddy is a classic, claustrophobically-terrifying sequence, as is the setpiece that later claims Tina's life. Nancy's various attempts to play detective through her dreaming are also hypnotic and compelling. During these sequences, Craven uses some of the same striking primary lighting that Argento used (although more baroquely) in his films.
Speaking of Nancy, she is considered a classic Horror Movie Heroine, along the lines of Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) from HALLOWEEN, Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) from ALIEN, and Sydney Prescott (Neve Campbell) from SCREAM. Although she comfortably fits into the "Good Girl" mold set by slasher movie convention, the script and actress Heather Langenkamp limn Nancy with some real fire and courage. There's a nice scene close to the climax where Nancy's intoxicated mom praises her daughter for having the courage to confront things head on - unlike her - and it gets to the heart of who this character is. Good job from Langenkamp, who would skip the first sequel, but then appear in A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3: DREAM WARRIORS as Nancy returns, now a psychologist, to help more teens being terrorized by Freddy Krueger.
And speaking of Krueger, we've often talked about how Horror Movies and Thrillers should have formidable villains if they are to be effective - and Freddy is a very scary baddie. Just as Nancy is considered an iconic Horror Heroine, Freddy Krueger has joined the pantheon of great Horror Villains like Michael Myers (HALLOWEEN), Jason Voorhees (FRIDAY THE 13TH 2-8), Ghostface (SCREAM), and Leatherface (THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE). Unfortunately, in the ensuing sequels, Freddy would become more and more talkative and smart-alecky, making him more funny than scary - and blunting his edge. In this first entry, though, actor Robert Englund and the script wisely play him as mostly silent and shadowy - which is what makes him so frightening here. Even when he's offscreen and unseen, you somehow feel his presence and just know he'll be back soon.
Langenkamp and Englund are surrounded by a solid supporting cast - with one even destined to becomes a mega-star later in his career. This was Johnny Depp's cinematic debut, and while he was handsome even then, the role of Glenn doesn't really give him a chance to stand out, but he is equal to this first task given him. In later films, Depp would show more and more of his quirky, offbeat personality. Amanda Wyss is affecting in her small but pivotal role as Tina, as is Nick Corri as Rod. Ronee Blakely turns in a nicely layered performance as Nancy's terrified mom who knows more than she is letting on about her daughter's nightmares. Then there's genre regular John Saxon, in a strong turn as Nancy's concerned father. Saxon reinforces this movie's link to Italian Gialli because he appeared in two classics of that sub-genre: LA RAGAZZA CHE SAPOVA TROPPO AKA THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1963) and TENEBRE (1982).
Any review of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET would not be complete without praise for Charles Bernstein's eerie, evocative, atmospheric score. Many electronic musical scores from 80s horror films are cheesy and dated, save for most of John Carpenter's work (HALLOWEEN, THE FOG, PRINCE OF DARKNESS, CHRISTINE). Bernstein's score for this movie joins the hallowed ranks of Carpenter's music from that era. Much of this movie's power comes from the relentlessly sinister feel of the music, as well as Craven's judicious use of it - and the sense of impending doom it imparts is palpable. I was so glad when it was finally released on CD (in a double bill along with Christopher Young's solid score for A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2: FREDDY'S REVENGE).
In the end, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET is a true horror classic from Wes Craven that blends familiar American Slasher tropes with more surreal, atmospheric Italian Giallo leanings, resulting in a horror film that is unlike any other - then or now. Forget the remake from 2010 - the original is the real thing.
