A Nightmare on Elm Street

Starring: Robert Englund, Johnny Depp, John Saxon, Heather Langenkamp
Directed by: Wes Craven
Rating: R
Genre: Horror
1984

Times Seen:
Tim: 2

Summary: A group of teenagers living on Elm Street begin to have the exact same dream about disfigured killer Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund). Nancy (Heather Langenkamp) soon realizes Krueger is attacking them through dreams. Now she must stay awake, or face the wrath of Freddy.

Review:

Tim: Here's some good advice- try your best to forget all the horrible sequels that followed this film, and focus purely on this one. A Nightmare on Elm Street is one scary movie, and you do not want to mess with Freddy Krueger.

Now, thats not to say that this film is completely flawless. No, you definitely have your bad acting that is a staple of most horror films. Even Johnny Depp (in his first starring role) isn't that spectacular. As with all good horror movies, though, the acting is just decent enough to keep you interested in the film.

Wes Craven does a terrific job directing this film, and writing as well. He is such a huge name in the horror genre, and this film helped his career in a huge way. Any horror fan has to seen this movie, and it wouldn't hurt to see a few of the sequels, just to understand the "storyline" better.

It is interesting to note that today, Freddy Krueger has become almost a horror movie cliche. It is important to remember that back in 1984, he burst onto the scene in this movie- and was truly scary to the viewing audience.

In the end, A Nightmare on Elm Street has all of the typical characteristics of horror films- chilling music, a ton of cheesy scenes, and some really terrifying ones (watch for the first murder of the movie... it is scary as hell). Movie fans need to see this movie to understand a huge part of the horror genre, and if you see this for no other reason, its Johnny Depp's first starring role... it can't be all bad, right?

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge, Wes Craven's New Nightmare, Scream trilogy, Halloween, Friday the 13th