Hi, again, and welcome back to my Monster- Fest!
Again (I know it's getting repetitive), I'm sorry this is late. Sunday is a very busy day for me. It'll almost certainly be the same next Sunday, since I'll be taking the kids from the church youth group to a concert that night. But, I swear by my credentials as a movie geek that I will have 31 entries up by the time this is over on Halloween night!
Now that I've gotten the classic monster films out of the way, I'll be looking for the next few days at a couple sequels. By this I mean, I'll look at a good starter to a series, and then what I consider to be my favorite of its sequels. I'll only be doing this for a few days, however, before moving on to the next theme.
It starts with the original "A Nightmare on Elm Street." Made in 1984 by director Wes Craven, and starring Robert Englund as the dream demon Freddy Krueger and Heather Langenkamp as the heroine Nancy Thompson, as well as being the film debut of a then- unknown actor by the name of Johnny Depp, who plays Nancy's boyfriend Glen.
It actually opens not with Nancy, but with her best friend Tina , having a nightmare about a man with knives for fingers, a burned face, and wearing a weird hat and a red and green sweater. Seeing her first, those who are seeing the movie for the first time might think that she's the main character in it, at least up until she dies about 20 minutes into the movie. Freddy kills her and leads everyone to think that her boyfriend Rod did it. Nancy soon learns that she and all her friends have been having nightmares about the same man, shortly before Rod and eventually Glen die in their sleep as well. Nancy's drunk mom finally tells her that Freddy Krueger was a child- murderer burned alive by the parents of Springwood after a judge let him off on a technicality. So, feeling alone (Her divorced parents of course think she's just going through mental problems as a result of the deaths of her friends), Nancy prepares for a final showdown with Krueger.
There aren't many things to complain about in this. One small problem I had is that, as part of Nancy's way to fight Freddy, she sets up a couple potentially dangerous booby traps like something from one of the 'Home Alone' movies in her house (One involves a swinging sledgehammer, another involves a light bulb rigged to explode). I thought that was kind of cheesy, and found it odd that Nancy's mom, drunk though she was, had nothing to say about Nancy setting up the traps in their house. Another problem I had was that I didn't particularly like the very end of it, it just seemed weird. I've seen two different alternate endings for the movie, and there's one that I personally think would have worked better than the ending they actually chose.
Now, for what I liked about it. This is a very scary, unnerving film. The death scenes were quite good for a horror film (Especially the death of Johnny Depp's character Glen, which is widely considered one of the most memorable deaths in the series, and considering how creative the death scenes in the series can be, that's saying something). The way the movie is staged/ presented, you often have a hard time telling which scenes are real and which ones are dreams by Nancy or one of the other characters as it jumps between the two quite often, which works very well and keeps you thinking.
Next, there's the matter of the performances. Robert Englund is wonderful as Freddy here. There's none of the "Funny Freddy" you'd see in the later 'Elm Street' films, here he's a dead serious (No pun intended), genuinely frightening villain. While there are a few funny moments early in the movie, they concern the kids interacting with each other, rather than anything with Freddy. Also, Heather Langenkamp makes for a great heroine as Nancy. She's an extremely strong, sympathetic, and likable character, and her courage and will to survive set her apart from the shrieking damsels- in- distress seen in the older movies I had previously looked at. Johnny Depp turns in a good breakthrough role as Glen, making for a nice "Boyfriend next door" character. Another worthwhile supporting performance comes from John Saxon as Nancy's father who happens to be a police lieutenant. You can tell how stressed his character is and how hard he's trying to balance his obligations to his career as a cop investigating the murders with his responsibilities to be a good father to Nancy.
So, that was 'A Nightmare on Elm Street.' Stay tuned later tonight to see the next review, of what I consider to be the best 'Nightmare on Elm Street' sequel.
