A Nightmare on Elm Street Review- By Michael Carlisle

 Title: A Nightmare on Elm Street
Year: 1984
Director: Wes Craven
Country: US
Language: English

During the early 70's to early 80's, the horror genre had a unique period of revival. Classic films like Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), Halloween (1978), and Friday the 13th (1980) were all made during this time. However by 1984 the horror sub-genre known as the "slasher" flick was wearing thin, reduced to awful cliche sequels like Halloween III: Season of the Witch. Fortunately an enticing Director named Wes Craven stepped onto the scene and gave fans something to be excited about.

A Nightmare on Elm Street is about Freddy Krueger; a child murderer who haunts the dreams of his potential victims, feeding off their fear. On Elm Street, Nancy Thompson and a group of her friends including Tina Gray, Rod Lane and Glen Lantz are being tormented by Krueger. They must think quickly, unless they plan to die in their sleep.

Essentially the film's main theme originates from Franklin D. Roosevelt's famous quote "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" Roosevelt meant that fear could potentially paralyze a nation, it could stop us from thinking rationally and result in our own self-defeat. We saw this happen post 9/11.Wes Craven takes Roosevelt's speech and enacts it on the micro-level. It seems that Krueger would be a very easy villain to defeat, since he exists in a realm where anything is possible, but fear is a very powerful force.

Wes Craven delivers an intriguing original horror film that has the tense atmosphere of horror films before it. The Director realizes the importance of the anticipation of danger, rather than the final attack. Each victim's death builds up, and when it finally happens it is horrifying. Though there is some gore in the film, Craven does not rely on the gore for shock value. Krueger himself is a very interesting character, but the rest seem to fall flat and are one dimensional. It does suffer from some of the usual genre problems, it can be a little formulaic at times and the ending flat-out sucks.

In conclusion, A Nightmare on Elm Street is a pretty decent picture that more modern horror filmmakers need to pay attention to. Too many "scary" movies nowadays rely on brutal death, instead of the suspenseful anticipation of it. Unfortunately it is a victim of having too many sequels, a remake and a crossover film (Freddy vs Jason), but overall it is a picture that I would recommend. 3.5/5