Movie A Day #113: A Nightmare On Elm Street

[Shane]

This movie is easily the most frightening horror movie I have ever seen! When I saw it for the first time I was about 12 years old and I forced myself to stay awake the entire first night after watching it. It was hard for me to sleep at all for weeks.

I have seen it many times since and it still has its eerie feeling to it. Freddie's character in both look and demeanor were played perfectly by Robert Englund!

If by chance you havent seen it. Check it out! All the sequels are garbage so dont waste your time!

Review courtesy of Amazon:



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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Wes Craven's 1984 horror film is a better movie than it is generally credited for being. Forget the tawdry sequels; this highly original, almost surrealist work stars Robert Englund as a mutilated monster who kills teenagers during their dreams. Craven, who only directed one Elm Street sequel (Wes Craven's New Nightmare), takes the Hitchcockian step of layering in psychological explanations for the terror and then proving them all irrelevant in the face of mindless evil. The horror in the film is emotionally raw, in contrast to the overimaginative set pieces of most of the sequels that followed; and the final scene is as deeply unsettling as anything Luis Buñuel ever committed to film. --Tom Keogh

 

[Chaplin]

Really? Most frightening? It's one of the better slasher flicks out there (that doesn't say much), but I know of several movies that are more frightening--especially The Exorcist, and even Craven's earlier work The Last House on the Left and The Hills Have Eyes.

 

[Brian in Mesa]

Originally posted by Chaplin
Really? Most frightening? It's one of the better slasher flicks out there (that doesn't say much), but I know of several movies that are more frightening--especially The Exorcist, and even Craven's earlier work The Last House on the Left and The Hills Have Eyes.

C'mon Chap = he did clarify that the first time he saw it he was 12.

Very good, creative horror flick.

Personal admission...I liked 3 as well...Dream Warriors.

 

[Mike Olbinski]

Originally posted by Brian in Mesa
C'mon Chap = he did clarify that the first time he saw it he was 12.

Doesn't matter, this movie is a remake anyways...plus, most of it was stolen from Superman.



Mike

 

[Chaplin]

Originally posted by Chandler Mike
Doesn't matter, this movie is a remake anyways...plus, most of it was stolen from Superman.



Mike

Very mature. And another great contribution to a thread!

 

[mdamien13]

Great choice, Shane. I liked this one quite a bit. It has stood up very well over time, and of course made Johnny Depp famous.

As a slasher film this one and the entire series had more imagination than the basic run of the mill variety. The entire mythos and backstory is very well done and built upon nicely as the series progresses.

I don't see how anyone who likes this movie can not appreciate Nightmare on Elm St. pt 3: The Dream Warriors. I'm especially fond of The New Nightmare as well.

Call me blasphemous, but I thought Freddy was at his best in Freddy vs. Jason. Say what you will about the movie itself, but they actually made Freddy an evil, sadistic monster in that one, as opposed to a malevolent but amusing villain.

I met Robert Englund a few weeks back at a signing and he said that he and Wes Craven are still talking about doing a prequel to the series. Would be cool if it happened and was done properly.

 

[Chaplin]

Originally posted by mdamien13


Call me blasphemous, but I thought Freddy was at his best in Freddy vs. Jason. Say what you will about the movie itself, but they actually made Freddy an evil, sadistic monster in that one, as opposed to a malevolent but amusing villain.

I met Robert Englund a few weeks back at a signing and he said that he and Wes Craven are still talking about doing a prequel to the series. Would be cool if it happened and was done properly.

I thought Freddy was his evilest in New Nightmare--there was no humor at all in that movie.

 

[mdamien13]

Originally posted by Chaplin
I thought Freddy was his evilest in New Nightmare--there was no humor at all in that movie.

Great point. Especially after Freddy's over-the-top one-liners in Freddy's Dead

 

[Shane]

Originally posted by Chaplin
Really? Most frightening? It's one of the better slasher flicks out there (that doesn't say much), but I know of several movies that are more frightening--especially The Exorcist, and even Craven's earlier work The Last House on the Left and The Hills Have Eyes.

Brian is exactly right Chap.

While I agree that the other movies you mentioned are actually scarier especially due to the fact that movies like the exorcist have a sense of realism to them.

None of them had the profound affect on me that this movie did at the age that I saw it. This one left me shaken and scared to sleep for a long time. It has left that impression with me ever since.

 

[Brian in Mesa]

Originally posted by Shane H
None of them had the profound affect on me that this movie did at the age that I saw it. This one left me shaken and scared to sleep for a long time. It has left that impression with me ever since.

This reminds me of my cousin when he saw Jaws. He was living in San Diego at the time and was very young. Not only was the ocean very close, but they had a pool in the backyard. After seeing the movie, he wouldn't go near either for quite some time.

 

[Chaplin]

Originally posted by Shane H
Brian is exactly right Chap.

While I agree that the other movies you mentioned are actually scarier especially due to the fact that movies like the exorcist have a sense of realism to them.

None of them had the profound affect on me that this movie did at the age that I saw it. This one left me shaken and scared to sleep for a long time. It has left that impression with me ever since.

I saw Jaws 2--Jaws 2!!--when I was like 10 years old and that frightened the heck out of me--enough that I never saw another horror movie until maybe Halloween like 10 years later. Doesn't make it the most frightening movie ever though.

 

[PDXChris]

Candyman made more of an impact on me than Nightmare did.

 

[Mr.Dibbs]

Nightmare is a good film due to the low budget but great "horror acting" Also, Freddy is only shown in shadows which is spooky. Last House on the Left isn't really spooky, but just disturbing. Plus the bluegrass soundtrack makes it semi-humorous.

I liked all the sequels, but Freddy's Dead was kinda campy. Every series has a bad film, sorta like Jason Takes Manhattan, or Halloween 3.

 

[SirStefan32]

Great movies. My favorite scene though is the Puppet Scene. That was just briliant.

 

[Bada0Bing]

Every christmas I dig into the movie archives and get a few old movies from my childhood to watch with my kids while we're all together. My boys and I watched this one in '17, #2 in '18 and #3 in '19. They're grown up, so of course they thought these movies were ridiculous.

I hadn't seen them since I was a kid, so I frickin loved them. I had no idea how campy they were though...they were just flat out scary when I was a kid!

This movie is easily the most frightening horror movie I have ever seen! When I saw it for the first time I was about 12 years old and I forced myself to stay awake the entire first night after watching it. It was hard for me to sleep at all for weeks.

I have seen it many times since and it still has its eerie feeling to it. Freddie's character in both look and demeanor were played perfectly by Robert Englund!

If by chance you havent seen it. Check it out! All the sequels are garbage so dont waste your time!

I'm with you Shane! I think I was 11 when I saw this. Scariest thing I'd ever seen! And my mom let me watch pretty much anything when I was a kid, so I was not new to scary films.

C'mon Chap = he did clarify that the first time he saw it he was 12.

Very good, creative horror flick.

Personal admission...I liked 3 as well...Dream Warriors.

The primary reason I wanted to revisit these movies is because I wanted to watch Dream Warriors. I remembered this one being particularly scary. I think it was the way the group kept mixing up dreaming and reality. Creeped me out!




Whoa...I never knew this trivia:

Wes Craven first came up with the basic idea for the movie from a series of articles in the "Los Angeles Times" over a three-year period, about a group of Southeast Asian refugees from the Hmong tribe, several of whom died in the throes of horrific nightmares. The group had come to the U.S. to escape the murderous reign of Pol Pot, and within a year of arriving, three men had died all in similar situations, the young, otherwise healthy man would have a nightmare, then refuse to sleep for as long as he could. When he finally fell asleep from exhaustion, he awoke screaming, then died. Autopsy results revealed that they had not died from heart failure, but had simply died. It was this inability to find a cause of death that intrigued Craven so much. Medical authorities have since called the phenomenon Asian Death Syndrome, a variant of Sudden Unexpected Death Syndrome (SUDS), and Brugada Syndrome.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Every christmas I dig into the movie archives and get a few old movies from my childhood to watch with my kids while we're all together. My boys and I watched this one in '17, #2 in '18 and #3 in '19. They're grown up, so of course they thought these movies were ridiculous.

I hadn't seen them since I was a kid, so I frickin loved them. I had no idea how campy they were though...they were just flat out scary when I was a kid!



I'm with you Shane! I think I was 11 when I saw this. Scariest thing I'd ever seen! And my mom let me watch pretty much anything when I was a kid, so I was not new to scary films.



The primary reason I wanted to revisit these movies is because I wanted to watch Dream Warriors. I remembered this one being particularly scary. I think it was the way the group kept mixing up dreaming and reality. Creeped me out!




Whoa...I never knew this trivia:

Wes Craven first came up with the basic idea for the movie from a series of articles in the "Los Angeles Times" over a three-year period, about a group of Southeast Asian refugees from the Hmong tribe, several of whom died in the throes of horrific nightmares. The group had come to the U.S. to escape the murderous reign of Pol Pot, and within a year of arriving, three men had died all in similar situations, the young, otherwise healthy man would have a nightmare, then refuse to sleep for as long as he could. When he finally fell asleep from exhaustion, he awoke screaming, then died. Autopsy results revealed that they had not died from heart failure, but had simply died. It was this inability to find a cause of death that intrigued Craven so much. Medical authorities have since called the phenomenon Asian Death Syndrome, a variant of Sudden Unexpected Death Syndrome (SUDS), and Brugada Syndrome.

while the original is great, if you forced me to choose only one of them to watch, it would have to be #3 Dream Warriors.

that movie had everything... great kills (the puppeteer being the best of the entire series) Nancy’s return, the Son Of 1000 Maniacs origin story, Freddy’s Mom/Scariest Nun ever, Kincaid, Lawrence Fishburne, the heroin track marks coming alive on the girl’s arm, young Patricia Arquette in the lead, the perfect Freddy, still scary but the first time his sense of humor comes out and it’s awesome (Welcome to prime time bitch!) and all co-written by Frank Freaking Darabount!

 

[MigratingOsprey]

I saw this movie when I was way too young to see such movies (like 7-8 maybe?!?)..... It was the 80s though.........

I didn't see the exorcist until my senior year in HS at a friend's house and we laughed through the whole thing - his mom thought we were nuts because that was her scary movie

Nightmare though?!

One of the few that legitimately caused your mind to wander in a sleepy night

The whole death while you sleep concept was great to mess with my head - I have a hard enough time getting to sleep as it is and my mind tends to wander

Also a lot of pop cross appeal - Are You Ready For Freddy by the Fat Boys, Nightmare on my Street by the Fresh Prince

The school where I had 4-6 grade has a little half street alley next to it ..... Elm St

It was all too perfect

My son is 9 and we haven't watched any of this stuff yet

2 Halloweens ago he went as Freddy though - completely his own choice