This year, I missed Halloween. My siblings had their marching band semi-state competition that day, and we ended up spending the whole day at the competition. Knowing that I wasn’t really going to get to do anything special for Halloween this year (I didn’t even get a proper costume!), I planned some small spooky things to do the week before. I wore a cape around my dorm, I attended a Halloween party, I revisited my The Walking Dead compendiums. But most importantly, I caught a free showing of the original A Nightmare On Elm Street in the campus theater. I had only ever seen the film once before, and I wasn’t too sure if it would hold up. Oh boy.
The film follows Nancy, a teenage girl who’s just generally into teenage girl things, living in a small Midwestern town. She and several of her friends all have a nightmare about Freddy Krueger, a man with a dirty hat, a red and green sweater, and -most disturbingly- a bladed glove on his hand. Spooky knife fingers. Nancy and her friends eventually start being picked off one by one by the man, who manages to kill them in their dreams.
I had only recently seen this movie once before. When I was very interesting in directing, I loved to read about the styles of some horror directors, specifically Wes Craven. When he passed away in August, I was devastated to lose someone so renowned in the movie biz, but I realized something odd: I had never actually seen one of his movies. So I decided to start with arguably his most famous film. Now, does it hold up today?
Honestly, my “Oh boy” from above was a bit of misdirection. I think the film holds up pretty well. A majority of the scares got me (got me pretty bad on occasion), and the special effects for the most part were superb. However, I did have some issues with parts of the film. There was a particular scene where Freddy stood in an alley and stretched his arms out, scraping the wall with his claws as he walked closer to his victim. This scene might have worked in the 80s, but when I watched it he just looked like one of those wacky inflatables used to sell cars. The acting for the most part was fine (this movie features a very young Johnny Depp in his debut), but the actress who played Nancy’s mom just needs to stop.
A Nightmare On Elm Street has a run-time of 1 hour and 41 minutes, and is rated R for bloody horror violence, terror, some sexual content, brief nudity, and language. Overall, I really like this movie: it kept me on edge, most of the effects were really cool, and I think it absolutely deserves it’s title of “classic”. I was sadly a little late with this article; the movie was just taken off Netflix and replaced with it’s sequel. However, it is available on Amazon Instant Video, Blu-Ray, and DVD with this sweet Affiliate Link. I definitely recommend this movie to anyone who wants a good scare, or just wants to see all of the ‘essential’ horror films.
You know, I’m pretty darn proud of my first official post. Feels good.
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