A Nightmare on Elm Street

(1984) ****1/2

I've been watching the Slashers in the order of their release, and watching this movie finally made it pay off. Here's what they did right:

They got the look, sound and theme music for Freddy all set from the get go. No waiting three movies to finally get your look, like big J.

He's not just a slasher, he's the ghost of a slasher. He's a supernatural slasher! That's not one but TWO major horror arenas in which to play.

Which brings us to his dream-based mode of attack, which is scary, impossible to defend against, and an opportunity for a lot of original carnage.

Also (and I think this is a big part of its success), the kids are at home. They're going to school and dealing with their parents, which I think is much more common to the lives of the audience than sex-fueled weekends in the woods, slumber parties in underwear, or dangerous babysitting assignments.

Plus, there's the extra dramatic tension of insomnia.

And Freddy's just so damn good in this movie. He's a creature of shadow, of obscured face, with a slack, scarecrow posture and a silhouette claw. His goblin-like frame is even more suited to the Bogeyman title than Michael Myers' huge shape. I just loved watching him lurch down that alley after Tina.

And speaking of Tina, watching her get murdered all over that ceiling was an even more potent scare than I remembered. And her "Nanceeee" from inside the body bag is one of the 80's scariest movie moments. Brrrr.

That said, I felt a bit let down by this movie. There was a cheap, pasteboard feel to it that I didn't expect. Besides Freddy and Tina, I found the actors pretty bland (yes, JPX, even your beloved Johnny Depp). Nancy was written well enough as a formidable Hero Girl (I'm very respectful of someone who learns how to make harmful booby traps in the face of a supernatural threat), but Heather Langenkamp really didn't wow me. She was sort of pasty and whiny, and her acting ability seemed to be about moving her upper lip slightly up or down.

Unlike more guerilla-style movies like Phantasm or Evil Dead, Nightmare didn't have the energy of "bad enough to be good." I decided not to let this minor drag lower my rating, but this flick's coming from a place where it needs to be good enough to be good, and it could have been better.

THAT said, I have to give a huge shout out to Ronee Blakley (Nancy's Mom), who was bad enough to be brilliant. Whether she was in her bathrobe pulling hidden bottles out of the linen closet or staring at the camera saying "She thinks her dreams are real," she was knocking my socks off with her stiff, zoned-out line readings. I can't believe Johnny Depp got all the work.