Friday, October 17, 2014

A Nightmare on Elm Street


(1984) ****

Teenagers are haunted in their dreams by a scarred figure with knives for fingers.  When the kids start to die, Nancy realizes that the figure from her nightmares is somehow causing the deaths, but she can't get anyone to believe her.

Slashers are one of my least favorite sub-genres, but in Nightmare, the horror doesn't come from gore or cheap scares, it comes from the characters being at risk, and adds suspense by blurring reality and dreams.  I had to dock a star for the mediocre acting.  Johnny Depp's realism in his small role made the rest of the cast look pretty crappy.  But otherwise a movie that deserves its place as a horror classic. Great fun.

8 comments:

Johnny Sweatpants said...

Sweet ! I haven't seen this in at least a decade now but I'm almost ready to run through the series again.

JPX said...

AC, does this mean you're going to watch the 9 sequels?

Catfreeek said...

AC I am so proud of you for your selections this year. Way to go!

Trevor said...

Love this one. Glad to hear it still held up after 30 years.

DKC said...

Always thought this was a winner! I think I would enjoy a revisit as well.

Octopunk said...

This one has a low-rent, dirty quality that the sequels don't really touch (#2 was a horrible misfire, and by the time you get to #3, Freddy was a full-blown franchise.)

And I agree with what AC's getting at: Freddy earns extra points by being more than a hide n' stab kind of slasher.

Landshark said...

DCD, Octo, and I saw this is the theater, and it scared the shit out of me.

Crystal Math said...

I can't believe I still have yet to see this!

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