A Nightmare on Elm Street - 1984
From the moment I first encountered it, the original A Nightmare on Elm Street has always been a cornucopia of delights for me. Truthfully it’s a bit of a unicorn. Without presenting the entire history and lineage of horror films from creature features to haunted house flicks, stories about possession through giallo to found footage (and many side branches like torture porn) et. al, I think the “slasher flick” operates in its own interesting space.
I suppose for me this group of pictures followed maybe the greatest blossoming era of horror ever in the 70’s, where some of my all-time faves reside. They came into the mainstream when studios and theatre companies were starting to boom, sequilitis was on the horizon, and blockbusters were the taste du jour.
Now, this may be rather an unpopular opinion, but for me the collision of these disparate influences often meant one consequent thing - bluntly, they weren’t all that good. (Shrug shoulder emoji). The baddies were un-killable, masked men caught sprinting screamers at a loping saunter, plot lines were recycled by below average directors, and good old-fashioned spooky storytelling was often sidelined for copious bloodletting.
Now, let me stop for a second, lest I be mistaken for a smug rider on a high horse. There are several Friday the 13th flicks which are total bangers for me. I’ll ride for the Dream WarriorsNightmare film as well. When great setup, fantastic chills, and solid storytelling are WEDDED to slashing, hacking, and all things viscously red, I’m all in! Too often, unfortunately, as the sequel count rose, I simply found these slasher tales paled in comparison to the likes of Amityville, The Omen and what had gone before.
Here comes the BUT…all of this wasn’t so in the beginning. The films that birthed the movement were often unimpeachable. The first Halloween in ’78 is one of the greatest horror films ever made, for instance. And six years later, into the foggy, oddly-hued textures of our nightmares came A Nightmare on Elm Street.
Nightmare has just the right amount of 80’s pastiche. Its score is both of the time, and in being so firmly located, nostalgically transcendent. Craven’s use of practical effects at various moments are duly impressive, rivaling contemporaries like Carpenter. (Yes, I’m aware that parts of the production and scripting are amateurish. To me, Nightmare’s lack of polish only adds to its charm). The dream angle opened up new vistas for haunting and suspense, and a couple of the kills remain lodged in my cranium forever. (R.I.P. Tina, you of the ceiling slashing).
Furthermore, while the erotic hints amongst the teens’ behavior would become more manifest in later films, they are still latent here. Moreover, this whole “the kids are smart and know what’s really going on while the adults hide in their drunken, suburban stupor” satirical theme courses through the film’s veins. Which is to say, it’s smart. It’s original. In fact, in crafting its villain as a child murderer somehow risen from the dead, wearing a hat and bladed gloves, and hunting down the young in their dreams, it really shouldn’t work at all.
But it does. In fact, it works majestically. Even with actors like Heather Langencamp at its center. The fact that other films down the line would dilute this one does not take away one bit from its pure essence.
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