Nightmare on Elm Street

Because it introduced Freddy, the concept of dying for real if you’re killed in your dream was novel, Tina being sliced and dragged up the ceiling was shocking…,

But Number 3 was the film that made Freddy a pop culture icon. That is the Aliens of Nightmare sequels.

I never understood it's popularity either. It's barely watchable despite a young Johnny Depp. The sequels were mostly bad as well with the second one being really gay (supposedly on purpose) but still atrocious.

I didn’t get it either, I thought it was very poorly made.

It was the beginning of when horror movies became camp and humorous. And didn't take themselves too seriously.

You should check out the sequels, OP. Then come back and tell us what you think of this movie.

I reluctantly saw the first one as a kid in the 80s. It horrified me. Freddy was so much more scarier than some lumbering maniac with a knife. The images and deaths were so violent, and I didn’t recognize the silliness of it at the time. Freddy in the shadows with that hat and spiderlike hand, his long arms, Tina getting dragged up the ceiling while getting butchered, Glen getting sucked into his bed and turned into a geyser of blood… all of this happens when you go to sleep and you can’t escape it. This was a fucking scary movie.

Only much later after I grew up I could see how some of the effects and acting are bad. All the sequels are very cartoonish compared to the original though, Freddy turned into a clown.

A Nightmare on Elm Street easily has the best script of the three main 80's horror franchises. Nancy is a great character. Maybe some of the effects don't always convince, but please watch the scene in the remake where Freddy morphs out of Nancy's wall as she sleeps and compare it to the same scene in this version. One probably cost a few mil to do with computers and the other was done for five dollars with clever lighting and some Spandex. Which one looks better?

Hint: If you say the remake, you might be an idiot.

I thought the effects were fine for the most part, given the time and the budget.

The scene at the end with Marge getting pulled through the window and its obviously a doll is really bad. I was 6 or 7 the first time I seen the movie and laughed when I seen it then and how obvious it was.

Are you the same person who wrote "I seen" several times in another thread, R8? Maybe English isn't your first language?

It's either "I have seen/I've seen" or "I saw."

Not dragging you, just letting you know.

I love the original. Heather Langenkamp is not the best actress but she's likable and I can see why they cast her. Amanda Wyss is a better actress and she could have also made the final girl.

I like the concept of Elm Street more than anything. The idea of multiple teenagers being haunted by nightmares is both effective and creepy, and Nancy's mission to pull Freddy out of her dream is also an interesting concept.

I've always hated the ending with Nancy's mother being pulled through the door. It was silly, just like Wes Craven's other film from the '80s, Deadly Friend, which also ends with a silly closing scene.

Boris

[Quote] I love the original. Heather Langenkamp is not the best actress but she's likable and I can see why they cast her.

And i can see why in New Nightmare. They were asking alot of her for that movie.

[Quote] It was silly, just like Wes Craven's other film from the '80s, Deadly Friend, which also ends with a silly closing scene.

I started laughing when i heard the terrible theme song play during the credits.

The only reason to watch these movies is for the Rodney Eastman eye candy.

Mom character was scarier than Freddy.

It scared the crap out of me when I first saw it (age 14). Nancy looked like a regular person instead of a film star. Elm Street was completely recognizable as an average suburban block. The kids all had troubled but believable relationships with their parents. Freddy was witty but not campy, and the crudity and simplicity of the effects gave their dream-like quality an added level of horror. The gust of leaves that blows down the school corridor during Nancy's first nightmare goes completely unnoticed by her and cemented the "reality" of the dream sequences where we see bizarre things without responding to them as we would in waking life. Even the obviously phony last effect with Nancy's mom worked as a dream effect. The theme is shilling.

The acting is not great, although there are some decent moments from trusted character actors; and the score has dated badly; but overall I still think this is a disturbing concept handled with verve and a ghoulishly consistent aesthetic.

Yes we know that Heather Langenkamp’s acting mostly sucked and the tina girl was wooden and looked 40 and her latino boyfriend shouted all his lines and Nancy’s mom was drunk. Still Nightmare on Elm street 1 is way better than any other 80’s “horror” film which says a lot about the rest.

[Quote] Still Nightmare on Elm street 1 is way better than any other 80’s “horror” film which says a lot about the rest.

Like the Halloween franchise. I watched part 4 the other day and i didn't hate it but....😕

[quote]I am actually seeing this for the first time

This alone should have killed this thread. An iconic horror movie from the '80s which begat one of the Big Three horror villains of all time and you're only JUST seeing it? I'd be embarrassed to even post that publicly.

I never understood the hatred for Heather's acting in this. She's extremely effective as a young girl traumatized by experiencing the violent deaths of her friends at the hands of a creepy nightmare boogeyman. And Heather can scream like nobody's business, which is like half the requirement for being a final girl. She can also do comedy. She was really funny in the highly underrated and prematurely cancelled "Just the Ten of Us."

[quote]the score has dated badly

While some of it does have that '80s rock sound, it's still head and shoulders above some of the other horror scores from that era and today.

I can’t believe you faggots. This is one of the best horror movies. The script is smart and totally original, it has effective scares, it’s funny, Johnny Depp is sexy in his midriff shirt, Heather is a sweetheart, and the effects are fine. I’ve seen this movie countless times and own the blu ray—which special effects are particularly bad? And even if they are (?) why would it matter?

Don’t most of the special effects happen during dream sequences?

I’m really appalled by this thread.

R1, I will never forget being a kid in the theater for nightmare three ,and when Freddy runs through that tunnel? the whole audience erupts in applaus

Being murdered by a burned dead child molester, with knives for fingers!

WTF???

I first watched it ages ago when I was nine and I loved it because of Freddy.

Also, I adore Heather Langenkamp and follow her on Twitter, don't forget it was Johnny Depp's first movie, year later when he was a lot more famous he also appeared on the sixth movie.

But the best nightmare movie was the seventh also starring Heather Langenkamp.

All the ones with Heather happen to be the best, in the order of their release. Original Freddy will always be the scariest.

R9 You knew what he meant, you schoolmarm prick.

The sequels all remind me of campy heavy metal music videos from the 80s.

I loved 4 too

I love them all except Freddys Dead. Even 5 has its strengths.

R18 Agreed. Only brain dead Millennial turds would respond to this bogus thread. On Youtube there are hundreds of videos every day of a bunch of fucking losers claiming they have just seen shit for "the first time". Yeah, sure Jan. People don't have real jobs anymore so they fill YouTube up with horrible "reaction" videos. Fuck do I hate them.

Fool @ r18 doesn’t recognize a troll OP when he sees one.

80 percent of the posts in this thread are from the tired Elm Street Cyberstalker Loon, talking to itself through sock puppet accounts and repeating the same, illegitimate gripes it’s bleated against ELM STREET on dozens of threads before.

Get a fucking life, OP. Your multiple personalities are bad actors and your trolling was always a cheap special effect that doesn’t hold up.

[Quote] don't forget it was Johnny Depp's first movie, year later when he was a lot more famous he also appeared on the sixth movie.

Credited as Oprah Noodlemantra.

I mean...it's 40 + years old, dude. The Exorcist USED to be the scariest movie I've ever seen but NOW, it's one of the funniest.

R34 You must have flunked math.

R35 You must've flunked funny. Explain yourself.

I blame this mivie franchise for my addiction to Hypnocil

R34 Nightmare on Elm Street is 36 years old.

Blocking R34.

You’re so above it all, aren’t you, stupid cunt.

More like 37 years old, R38.

R39 Uh....okay.

37 or 45 years old. Who gives a shit? The point is the movie's as old as FUCK.

A friend showed the movie to his kids a few years ago and they were terrified by it. It still works. Who cares if it's old? A good movie is a good movie.

One of the top ten horror of all time

[quote] I can’t believe you faggots.

We're always surprising, aren't we Mr. Damon?

I love this movie!

I’m 34, I probably didn’t see the movie until I was a teenager in the 2000’s. I approach pre-90’s movies with a different perspective in that they are old and I usually expect the acting not to be bad but less realistic. Same with dialogue. I don’t know how people behaved and spoke back then so I’m less judgmental on the acting and dialogue.

I think the movie is fantastic! I never saw the third one.

I always wondered who was on the cover of the poster?

The movie has a much more creative concept than say, Halloween, where there’s just a crazy person on the loose, stalking people. The whole dreamworld crossover element gives the piece a lot more artistry, and mystique.

It’s the only horror film I actually like.

R45, that’s Heather Langenkamp’s likeness painted on the cover.

The artist who did the poster art lived in Greenwich, CT, as did my college roommate. He told her he used her eyes as the model for the girl on the poster… but then, she also admitted he just might have been an older perv who was trying to get close to her as she came of age.

So it’s NOT Heather Langenkamp, R48?

I don’t think this looks anything like Heather L.

In fact, it almost looks like a guy (?)

I think it looks like an inexact rendering of her face. I never considered that it was supposed to be someone other than the Nancy character.

It’s supposed to be her character, but Langenkamp was not a known actress then (if she even is much, now) and the poster didn’t need to resemble her like it would have if, say, Brooke Shields or another current star had been in it.

I imagine the producers sent the artist some photos of the cast and the bladed glove prop, but it was the concept of the girl in bed that was a priority, not exactly what she looked like.

And the artist surely wasn’t paid much (film was super low budget) so after the concept was agreed on I bet he turned in whatever he wanted.

That doesn’t look much like Heather Langenkamp:

The artist is named Matthew Joseph Peak and the original poster art on his website shows more detail.

For instance, the highlights in the hair are blonde… but in the mass produced poster they almost look white.

Artist’s website

[quote] I never considered that it was supposed to be someone other than the Nancy character.

And you were correct. The poster tagline says "If Nancy doesn't wake up screaming, she won't wake up at all."

These movies always had the coolest posters and video box art. They scared me a lot as a kid.

I agree R58. Today’s movie poster/video release artwork is pathetic by comparison. All Photoshop or digital drawing. Don’t get me started… ugh

I’ve been making my way through them over the last few halloweens. I think the first Nightmare thing I ever saw was the funeral scene from New Nightmare. I was 6 or 7 and caught it briefly while my teenage aunt was having a sleep over party. It freaked me out intensely, even without the context of knowing about the dreams and Freddy’s m.o.

The poster is pretty damn brilliant.

To be accused of trolling in never having seen Elm Street is hilarious. I came late to horror movies and Freddy Krueger always looked a bit cartoonish to me in some scenes I inevitably had seen channel surfing.

I did find the acting atrocious and distracting. The mother lighting a cigarette and drinking vodka standing in the hall seemed like a pastiche.

Also, other parts are laughable. when Nancy keeps screaming at the window and all those people and policemen in the house in front where her boyfriend has been murdered ignore her. Or the father leaving her daughter alone in the bedroom after seeing the mother disappearing into the mattress. Come on.

I will try the gay sequel though.

^ Op

R62, I think you have to keep in mind that the artifice and unnatural behavior of people during the ending is a clue that the entire thing is a dream - as Nancy says explicitly when confronting Freddy.

We never do see the waking world in the film - the whole thing is a dream.

Nancy only wakes up at the very end and what we see is the dream itself breaking off with Freddy seizing Nancy's mom.

Ok, R64, point taken, that makes mor sense, tks

As others have said, it was the story that was so compelling. The most effective horror/suspense stories tap into our deepest fears and exploit our vulnerabilities. Psycho was so compelling because of the shower scene and the idea of this genteel slight man being a disturbed killer. The Exorcist and Omen examined the dark side of religious beliefs and has a demon taking over the mind and body of a child. Alien was about a creature that literally rapes and impregnates its victims. And so on.

The Nightmare movies were so successful for the same reason Inception was: the invasion of that kind of intimate space. You're never more vulnerable than in a deep sleep and lost in your own mind. Plus the fear of having such an experience and people dismissing you as just crazy.

R66 The story idea is compelling but “copied, inspired?” from the headlines.

Loosely inspired by the headlines. Craven took that phenomenon and created an entirely new storyline for the horror genre that had never been imagined before.

Did each of the SUNDS deaths occur during or just after nightmares?

Wes got the name "Fred Krueger" from a boy who bullied him in school.

I was 19 when the movie came out. I was already a little too old for it, Or at least too experienced a viewer of horror movies. It was a little better than most of the slasher movies of that period. Heather Langenkamp can’t really act, but she does have a mixture of anger and self importance that somehow gives her gravitas. Johnny Depp is super cute. Ronee Blakley is crazy. The second one actually made a bigger impact on me, because it was so very gay. “Freddy wants my body!” Leather daddy gym teacher. Exploding birds.

R70 Don’t forget dancing twink butt closing underwear drawers.

I like the first three the most. Yes, the second has issues but I love the idea that Freddy is trying to "come out" of Jesse. The first three have the best atmosphere and are scary..

The 4th is just too music video-ish for me. Interesting ideas and stylish but I don't find it very scary.

I had no idea about that R33. So weird....

Another curiosity is that Heather Langenkamp is seem limping while running in one of the scenes where Freddy is chasing her,it wasn't planned or scripted, simply, she had cut her foot while shooting the first take, the crew sent her to the hospital and few hours later she came back and said she would do the scene even though she was in pain.

R72, 4 was the first Freddy movie I saw, and I saw it when I was 10, and I was HORRIFIED. When I rewatched it at 12, it became one of my favorite films, along with 3.

I have to admit, I've never seen A Nightmare on Elm Street either. It's on my list of classic slashers to watch. I only watched Friday the 13th for the first time two months ago too. First time watching The Burning too, and Sleepaway Camp. I was a teen around the time of Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer etc... so never got around to the earlier ones. I've watched a lot more gialli than 80s slashers until recently.

Hmmm R75 I was a child when scream came out, but I remember I spent 1999 and the early 2000s renting every Horror movie I could get, I begged my parents to let me rent movies every week then.

Funny because I don't keep track of current horror movies, it seems like they were a lot more popular until Saw VII came out.

Yeah, I think I just wasn't as interested in the 80s stuff at the time. I may have been interested in stuff that was contemporary at the time and we were still close enough to the 80s for the whole thing to seem so dated, without the charm.

Also, the tropes that were being made fun of were fun to make fun of in movies like Scream, but I didn't really want to see them played seriously - it's only on watching these older movies that I realise they don't all actually rely on these tropes as much as it was claimed.

At the same time, my friends and I were a big fan of The Evil Dead movies, for example. I watched a lot of 70s horror too, including the original Halloween. Just wasn't the time for me to delve into the 80s slashers. But now it is time and I'm enjoying myself greatly. When the time is right, it's right. Like listening to a classic album - it's no good if people push you to listen to it when you're not ready. When you're finally curious about it, you'll get the best out of it, I feel.

My dad bought a VHS player in the 90s and I can remember going to the video store and seeing all the covers on the horror movies, and them terrifying me (they were always put right next to the adult movies too, at least in the shop we used to go to), but I always kept looking and trying to overcome my fears, I guess. Turns out many of those scary covers housed pretty subpar movies, but you never knew that at the time.

I don't keep track of current horror movies anymore either. There was a time I was really interested in that, even with movies I would never want to watch (like the torture porn stuff). Now, very little of it has me keen to see it.

Some moron posted this claim about Heather Langencamp. True her acting was weak and she was better in Part 3 but there is no "anger and self-importance". Why not just say she was narcissistic - a word that doesn't even exist. Truly the stupidest, lamest comment in awhile.

Heather Langenkamp can’t really act, but she does have a mixture of anger and self importance that somehow gives her gravitas.

I'm NOT a horror movie nerd like most of my friends but wasn't this the first horror movie where the antagonist used sleeping and nightmares to get to their victims? Kinda playing on that fear that there's literally NOWHERE that's safe. You can't even FUCKING close your eyes because you might wake up dead. Pretty effective. I couldn't sleep properly for months.

All of you talking about being kids when Scream came out are making me feel OLD.

I really do need to revisit Freddy's Revenge 😏

[quote] Heather Langenkamp can’t really act

Disagree. Where is this bad acting?

If you want BAD acting, look no further than Chili’s death scene in Friday the 13th part III. It’s so bad that it’s a mystery why they actually released this take.

Agreed. Chili from Friday the 13th Part III and the really dumb blonde from House on Sorority Row are the two worst actresses in 80's horror.

The Sorority Row remake was fun. I don't know why it didn't get a sequel.

Lisa Wilcox was the hottest

Let's not forget Academy Award winner Patty Arquette's role as NuNancy.