A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)

Wes Craven's inspiration for this film makes for an excellent spooky campfire tale. According to Craven, when he was a young boy he had an odd encounter. One dark night, he peered out his bedroom window and saw a lone man walking the silent streets. The man was wearing a trenchcoat and full brimmed hat, and apparently sensed that the little boy was looking at him. He peered up at the young Craven, which made the boy hide in fear. He waited a few moments, then looked again. The man was still gazing at him, and shot him an evil glare. Craven cited this sick form of amusement on that man's befalf as a large inspiration for the antagonist of A Nightmare On Elm Street.

This story sets the tone for the film which would kickstart a franchise that dominated the 1980s, alongside Friday The 13th and Halloween. With each new sequel the plot became more complex, but this original film was quite simple; a young girl named Nancy has nightmares about a creepy man with claws on his hand. She discovers her friends are having the same dream, and soon enough they begin dying from it. Nancy sets out to unravel the mystery of the nightmare.

Freddy Krueger was a child killer who was apprehended but released due to the proper warrents not being in place. The parents of Springwood, thw town in which the film takes place, form a vigilante posse and burn Krueger to death. But death, as Nancy would discover, would not stop Freddy Krueger.

Nancy must fight for her life against the dream demon, who is hell bent on killing every child of those who murdered him.

A Nightmare On Elm Street is probably the second best slasher film ever made; only John Carpenter's Halloween (1978) tops it. While I am a larger fan of the Friday The 13th series, I can't deny that its debut film cannot compete with Nightmare. The film is so much more than the generic slashers of the era, such as My Bloody Valentine (1981). This is due to Wes Craven's capabilities as a story teller. While the special effects hold up to this day, it is the brilliant script which makes Nightmare a cinematic landmark.

I find my relationship with Craven movies to be odd; his later work far exceeds his early work. This film, coupled with New Nightmare (1994) and Scream (1996) are three of the best horror films of all time. His 1970s efforts, however, are nothing more than exploitive trash. Nevertheless, one only needs to watch the scene in which Nancy sees her friend's corpse in a body bag come to life in order to understand the brilliance of Wes Craven.