Tagline: Wolfman’s got nards! This isn’t really the tagline. But is arguably the most awesome, recognizable quote from the movie. So there.
Curiosity: It’s another cult classic from my childhood.
Plot: The film opens on Transylvania in the year 1887, in which Abraham Van Helsing (Jack Gwillim) attempts to use a magical gem open a portal to Limbo and rid the world of Dracula forever. He blows it. Fastforward to Anytown, U.S.A. Best friends Sean (Andre Grower) and Patrick (Robby Kiger) are obsessed with monster movies, so much so that they have a Monster Club dedicated to all things spooky and/or scary. While Sean’s sister Phoebe (Ashley Bank) isn’t allowed in, the club does include the hi-larious Horace/“Fat Kid” (Brent Chalem), the adorable Eugene (Michael Faustino), and the totally rebellious Rudy (Ryan Lambert). Rudy wears a leather jacket and smokes, and he’s only in junior high!
*Swoon*
But then shit gets significantly more real, paradoxically through the arrival of Dracula (Duncan Regehr), Frankenstein’s Monster (Tom Noonan), the Creature from the Black Lagoon (Tom Woodruff Jr.), the Mummy (Michael MacKay), and the Wolfman (Carl Thibault). Van Helsing’s followers hid the power to open Limbo in the New World, a.k.a. the motha-lickin’ United States of Awesome. Dracula wants up ons. Since stupid adults are being all “Divorce cigarettes McTaxes,” it’s up the rechristened Monster Squad, and their neighbor Scary German Guy (Leonardo Cimino), to kick some vampire butt.
Thoughts: Top three Squad members:
1. Rudy: HE WEARS A LEATHER JACKET AND SMOKES. But he’s not just a pretty boy. Oh no, Rudy is resourceful, making his own stakes and silver bullets in Shop class. He kills the most monsters, and yet he isn’t afraid to show his own emotions. In a world gone mad, he is but a simple guy with the courage to stand up for good.
2. Horace: He gets pretty much all of the good lines. The “nards” line is the best, although “Scary German Guy is bitchin’!” is pretty great too.
3. Eugene: There’s a running bit about how Eugene is the kid that things keep happening to. The Mummy shows up in his closet. The Creature steals his Twinkie. He writes a letter to “Dear Army Guys” asking for help fighting the monsters, and they actually show up! Through his small economy of words, Eugene is perhaps the biggest motivator for change.
The Monster Squad is refreshingly dark for a children’s movie. Dracula kills people. Wolfman gets blown the heck up only to rise again. Profanity and smoking are common. People actually talk to their kids about divorce. Of course, there are some bad ideas thrown in there, like the ’80s soundtrack. Or that time Phoebe’s mom (Mary Ellen Trainer) lets her sleep with a lit candle next to her bed to ward off monsters. I feel like that would end in FIRE EVERYWHERE.
Reflection: When Scary German Guy makes a comment about knowing a lot about monsters, followed by the camera zooming in on his concentration camp tattoo? SO HEAVY.
Curiosity: Because it’s super goth. Because the soundtrack is amazing. Because the story behind its creation is pretty messed up.
Plot: One year after he and his fiancé are murdered by arsonists, Eric Draven (Brandon Lee) returns from the dead to claim vengeance. He has allies in his quest to cleanse the streets of Detroit – good cop Sgt. Albrecht (Ernie freakin’ Hudson), good girl Sarah (Rochelle Davis), and a supernatural crow that makes him invincible – but Eric’s road is mostly a lonely one. Driven by grief and pain, he hunts down his killers one by one, eventually working his way to the top of a crime syndicate. Also, he’s a sexy dude who shreds guitars and quotes Edgar Allen Poe.
Thoughts: Good grief, where to start? The Crow began as a comic book written by J. O’Barr. After his fiancé was killed by a drunk driver, he channeled all of that rage and sadness into a mini-series. It is way more violent and angry than the movie, and it makes sense that it took O’Barr nine years to complete (Plus, he had to deal with a day job and med school). When the book was optioned for a film, the cycle of death began anew. Lee was accidentally killed in an onset accident – someone decided to use real cartridges without any gun powder to save money, someone else accidentally lodged a bullet in a gun, and someone else forgot to check that gun before it was used for a scene – 17 days before he was due to be married. Hudson lost a relative around the same time. Davis swore off acting after witnessing Lee’s death. And while you don’t need to know about the deaths that began The Crow the book and concluded The Crow the movie – or the fact that the Devil’s Night fires are a real thing – the stories are a lot more affecting because of them.
Now, in some ways, The Crow hasn’t aged well. It’s pretty obvious which scenes were filmed with a stand-in following Lee’s death. The creation of a new, more supernaturally aware villain gives the story extra length, but it makes the mythos a bit more tedious. Part of the reason why the book works is because of its directness – Draven knows his destiny, and he goes about killing like a true spirit of vengeance. The reduction of Tin Tin (Laurence Mason) and Funboy’s (Michael Massee) arcs are also regrettable, especially since their parts were stripped down to make room for Bai Ling’s awful performance as the whacked out Myca. In fact, reducing Tin Tin’s role from that of the gang leader to first grunt offed may or may not be racist. Just floating that one out there, ya’ll.
Yet, these changes give the film an identity that complements the original book. Sgt. Albrecht and Sarah’s roles are greatly expanded here. Lee’s performance is chilling, and not just because of what happened to him. He perfectly captures Draven’s alternating fits of pain and fury and his dedication to the book anchors the film. While the film toys with the book’s plot, Lee honors the book’s emotions. Of course, it helps that the visuals still pop, the soundtrack still rocks, and majority of the cast is stellar. Outside of maybe Batman: Mask of The Phantasm, this is the best comic book movie of the ’90s.
Reflection: The Cure’s “Burn” is such a great song.
Curiosity: Set in a Texan nursing home, Bruce Campbell (the “Evil Dead Trilogy”) and Ossie Davis (The Hill, Joe Versus the Volcano) star as two men who may or may not be Elvis Presley and President John F. Kennedy, respectively, and who may or may not need to do battle with a mummy who is devouring the souls of the elderly in this film from Don Coscarelli (Phantasm, Beastmaster). EVERYTHING I JUST TOLD YOU IS AWESOME.
Plot: Please refer back to the Curiosity for EXTREME AWESOMENESS.
Thoughts: For all its kitsch value, Bubba Ho-tep is also an emotional portrayal of what it means to get older, and how society mistreats us once we hit a certain age. Oh sure, there are some funny, whacky bits about Elvis’ dick and the fact that Davis, a black guy, is playing “JFK,” a white guy, and some liberal approaches to Egyptian (“Now this top line translates into, ‘Pharaoh gobbles donkey goobers,’ and the bottom line, ‘Cleopatra does the nasty’”). But the film is also downright sad in spots, as “Elvis” laments his lost family and misspent youth. He has existential wanderings and watches his friends die, sometimes from the mummy’s curse, and sometimes from natural causes. This is a movie about insecurity and the meaning, or lack thereof, of the passage of time. This is life’s joys and sorrows condensed into one passage.
Of course, you also get to watch a guy dressed up like a geriatric King of Rock beat the snot out of a killer mummy. How cool is that? [Answer: very – editor].
Reflection: I probably shouldn’t have watched this movie while eating dinner.
Curiosity: If New Nightmare asserted that Freddy Krueger was akin to old fairytales, then Freddy vs. Jason must be the argument for his relevance to the old Universal Monsters line.
Plot: Set but a mere two years after Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare, the town of Springwood, Ohio has rebuilt the population nicely. The adults of the town have effectively put a quarantine on Freddy – kids now regularly take the Hypnocil drug featured in The Dream Warrior to block dreams and, therefore, Freddy. Any kids who learn anything about him are shipped off to the Westin Hills psychiatric ward and cut off from the population. Without any horny youths to prey upon, Freddy is effectively cut out and loosing power fast. Condemned to hell, Krueger reaches out to Jason, the hulking spirit of misplaced vengeance from the Friday the 13th franchise, to kill in his name. But when that only makes peope afraid of Jason, Freddy decides to take the big lug down for cutting into his territory.
Also there are some snooping kids involved.
Thoughts: Having just watched the entire Nightmare on Elm Street series in order, I have to say, Freddy vs. Jason isn’t too bad, even though the film kind of waffles the fight by establishing that each character is king of his domain – Freddy rules the dream world; Jason rules the physical realm. Still, director Ronny Yu shows some reverence for the Nightmare series, effectively employing imagery from the first and third films. It’s harder to get much out of the Friday the 13th series – that franchise pretty much just evolved to exploit whatever was popular, from Halloween’s looming, shadowy killer to, well, Nightmare on Elm Street’s mystical elements, although it is cool to see Paula Shaw return as Pamela Voorhees, Jason’s mother.
The cast here gets more to do than most Nightmare teens. Even David Kopp, who plays the misogynistic manly man Blake that bites it early in the film, gets to fire off a few hilarious lines. Not everyone works – Destiny’s Child’s Kelly Rowland seems eternally lost in her scenes, and I just don't care about any of the stoner characters – but there’s enough wackiness and kitsch to sell the movie. That said, when you get down to the actual fighting between the two title villains, all we get is a glorified wrestling match. Aliens vs. Predator, for all its problems, at least had a truly great battle between two franchises.
Curiosity: Apparently, Wes Craven had the idea for this movie while writing The Dream Warriors. One wonders why New Line took this long to give it a try.
Plot: Heather Langenkamp, star of the original A Nightmare on Elm Street, dreams she is on the set of a new Nightmare sequel when Freddy Krueger’s glove comes to life and kills two crew members. She’s shaken from this nightmare by an earthquake. But as things get weirder – New Line reveals that they really are planning a new Nightmare flick, her son, Dylan (Miko Hughes, Michelle Tanner’s asshole friend from Full House), also suffers from strange nightmares, and scenes from the original film crop up in her real life – Heather beings to question her sanity, as well as the possibility that maybe Freddy is real.
Thoughts: Generally thought of as a thematic precursor to his Scream series, New Nightmare finds writer/director/co-star Wes Craven questioning what it means to make a horror film. His story isn’t as glib as Scream (or as punishing as, say, Funny Games), but it does raise some interesting ideas, such as positioning New Nightmare into a greater context. Let’s be honest; these flicks are only scary if you’re a kid. Craven posits New Nightmare and the Krueger character as a modern day fairy tale, even going so far as to parallel the story of Hansel and Gretel.
The film doesn’t entirely hold up under this premise, as it eventually hits the same rote point of the other Nightmare sequels, that of the Final Girl trying to convince everyone else that the killer is real and will strike again. Coupled with a lack of onscreen time for Freddy and an overabundance of Dylan doing a tired creepy kid Omen shtick, the scenes become repetitive.
Still, when Robert Englund gets to debut the “new” Krueger costume, it’s pretty dang awesome. The original costume was designed to be garish; this one is meant to look cool, with a black overcoat, more demonic makeup, and fuller frame complementing Krueger’s classic fedora hat. I could live without the new glove, but Englund drops the “jazz steps” approach to the character to give something that’s much more brutal. When the film finally, finally, finally gets to Krueger, New Nightmare soars. His scene in the hospital is among the series’ best.
Reflection: I maintain my original statement – A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Dream Warriors, and New Nightmare form a comprehensive trilogy. Show ’em to your kids!
Tagline: They saved the best for last. It’s funny because I still have two more Freddy films to go.
Curiosity: Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare is actually the first Nightmare on Elm Street movie I ever saw, as a way-too-young lad. While it seems lame today, the scene where Freddy (Robert Englund) blew up Carlos’ (Ricky Dean Logan) head freaked me out for weeks.
Plot: Set in the awful future of 2001, Freddy Krueger has killed almost all of the children in Springwood, Ohio save for one. After giving the final child amnesia, Freddy sends “John Doe” (Shon Greenblatt) out for fresh meat. He eventually stumbles into a juvenile shelter, where he meets Dr. Maggie Burroughs (Lisa Zane). Together, they try to figure out what Freddy wants from him, before he kills again.
Thoughts: For me, this is the installment that has aged the least well. But that’s really only because, as my introduction to the Nightmare series, Freddy’s Dead scared the bejeebits out of me as a child. Now, however, all I see are Roseanne Barr cameos and unnecessary connections to other, better horror/fantasy tales like The Twilight Zone, Twin Peaks, Wizard of Oz, and even Fantasia (That is why they used Modest Mussorgsky’s “Night on BaldMountain,” right?). Not to mention the fact that the filmmakers were still recycling imagery from The Dream Warriors.
Still, the film deserves credit for trying to deepen Freddy’s history by explaining the events that made him so gosh dang evil. Writer/director Rachel Talalay (Tank Girl, Kyle XY) returns the series to its surreal roots, although she tends to oversell it, especially during the film’s first half. One character’s observation that Springwood is like Twin Peaks is more of a bid for credibility than an accurate comparison. I also enjoyed Johnny Depp’s return to the series [SPOILER: Freddy hits him in the face with a frying pan]. And given all the different methods kids have tried to defeat Freddy, this ending makes more sense than most (here’s looking at you, The Dream Master). But my favorite part overall is the bit of dialogue designed to tell the audience when to put on 3D glasses. See, the last 10 minutes or so of the film were shot in 3D - note the way the characters suddenly start holding things way, way away from their bodies - and Maggie, for no real reason, puts on 3D glasses to denote that it's 3-Dizzle time. At one point, she even tells the audience to keep their glasses on. Brilliant!
Reflection: There are sooooo many Goo Goo Dolls songs in this movie. What would Bruce Dickinson think?
Curiosity: How did they wrap up all those pesky loose ends from The Dream Master? Ya know, like the part where Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) was totally, absolutely, irrevocably dead times infinity blackout forever?
Plot: It’s graduation time for the Springwood teens, and Alice (Lisa Wilcox) seems to have found a whole new gang of friends since Freddy slaughtered all of her old ones, including super cool brother Rick (he knew karate, got-dammit!). Boyfriend Dan (Danny Hassel) even has tickets to Paris for senior week! Holy pan de chocolate!
THEN SHIT GETS SHITTY.
See, believing in Freddy is all it takes to revive him, and since Alice keeps waiting for him to come back, the whole thing turns into a self-fulfilling prophecy. So he does indeed return from H E double Hockey Puck Thwacker Thinger, kills Dan (without even waiting for him to fall asleep, mind you), and begins corrupting the dreams of Alice’s unborn child.
Oh yeah, turns out she’s preggers. At first it’s framed as if it’s Freddy’s doing, but eventually you realize it really is Dan’s baby, which sucks. So now not only does Alice have to protect her friends, but also her baby, from Krueger, and without all those nifty Neo-like powers she gained in The Dream Master.
Plot: For a horror flick, this movie is surprisingly free of blood or violence. Even the nudity is family friendly (sort of). In fact, aside from maybe the fact that 90 percent of Freddy’s lines end with “bitch,” The Dream Child could probably run uncut in primetime on a major network. The kills are cartoonish, and the characters barely conceived. Dialogue is often overdubbed, especially in the awkward graduation ceremony that opens the movie. Even better is the garish wardrobe – everything is super bright/loud/big. Ah, the late ’80s/early ’90s – good times.
The film is the least faithful to the Nightmare mythology since Freddy’s Revenge. There’s little justification for the disappearance of Alice’s powers or Freddy’s ability to kill people who aren’t sleeping. There’s a slight argument for Alice’s baby inheriting her dream powers, but still no explanation for how it totally knows everyone ever and can pull them in. By this point, though, I don’t think anyone was trying very hard. I feel bad for Wilcox. She’s a solid actress with a good character stuck in the worst-written Nightmare on Elm Street films. Hopefully Alice gets some justice in the Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash
Reflection: At least this movie served as the inspiration for Iron Maiden’s “Bring Your Daughter… to the Slaughter.”
Tagline: You shouldn’t have buried me. I’m not dead.
Curiosity: Eh, who am I kidding? At this point I’m just watching this series because I said I would.
Plot: While Freddy has been dead and buried for some time, Kristen (now played by Tuesday Knight, taking over the role from Patricia Arquette) can’t shake the feeling that he’s due for a comeback. Given that Freddy’s powers stem from people’s belief in him, it’s kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Anyhoozle, Freddy returns and slaughters all of the surviving kids from Dream Warriors, including Kristen. But before she’s burned alive, she passes on her dream powers – advanced gymnastics and the ability to pull people into the same dream – to her friend Alice (Lisa Wilcox). Unfortunately, Alice can’t control these powers, often pulling people in by accident, much to Freddy’s delight. As long as he lets Alice live, he has an instant meal ticket. However, er’rytime Freddy offs a kid, Alice absorbs some of their abilities, making her his effective opposite.
Thoughts: Excellent premise; shitty execution. The Dream Master brings some refreshing ideas, like renewing the bit about Freddy’s power stemming from people’s fear of him. He has the most at stake in this installment, since killing is a survival method as well as a sadistic pleasure. Alice in turn makes for an excellent balance. And her brother Rick (Andras Jones) knows karate and listens to Billy Idol! HE IS SO COOL AND I LOVE HIS HAIR.
Rick, Rick, Rick.
So yeah, the ideas are there, and it’s compelling to watch the new characters attempt to learn what we the audience knows by this point. Sadly, the accompanying picture ain’t too bright. Maybe it’s because I’m been doing this Elm Street marathon all week, but major inconsistencies are starting to pop up. Dates don’t synch up with the previous films. Nancy’s house from the original film, which Freddy still uses as a sort of base of operations, has been changed arbitrarily – I’m talking moved staircases and incorrect window shapes. I hate to get all continuity error here, but it’s distracting. Further mistakes – incorrectly synched dialogue, a curious lack of blood – make the movie kind of a chore to watch, although the final confrontation between Alice and Freddy is cool, even if it doesn’t entirely make sense.
Reflection: Rick and I are going to make 400 babies. <3
Tagline: If you think you’ll get out alive, you must be dreaming.
Curiosity: Dream Warriors was my favorite Nightmare when I was a kid (It’s got Larry Fishbourne from Pee-Wee’s Playhouse!). Also, it was creator/co-writer Wes Craven’s first attempt to end the franchise. Too bad this resulted in a good movie with tons of room for sequels.
Plot: Kristen (Patricia Arquette) is sent to Westin Hills, a psychiatric clinic, after her mother finds her with a slashed wrist and razor blade. Turns out Freddy Kruger did it (I know!). He’s preying on the children of Elm Street again, this time focusing on the committed. Turns out adults have trouble believing the suicidal, emotionally disturbed, and drug-addicted youths of Springwood. But just when Kristen doesn’t think anyone will accept her story, in steps Nancy (Heather Langenkamp) from the original Nightmare on Elm Street! And she’s a dream specialist! Serendipity doo-daa, serendipity day! While she prefers using the drug Hypnocil – which prevents dreaming and therefore keeps Freddy at bay – Nancy opts to train Kristen and the other teens at Westin Hill how to use their dreams to combat Krueger in the dream world. They are… DREAM WARRIORS! [Cue bitchin’ Dokken song]
Thoughts: Overall, Dream Warriors holds up. Craven, along with director/co-writer Chuck Russell (Collateral, The Mask, and, uh, The Scorpion King) expand the mythos quintuple-fold, introducing the mysterious Sister Mary Helena, a nun who sure seems to know a lot about Krueger. Craven and Russell also try to level the playing field a bit by giving the kids some powers in the dream world. The concept of Freddy feeding off of kids becomes clearer, and we learn one more way to defeat the bastard that doesn’t work.
There are distracting issues, of course. Nancy’s grey streak is on the wrong side of her face, Krueger’s original body is found with his glove – which is impossible given the events of the original film, and mute character Joey has a magical disappearing face tattoo. Oh, and Freddy’s descent into cheesy one liners begins here. Dude used to drop eerie shit like “This… is… God!”, now he’s saying “Welcome to prime time bitch” before shoving someone’s head through a TV set. In fact, most of Freddy’s dialogue from here on out consists of “Blankity blank, bitch.” “Make sure you deposit your paycheck, bitch.” “Trickle down economics doesn’t work, bitch.” “Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin, bitch.” Then he stabs somebody. For a long stretch, Dream Warriors is where Nightmare on Elm Street should have ended.
Tagline: The man of your dreams is back. See, it sounds sweet, but really it is ominous. It’s a double entendre… FROM HELL.
Curiosity: There’s something alluring about watching what most consider the worst Nightmare on Elm Street installment. Also, I’ve read that the movie may or not have a subtext about repressed homosexuality.
Plot: Set five years after the events of the original film, Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge finds a new family living on Elm Street. All American kid Jesse (Mark Patton) has been having nightmares featuring the return of Fred(dy) Krueger (Robert Englund). Only this time, Kruger doesn’t want to kill. Rather, he wants Jesse to kill for him. As the dreams become increasingly painful – and Freddy causes ghostly mischief around the house – Jesse begins to transform into the killer. It’s up to Jesse and his friend who is also a girl, Lisa (Kim Myers), to figure how to stop Freddy from claiming… FREDDY’S REVENGE.
Thoughts: Sheesh, no wonder creator Wes Craven was originally opposed to making sequels. Here’s the thing. There is no gay subtext to Jesse’s character. “Subtext” implies a nuance, something that the audience has to work towards. Not to glorify stereotypes or anything, but Jesse’s homosexuality is pretty surface level:
Yeah, that’s the only scene I’m going to give you.
Freddy’s Revenge is the first step towards softening the character – it’s right there in the nickname. In the original he was Fred. The film is also fairly low on gore, although Jesse’s transformation sequence into Freddy still looks decent 24 years later. It’s no The Thing, but it gets the job done.
But then, Freddy spends so little time on the screen that it’s hard to think of this movie as an Elm Street installment. The filmmakers show little interest in the character’s original powers, allowing him to pretty much do whatever he wants in the real world all the time, thereby ruining the dream aspect almost altogether. Given his seemingly endless supply of power, it makes little sense that Freddy would ever want to possess Jesse. Maybe he’s trying to explore his homosexuality too. While the possession angle was later used to better effect in Freddy vs. Jason, Freddy’s Revenge merely comes off as poorly researched. Also gay.
Reflection: Jesse goes to a gay leather bar. He also spends a lot of time naked/wet/WITHOUT PANTS AND I CAN SEE BUTT EW GROSS. This is the Batman and Robin of the Elm Street franchise.
Tagline: If Nancy doesn’t wake up screaming, she won’t wake up at all...
Curiosity: The Nightmare films always captured my imagination as a child in a way that the Halloween and Friday the 13th franchises never could.
Plot: Tina (Amanda Wyss) starts having horrible nightmares in which a burned man with knives tries to kill her. They’re extremely real and disturbing, to the point that Tina seeks out the help of Nancy (Heather Langenkamp), her best friend, and Glen (Johnny Depp), Nancy’s boyfriend. Later, Tina’s boyfriend Rod (Jsu Garcia) shows up for extra protection… also sex. The four seem to be doing OK at a sleepover. Then this happens:
So that went poorly. With Tina dead, it’s up to Nancy to figure out the mysterious identity of one Fred Krueger (Robert Englund), a boogeyman of sorts who haunts the teens’ dreams, as well why her parents get so upset when she mentions his name. Whenever Krueger kills someone in his or her dreams, he or she dies the same way in real life, and the body count is rising…
Thoughts: With the Nightmare on Elm Street remake coming out next spring, now seems like a good time to reevaluate the original series. At seven films (Eight if you count Freddy vs. Jason), the franchise had its ups and downs, but I’d argue that, bare minimum, there’s a solid trilogy buried in the mix. They are: A Nightmare on Elm Street, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, and Wes Craven’s New Nightmare. Coincidentally, they’re the only three that featured Craven, as well as star Heather Langenkamp.
I think the remake has potential to reimagine Craven’s original vision to a fuller extent. For starters, the Krueger character was originally supposed to be the worst kind of person Craven could think of – a child molester. Censorship forced him to downgrade it slightly – turns out he only butchered 20 kids or so. A decent budget might also help carry across the dream sequences.
But then, throwing money at a movie doesn’t automatically make it better. What makes the original so compelling is the premise. Krueger was always scary to me because he could get me in my sleep. The film came out 25 years ago, but dreams still don’t make much scientific sense. Furthermore, while I’m fairly certain Michael Myers will never show up at my doorstep in real life, it doesn’t matter if Freddy is real or not, since I could still die in my sleep anyway. Here’s a killer whose means of murder could actually translate to the real world, something that Craven explored in his later films. Like the original movie asserts, Freddy literally does have as much power as viewers are willing to give him. He is fear incarnate.
A Nightmare on Elm Street has a sort of ramshackle charm. It’s scary more for its concepts than it is for its actual scenes, some of which come off a little clunky. Watch Tina’s death scene again – how dumb does Freddy look with his arms spread like 15 feet? I’ve had dreams with disproportionate body parts, but the idea just looks stupid on film. But the movie moves along pleasantly enough, and there’s at least one more amazing kill late in the film. Craven and Englund were still figuring out the character at this juncture – Englund’s delivery would change in the later films – but as an opening salvo, A Nightmare on Elm Street is a pretty cool movie. There’s one more thing that drew me to it as a kid – more than any slasher flick, this was a series whose stories/kills were limited only by the filmmakers’ imagination.
