A
group of troubled kids are constantly
being tormented in their dreams by a guy
who wears a hat, red and green striped
shirt and a glove he made out of razor
blades.
One of them is Tina Gray (Amanda Wyss)
and is too scared to go to sleep alone
while her mom and boyfriend are away on a
vacation. She invites her friends Nancy
(Heather Langenkamp) and Glen (Johnny
Depp) over for the night so she can sleep
okay. Nancy and Tina discuss their dreams
and realise that they were dreaming about
the same man.
Tina also had an argument with her tough
boyfriend Rod Lane (Nick Corri) who
decided to crash the night too and make
up with Tina.
While Tina is sound asleep with Rod she
encounters the strange man. The man
captures her and Tina is screaming. This
wakes Rod up and he sees Tina struggling.
Not only that he sees her crawling on the
wall being slashed to death.
Rod
is arrested the next day and everyone is
convinced that he murdered Tina except
for Nancy who suspects that the killer is
the man in her dreams.
She refuses to sleep as she herself is
nearly captured by the clutches of this
man.
Suddenly,
Nancy is experiencing deaths of her other
friends while they fall asleep describing
to her beforehand that they are
witnessing the same killer she is
experiencing in her dreams.
A definite
classic! This was my favourite of all
slasher films and appealed to the same
fans that enjoyed Friday the 13th
which years later they combined the two
killers together in Freddy Vs.
Jason.
After this film was released the Freddy
Krueger craze happened with action
figures, game boards, video games, comic
books, young adult novels and halloween
costumes.
Not only that a TV series titled Freddy's
Nightmares aired.
This film was truely frightening,
effective and very original to top it all
off. Two thumbs up! Followed by many
sequels.
The acting is very
good for as I enjoyed Heather
Langenkamp's performance which she
shows great energy with her role and
gives her lines out extremely well when
she tries to confront with Freddy
Krueger.
This was Johnny Depp's first
acting gig before he rose his famedom in
the series 21 Jump Street
and then in countless motion pictures. Of
course he's terrific as the nice boy next
door whom is faithful to Langenkamp's
character
Ronee Blakeley has a great part in
the story as the alcoholic mother of
Langenkamp's character. Although she has
a drinking problem in the film she
nonetheless is caring and protective in
the film as well as great when she tells
her daughter the secrets on Krueger.
John Saxon is perfect as a tough as
nails cop in the film and a strict father
of Langenkamp's as well as the ex-husband
of Blakley. He's grows wonderful
expressions when he hears about
Langenkamp's freams as she describes him
since he was responsible for killing him.
Nick Corri performs terrifically
as a wild teenager but yet tries to mean
well although he acts like a troublemaker
many times. He lived to play this role.
Amanda Wyss was perfect as
Krueger's first vicitm as she truly
performs well at being scared from this
maniac.
And of course we can't forget Robert
Englund who was typecast in other
horror flicks as a killer of some sort
even if he has acted years before this
one saw the light of day.
He really knew how to sound and perform
dark and evil with his role.
Wyss' breasts
are almost discovered while Freddy
slashes her to death.
Theres a brief breast shot of Langenkamp
when she has a nightmare while taking a
bath and is being pulled underwater.
Lots of blood in
this film.
Freddy's face is pulled off as well he
cuts off his fingers with his blades to
scare Tina.
Tina is slashed with his blades.
During a dream sequence Tina calls to
Nancy when she is in class and Tina is in
a body bag.
Freddy cuts his chest to show Nancy some
maggots inside of him.
Glen is sucked underneath his bed and
blood splurts out (Which is a memorable
scene and a great direction too which I
didn't mention on the directing review
here).
Wes Craven's
work in this is superb as no other movie
of his topped this one until Scream
in 1996.
I would say this is his best work ever.
His opening with Englund's character as
Krueger leaves an impression with his
heavy breathing and then creating the
glove with the blades on it.
Then comes along Amanda Wyss as
she is caught in a nightmare and being
chased in the boiler room which was
terrific to watch and then Krueger coming
from behind her and then she wakes up
realising that her nightgown was clawed.
This is only the beginning of
Craven's directing as there's lots
more effective scenes he directed
greatly.
Theres a nice dream sequence of little
girls jump roping singing a song about
Krueger.
Also there's a great scenery in the house
where Langenkamp, Depp
and Wyss are staying at just
hanging out.
Suddenly Wyss falls asleep with Corri
and the nightmare happens as Craven shows
great icy sounds from Englund's character
calling out and then Englund revealing
himself in a dark alley way which will
spook most of you watching the film for
the first time. This scene is extremely
influential for other horror films.
Then he directs Langenkamp
terrifically when she falls asleep in
homeroom and experiences her nightmare in
school and does great freaking out when
she encounters Englund's character. Plus
the camera shot of Krueger's handblades
rising in the bathtub when Langenkamp's
character falls asleep is extremely
memorable
There's lots more but explaining it all
would be a spoiler but Craven
delivers all the goods in this film.
4 golden bats for the man behind this
film.
The music was composed by
Charles Bernstein who did an
incredibly marvellous job with it. He has
dark keyboard playing in the film which
will give you goosebumps too. Truly eerie
and has composed music for many films to
his credit.
There is a songtrack called
"Nightmare" performed by Steve
Karshner, Martin Kent and Michael
Schurig.
Children:
One, two, Freddy's coming for you. /
Three, four, better lock your door. /
Five, six, grab your crucifix. / Seven,
eight, gonna stay up late. / Nine, ten,
never sleep again.
Rod
Lane: I had a hard-on this morning
when I woke up, Tina... Had your name
written all over it.
Tina Gray: There's four letters in
my name, Rod. How can there be enough
room on your joint for four letters?
[Laughter]
Rod Lane: Hey, up yours with a
twirling lawnmower!
Glen
Lantz: I'm going to punch out your
ugly lights, whoever you are!
[Glen
is trying to get to sleep on the couch
alone, but the sounds of Tina and Rod
having sex is keeping him up]
Glen Lantz: Morality sucks.
Tina
Gray: Please, God...
Fred Krueger: [Shows off his
glove] This... is God.
Donald:
What was she doing there?
Marge: Hello to you, too, Donald.
Donald: [sarcastically]
Marge.
Hallguard:
Where's your pass?
Nancy: Screw your pass.
Hallguard:
[off screen] Hey... Nancy!
[flashing Freddy's finger knives]
Hallguard: No running in the
hallways!
Nancy:
It's only a dream!
Fred Krueger: Come to Freddy.
Nancy: GOD DAMN YOU!
Rod
Lane: I probably could have saved her
if I'd have moved sooner. But I thought
it was just another nightmare, like the
one I had the night before. There was...
there was this guy; he had knives for
fingers.
Glen
Lantz: What did you do to your arm?
Nancy: I burned it in English
class
Nancy:
Ok, here's what we're going to do.
Glen Lantz: It's dark in here.
Nancy: It's not what you think.
[Freddy
wears Tina mask]
Tina Gray: Nancy, help me, please.
Save me from...
[Removes mask]
Fred Krueger: Freddy!
Nancy:
I'm into survival.
Marge:
He's dead, honey, because Mommy killed
him.
Nancy:
Whatever you do, don't fall asleep.
Fred
Krueger: I'm your boyfriend now,
Nancy.
Fred
Krueger: I'm gonna kill you slow.
Fred
Krueger: I'm gonna split you in two.
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