Vintage Horror Review: A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Widely regarded as one of, if not the, greatest horror film of all time, Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street is the story of a vicious killer who stalks his victims in the realm of dreams. In particular, the film follows Nancy Thompson, a teenage girl who encounters the deformed murderer known as Freddy Krueger in nightmares set within a large boiler room. Soon, local teenagers begin dying off in mysterious, sleep-related deaths and Nancy fears that she may be the killer's next target.

A Nightmare on Elm Street is one of the most original, well written, well directed and just all around well made slasher film of all time. Wes Craven wrote the script in 1981 and, surprisingly, Disney was the first to show interest in the script, however, hey wanted Craven to tone down the content to make it suitable for children and pre-teens, causing Wes Craven to decline their offer. Soon the film was picked up by New Line Cinema.

Speaking of the script, Wes Craven originally planned for the film to have a very different ending: Nancy kills Krueger by ceasing to believe in him, then awakes to discover that everything that happened in the movie was actually just a long nightmare.This ending, of course, would've been the ultimate cop-out, so New Line leader Robert Shaye demanded a twist ending, in which Krueger disappears and the movie all appears to have been a dream, only for the audience to discover that they are watching a dream-within-a-dream-within-a-dream, where Fred reappears as a car that "kidnaps" Nancy, followed by Fred reaching through a window on the front door to pull Nancy's mother inside. (via Wikipedia).

What is most interesting about the writing of A Nightmare on Elm Street, is the legendary tale of what inspired Wes Craven to create Freddy Krueger. As most horror fans know, the concept of A Nightmare on Elm Street was inspired by a strange story about a group of Hmong refugees who refused to sleep for fear of something lurking within their dreams. The men stayed awake for days on end, and when they did eventually fall asleep, many of them died in unexplainable ways. 

However, the story of Freddy comes from one of Wes Craven's childhood experiences. As a boy, Craven was awoken one night by sounds outside of his window. Upon looking out his window to the street outside, he saw a gruff, homeless man standing in the night dressed very similarly to how Freddy would one day look. The man looked up at the young Wes Craven, making a twisted, scary face to strike fear in the child. Craven has stated that this experience and the man's strange desire to strike fear in children and destroy the "comfort of innocence" is what would some day be molded into Freddy Krueger. 

The film itself is so good because of how well it sucks you into the strange, surreal dream world that Freddy calls his domain.  The boiler room, the deserted high school hallways, the alleyway (and the famous stretching arms) all of these dreamy, yet realistic settings are what make A Nightmare on Elm Street a truly great horror film. Even now,  27 years later, the films imagery and distinct style can still frighten new viewers.

 A Nightmare on Elm Street has inspired comic books, toys, and a ton of cheesy sequels. It's one of the best films ever made, horror or not, and is surely a movie that everyone should see. You can't mention slasher films without talking about the greatest killer of them all, Freddy Krueger.