A Nightmare On Elm Street(John)

This movie I have cherished for many years. I believe I first watched it when it came on TNT. It was edited for television but I still enjoyed the film. To see that it made our list makes me very happy. This movie is a classic horror film.

The acting was okay. This movie was made for very little money and one of the reasons is many of the actors were no-names at the time. One of the most annoying actors in the whole film was Nancy's mother. She had crazy, crazy eyes and creeped me out during the entirety of the film. This would have been okay if she was involved in the horror pieces. I think Johnny Depp did a good job for it being his first film ever. And Heather Langenkamp was also good and although she was 20 at the time, made me believe that she was younger. It bears mentioning, however, that there was one actor who stole the show. And that actor was Robert Englund. He didn't have much dialogue at all. But he made Freddy Krueger the scary, intimidating, and yes charismatic character that everyone knows and loves. In other hands, Freddy could have been a minor footnote in the history of horror.

The story was a very intriguing one for its time. Imagine a man who can haunt your dreams. And whatever happens in your dreams translates to real life. If you get cut in your dream, the cut is still there when you wake up. If you die in your dream, you die in real life. Add on top of this the fact that the man who haunts your dreams is a sadistic, finger-knife wielding, trash talking mad man and this becomes a dangerous combination. The movie has the typical horror tropes, but it manages to scare and entertain even to this day. There is a little bit of humor in the film. But, this one has nowhere near the laughs that the sequels have.

The music is another classic piece of this film. To me, the music during the dreams sounds like a haunting version of a lullaby. It is amazing. This really got me when I was younger. It made me anticipate even more finding out how Freddy was going to jump out and claim his victims.

This movie is a classic. If you haven't seen it 1) Shame on you and 2) Go rent it now! This movie is an excellent representative of horror films done well. It's scary, has a solid story and the acting is good enough. It stands the test of time which is always rough for horror flicks.

I'm giving it a 9.5 out of 10.

- John Murphy