A Bad Dream

The recent remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street met with generally unfavorable reviews, so it slipped under my radar. But it did spark my interest in the original, which I'd somehow managed not to see before. Writer-director Wes Craven was known before this, with his films The Hills Have Eyes and Last House on the Left (which have also received the remake treatment in the last few years), but it was Nightmare that he became best known for.

At first glance, it's easy to see why. The idea of A Nightmare on Elm Street is simply brilliant, and perfectly terrifying: a "monster" that gets you in your dreams while you sleep. This isn't a situation like Jaws, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, or Psycho, where one can simply not go in the water, not enter the rundown house uninvited, or not stay at the creepy motel, and thus escape a grisly horror movie fate. Everyone has to sleep. And if you do? Now you're screwed. Great premise.

Unfortunately, the execution of the concept does it a great disservice. You can see why Freddy quickly transformed through several sequels into a wise-cracking jokester, because even here in the original, he's more funny than menacing. Whether he's teasing you with 20 foot long inflatable arms (held up by wires you can actually see), ripping away cheesy makeup to expose silly-looking green goo, or not actually doing anything to you when he easily could, he doesn't come off as much of a threat.

Some of that is the limitations of film-making in 1984, but a fair amount of it is the acting. And not just from actor Robert Englund, who actually gives one of the better performances in the movie. The entire cast (including Johnny Depp, appearing in his first movie ever here) feels like they come from another time. Each line of dialogue is delivered either as though "this is the only line I have in this movie, dammit!" or "this is the first time I've ever actually seen this line, and English isn't my first language." Hammy one moment, stilted the next.

So in the end, credit Wes Craven with a phenomenal idea, and a few moments of inspired imagery (such as a couple fun and effective uses of an upside-down camera). Beyond that, this horror classic is kind of a bust. I rate it a D.