Saturday 16 August 2014

A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984) - Freddie Krueger!

(WARNING REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS)
On the international movie database (IMDB), this fantastic classic gets a 7.5! I would increase that so much if I could but lets face it, one person giving it a higher rating unfortunately won't change the overall rating. It's rating clearly sums up my view of how older horrors are far better than most of today's junk! If you have a look at some horrors nowadays, you'll notice most of them sit between 5 and 6.5. Well, it's because there are no attempts at trying something new! Every one of them takes old cliched ideas from previous films. However, I will admit that I have really enjoyed some horror films from the 2000's to today.

This film is the complete horror package! It consists of many jumps, frights, thrills and mysterious moments that make us think and have the audience sitting at the edge of their seats! I can only think of one feature in the film that I was disappointed with, but as with any other similar old horror, it was due to the time it was made. This one moment was when Tina (Amanda Wyss) was in the middle of her dream, being tortured by Freddie Krueger to the point where she levitated to the ceiling. At this moment, her boyfriend was sitting in a corner, helplessly shouting her name. He wasn't even shouting that loud, and didn't attempt to get up and help her. The acting was pretty bad at that one moment in my opinion. However, I must stop attempting to criticise this film as it is one of my favourite horror classics!
The film is directed by Wes Craven (known for writing The Hills Have Eyes 1 & 2), and lasts 91 minutes. In the early 1980's, a psychopath named Freddy Krueger - known as the 'Springwood Slasher' - murdered several children with a glove outfitted with straight razor blades attached to the fingers. When a foolish decision by a judge sets him free, Krueger is burned alive in the boiler room where he worked by an angry mob of the parents whose children he terrorised & murdered. Years after his death, the children whose parents were responsible for Krueger's death - including Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp), daughter of the police officer who arrested Krueger - are experiencing terrifying nightmares involving a burned man wearing a glove with razor blades on the fingers. The ghost of Freddy Krueger is haunting their dreams, and when Nancy's best friend Tina dies in her sleep violently during a dream confrontation with Krueger, Nancy realises she must find a way to stop the evil psychopath's reign of terror in killing all of her friends - or never sleep again.
The imagination within this film is absolutely exceptional. For a horror character to die, and return in the dreamworld to avenge his death is a cracking idea. I found this film very interesting in the dreaming aspect. I always try to lucid dream, and so this film intrigued me by the way it showed how Nancy could control her dreams in attempt to destroy Freddie. Another unique aspect to the film was the starting and ending. At the start, there was a creepy song on consisting of a few young girls singing about Freddie whilst skipping - well it happened at the end as well, which perfectly concluded the film in my opinion. Also, I was impressed with the scene at the end with the car windows shutting, and the car driving off itself. It clearly showed us how Craven successfully explored the ability of Freddie, by controlling the car, and not only their sleep which he did throughout most of the film.
Overall, this is another 'must-watch' horror classic! I know I have said this for a lot of horrors now, but I have just begun to review all this awesome classics that I've seen now! I felt the momentum and pace in the movie was fantastic, as Nancy was continuously attempting to solve the mystery of Freddie Krueger, and she was constantly attacked in her dreams, as well as her friends. Also, Freddie was introduced very successfully in my opinion, by the four friends coming together and discussing they all had similar dreams! I could go on about this film all day, so all you need to know is that it's pure class, you must give it a watch if you haven't seen it guys.

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