You may have noticed that I’ve posted the original VHS cover
art and not the poster artwork here; there’s an obvious reason for that
actually. You see, given my age, I
unfortunately didn’t get to experience the Nightmare films in the theater
(until Nightmare 5 actually) and only knew them all from their initial VHS
releases. In fact, I actually did a
disservice to myself by not seeing them in chronological order at first, as I
believe the first one I saw was either Nightmare 3 or Nightmare 4! This, as you can probably figure, created an
interesting perspective on the films and the character.
Perhaps foolishly – again, I was pretty young at the time,
probably 6 or 7yrs old – my initial impression of A Nightmare on Elm Street was
that it was “wrong” or simply not like what I’d already known about the world
of Elm Street. The first and most
obvious thing is Freddy’s sweater . . . it always stood out to me that there
were no stripes on the sleeves of the sweater in the first film and, honestly,
it looked a little too neat, as it was missing the frayed ends on the wrists,
neck and waist. Character-wise, Freddy
always seemed a little clunkier and a bit more raw and unpolished in that first
film . . . looking at it today, I can understand that the character hadn’t
quite been perfected yet by Robert Englund.
Some of his trademark mannerisms are still there, though they hadn’t yet
been perfected.
If you’re reading this blog, chances are that you already
know the story of the film, so I won’t bore you with a synopsis, though it’s
always worth noting the genuinely terrifying nature of the cusp of the film’s
story . . . if you’re killed in your dreams, you’re dead for real. Wes Craven’s original idea stemmed from
newspaper articles detailing the sleep-related deaths of Laotian refugees in
1981. Now, I don’t know about you, but
that’s pretty heavy . . . sleep is supposed to be a peaceful experience, where
your guard is completely down.
Story-wise, Craven’s script is damn near perfect, setting up
all the rules of the Nightmare world and expertly bending the audience’s
expectations of what is a dream and what isn’t a dream. Of course, the series continued to play with
concept to varying degrees of success, often having the audience just as
surprised as the character(s) stuck in a never-ending dream. In this first cast of Elm Street kids, Craven
presents a few stereotypical cases: the
brainy “good” girl heroine, her jock boyfriend, the slightly “loser” best
friend and her delinquent boyfriend.
Growing up, I knew and was friends with all of these types of kids!
At the center of the story, of course, is Fred Krueger and
his murderous exploits. There’s some
great potential for a backstory which the series mined in later sequels with
varying degrees of success; ultimately, it still feels real and undiluted by
the pop culture phenomenon the character would become very shortly. When Nancy’s mom finally reveals the truth
about Krueger, the details leave prickly goosebumps on the viewer due to their
grisly nature.
The cast is pretty spot-on, too, with Heather Langenkamp
holding her own as Freddy’s first (and most fan favorite?) opponent, Nancy
Thompson. Langenkamp conveys the
perfect “girl next door” charm that the character needs and is instantly
identifiable and relatable. In his first
major role, Johnny Depp plays Nancy’s jock boyfriend, Glenn. Now, one thing that sort of bugs me about
Johnny Depp these days is how all the kids only want to check out Nightmare because it’s Johnny Depp’s first role .
. . nobody cared about him then, but now that he’s Tonto, Willy Wonka, and Jack
Sparrow, everyone loves the guy.
Whatever….I had a good time not telling my nieces Glenn’s fate while
they oohed and ahhed over Depp when I showed them the film for the first time
this past weekend. Haha.
One major thing that I don’t think ever really registered
with me as a kid about these films was the exact ages of the characters. Amanda Wyss plays the film’s first victim,
Tina, and shortly after her death, details of the investigation are heard on a
radio in Nancy’s kitchen. Right there,
Tina’s age is confirmed to be 15yrs old!
Watching these films as a kid, the characters always seemed so much
older than I was (for obvious reasons), so when I revisited the series sometime
in my twenties and finally realized Tina’s age, I was blown away. Some of the things that happen revolving
around Tina in the wake of her death are made even creepier when I’m able to
place myself in that age-range and look back on my own high school years and
friendships from back then.
Now, obviously the film isn’t just about the teens who are
haunted by Freddy, as the centerpiece of the story is squarely on the sins of
their parents and their ideas of vigilante justice. John Saxon and Ronee Blakley are great as
Nancy’s parents, divorced and each having their own notions of what’s happening
to their daughter and her friends. Saxon
is perfect as a no nonsense police lieutenant trying to solve a murder, all the
while ignoring the skeletons in his closet about Krueger. Blakley has her moments – most of which are
hilarious, though I’m sure unintentional; still when she fills Nancy in who
Krueger was and what happened to him, you can understand why she was nominated
for an Oscar for Nashville.
How can there be talk about A Nightmare on Elm Street
without discussing the special effects?
First and foremost, I have to give credit where it’s due to Lou Carlucci
for designing and building the original glove seen in this film and most of
Nightmare 2. That thing is a true work
of genius and, whether or not it was intended to become what we all know and
love today, the seeds were most definitely there for something truly
original! Seriously, how many other
low-budget independent horror films can you name that had a weapon that’s
become as iconic as Freddy’s glove? Of
course, the glove itself was refined over the course of the sequels – which
I’ll eventually get to discussing – but this one being the original, I’ll
always have a certain fondness for it.
As for Freddy himself, the credit with designing his make-up
goes to David Miller. Crude in
comparison to the look in the sequels, Miller’s original Freddy make-up still
holds up, though it’s probably my least favorite look-wise. To me,
it appears kind of just put together, whereas the later make-ups look cohesive
as if they’re one giant piece. Miller
would return again in Nightmare 5, Freddy’s Dead and once again for New
Nightmare, where he refined his original creation a bit . . . though that particular design still
looks a little too rubbery to me.
For me, though, the most telling thing about the original Nightmare film is that it created a brand new movie monster in the form of Freddy Krueger. Original, scary, yet likable audiences around the world dug him! The character himself, in the few short years of the original series' lifespan, managed to get ingrained into popular culture and truly rub shoulders with the likes of Lugosi's Dracula and Karloff's Frankenstein's Monster. Freddy was truly a product of the 80's and would soon transform and identify with the Heavy Metal/Punk scene to become, quite honestly, the definition of a rock star to Horror fans.
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