A Nightmare on Elm Street Marathon

Spoiler Warning: As each title in this series tends to build and expand upon the events and revelations contained in the previous title(s), each of the following reviews may contain spoilers from previous titles in the series.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

A Nightmare on Elm Street arrives late to the game, the last of the big slasher franchises to debut, starting up only after Halloween and Friday the 13th have both had a couple of sequels. But, rather than being derivative, Nightmare manages actually to be very clever. I think it is the most imaginative of the slashers, and I would easily rate it above Friday the 13th and probably also Halloween (and maybe even The Texas Chain Saw Massacre). (Fun fact: where Friday the 13th featured Kevin Bacon in a bit part, A Nightmare on Elm Street has Johnny Depp, in his very first film role). Nightmare's got not only the most charismatic of the slasher killers, Freddy Krueger - whose intimidation factor is surprisingly not dulled by his morbid sense of style and humor, that often finds him quipping one-liners, yet whose favorite haunt is a very creepy boiler room - but also features what I would rate as the strongest and most independent of the final girls, in Heather Langenkamp's portrayal of Nancy, a proactive girl who spends most of the movie trying to figure out how to stop Freddy, and not simply being his most elusive prey. One more thing that distinguishes A Nightmare on Elm Street above its progenitors is its fantastic usage of gore fx in some of the most imaginative kills in any slasher, ever. This is at least partly inspired by the fact that the killer attacks people in their dreams, where he isn't bound by the usual laws of physics - and the movie expertly blurs the lines between reality and the dream world. If there is one point where the film falters, it's in the conclusion, which suffers from an inability to decide whether to resolve the story or keep it open for sequels. You can guess which direction won out in the end.


A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985)

Unfortunately, Freddy's Revenge isn't half as good as A Nightmare on Elm Street. It's horribly dated by far too heavy an '80s flavor, and the leads have a tendency to overact some of their emotional scenes (and, curiously, underact others). Plus, the story's just not that interesting, and Freddy's characterization suffers from the new motivation the writers have given him. In the first movie, Freddy's quest for revenge was intriguing enough that you didn't need to ask questions like how does he have these dream powers anyway? But here, in the sequel, you're left wondering, why exactly does he need to possess somebody else's body? Because if his greatest joy in life is torturing kids and killing them, then being a nightmare phantom would seem to suit him just fine. But answers aren't forthcoming. We do get a look at Freddy's real world boiler room in this movie, though, and there are some disturbing nightmare creatures towards the end. But aside from one or two, the dream sequences in this movie aren't as captivating, or as seamlessly integrated, and the story just kind of plods along, lacking the intrigue and pacing of the previous movie.


A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)

Heather Langenkamp returns as Nancy in the third installment of the Nightmare series. Having survived Freddy's nightmares once before, she's earned a degree in the field of sleep disorders, and is hired as an aide at the psychiatric hospital where this movie largely takes place (inevitably drawing parallels to Friday the 13th Part V - but fortunately, this is a much better movie than that was). Ignoring the misstep that was Freddy's Revenge, Freddy is back and tormenting the dreams of the remaining children of the parents who killed him, all of which are being driven to drastic measures to ward off sleep. Nancy's approach involving drug-induced dreamless sleep is only a temporary solution, but one of the girls has the unique power to pull other people into her dreams, so they band together to put up a united front against Freddy's nightmares. Meanwhile, we're finally given a [suitably macabre] origin story for Freddy Krueger, which suggests a possible source for his supernatural abilities, as well as a possible way to stop him for good. Dream Warriors has good characters, more imaginative and frightening dream sequences, and expands on the mythos of the series. It's everything you could want in a sequel to A Nightmare on Elm Street.


A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)

In Part 4 of the Nightmare saga, the surviving Dream Warriors find themselves once again haunted by Freddy's nightmares - despite having located his remains and buried them in consecrated ground in the last installment, which should have laid the "bastard son of a hundred maniacs" to rest (at least according to the ghost of his mother). But Kristen's ability to pull other people into her dreams can't protect them from being killed, and Freddy learns to take advantage of that ability to reach out into the dreams of other kids, whose parents weren't involved in his murder, to find new victims. The Dream Master revives the suburban/schoolyard feel of the first Nightmare, with several kids banding together to figure out Freddy and fight off his nightmares. The dream sequences are lush and complex, and the characters are likable. The kills are not as memorably grotesque as in the first Nightmare (although some of them are pretty elaborate), but they are imaginative, with Freddy using the kids' own biggest fears against them. Part 4 is a good Nightmare sequel, well worth watching, and even the strong late '80s feel doesn't diminish its eerie atmosphere.


A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989)

In Part 4, The Dream Master defeated Freddy on his own turf - in the dream world - and released the souls of all the children he'd killed. But because the lure of profit is stronger than logical consistency, Freddy has found some esoteric way to be reborn anew, while also inexplicably blurring the lines between dreams and reality - not just in perception, but apparently in actuality. It's one thing if a movie doesn't dovetail logically with the others, but it's problematic when its own internal logic doesn't make a whole lot of sense. The Dream Child has some interesting ideas - among them, further exploration of Freddy's birth, and the character of his mother - but unfortunately it just doesn't come together well. It's hard to even enjoy the special effects, which are unforgivably hokey. The film's strongest beat is the hint of eroticism in the opening scenes - an element with endless potential in this series, but one that has never been properly addressed (probably for fear of its mixture with the dark themes prevalent in these stories) - but it doesn't last long. This is one of those movies where I feel like they were going in the right direction, but they took the wrong route to get there, and I just feel creatively frustrated as a result of watching it.


Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)

Freddy's Dead starts right out the gate with an ambitious premise - ten years into the future, all of the children (and teenagers) have been killed off in Freddy's hometown of Springwood (presumably by Freddy, with no explanation for his return after his defeat in the last movie), except one. And Freddy's using him to secure a link to the outside world (and its children). The movie opens with a dream that rips off The Wizard of Oz, to rather silly (not so much scary) effect, set to the tune of Night on Bald Mountain. A lot of people complain about how the character of Freddy Krueger devolved into a rather un-scary comedian in the Nightmare sequels. I've never had a problem with Freddy quipping one-liners as he offs teenagers - the fact that he takes such glee in killing, and can treat such a serious issue with light-hearted humor just reinforces his sadistic nature. But here, it finally crosses the line for me. Also, the special effects, which have been getting increasingly tacky, take the dreams from eerie sequences to just plain embarrassing to watch (even Freddy's face doesn't look right in this movie). Roseanne actually makes an appearance. Roseanne. It's too bad this isn't a better movie (with better effects), because it finally addresses the source of Freddy's dream powers, gives the audience a peek into certain parts of his life that had never been seen before, and, of course, kills him off once and for all (until Freddy vs. Jason, I guess...).


Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)

Wes Craven (who wrote/directed the original A Nightmare on Elm Street)'s New Nightmare is unique among the slasher sequels, and is without a doubt the most original take on any one of these slasher franchises (while also being a clever criticism of those sequels' degrading quality). New Nightmare goes meta, taking us behind the scenes on the production of a new Nightmare movie, developed from Wes' script about an ancient demon that can only be captured by storytellers, when Freddy seems to start haunting the dreams of the cast members in real life. Heather Langenkamp is illuminating as always, and it's fascinating to see Robert Englund as an actor, a person, a regular human being - the man behind the grease paint, as Wes says.

The difference in quality and realism between this movie and the rest of the slasher sequels is like night and day. All of those other movies feel like movies (and many of them, not very good movies), but this movie feels eerily real. Which makes it all that much creepier when Freddy moves not from the dream world to the waking world, but from the dreams of fictional characters to the dreams of real people. It also works as an excellent exploration of the real world effects that horror movies like A Nightmare on Elm Street have on people, giving them nightmares and whatnot - while at the same time suggesting that scary stories like this one serve an integral purpose in keeping even realer horrors at bay. It's an extremely intelligent movie, almost like it has no business being a slasher sequel - except that I think all slashers (and even their sequels) should aspire to this level, and not content themselves with being cheap entertainment.

Conclusion: A Nightmare on Elm Street distinguishes itself from the average slasher by introducing one of the most imaginative premises: a killer that haunts you in your dreams. And while Freddy Krueger - with his ultra-creative glove with finger knives and his scarred flesh - is among the darkest of slasher villains, he possesses a macabre sense of humor and a distinct style and personality. Here are my picks for the entries in the Nightmare series that I think are most worth your time:

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)
Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)