Retro Horror Movie Night: A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

A couple of weeks back, a few friends and I gathered for another retro-horror-movie night. The lucky film this time? Wes Craven’s “A Nightmare on Elm Street”. If you can believe it, the original A Nightmare on Elm Street was released on November 16, 1984, which is about 27.5 years ago. That certainly dates me- I was 3 years old at the time! Sure, there have been many sequels over the years, but the original holds a special place in my heart. And by special place, I mean that I remember being scarred from it as a child. Yes, I was desensitized to horror movies at an early age, but I turned out fine. I think.

SPOILER ALERT! If you have yet to see this movie and you’re dying to, don’t look at the following screen caps. With that said, the awesomeness and cheesiness of the movie can’t be captured in the images, so you should watch regardless :D.

According to the IMBD entry: “In the dreams of his victims, a spectral child murderer stalks the children of the members of the lynch mob that killed him.” Sounds about right. That spectral child murderer, Freddy Krueger, was a horrifying sight for me as a kid…. his burned, evil appearance… his hat… his glove of knives he uses to slash his victims… followed by blood that goes everywhere. Eek! And that song: 

“One, Two, Freddy’s coming for you,

Three, Four, better lock your door,

Five, Six, grab your crucifix,

Seven, Eight, gotta stay up late,

Nine, Ten, never sleep again.” 

It isn’t easy to fall asleep when you’re a child with this song stuck in your head, especially when you think Freddy is going to kill you in your dreams. Yikes!

Even years later, I feel that that A Nightmare on Elm Street still has some frightening moments, especially in the scenes where Freddy is chasing his victims. However, the 80’s rock music played during the supposed scary parts really detracts from the fright. And the acting was pretty bad. And there was a lot of cheesy dialogue. And the fashion was a bit off, but what do you expect from the 80’s. At the end of the day though, it’s still a classic and I love it!

There’s no escaping Freddy Krueger!

The interesting thing I found out was that A Nightmare on Elm Street was the movie from which Johnny Depp got his start! A quick IMBD search and elementary mathe-magical subtraction reveal that he was 21 at the time of the movie’s release. Crazy talk! He does meet his demise in the movie, and Wes Craven made sure he wasn’t coming back.

Funniest part of the movie? After the main character, Nancy, loses her boyfriend Glen (Johnny Depp’s character), she gets a suspicious phone call. Why suspicious? Because the phone is unplugged! Omg. But she answers it anyway.

Nancy: Hello?…

Freddy Krueger: I’m your boyfriend now, Nancy.

Then this happens…

Just brilliant. I would love to comment about the very end of the movie too, but I don’t want to spoil everything on here. Needless to say, it involves the following chilling scene. For this scene alone, I highly recommend watching A Nightmare on Elm Street.