Here's a movie I'm sure everyone, horror fan or not knows about, with probably the most iconic killer since Norman Bates wore his mothers dress and stabbed Janet Leigh while she was taking a shower in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.
That 'bastard son of a hundred maniacs' himself, Freddy krueger (Robert Englund).And the movie? Why, the original A Nightmare on Elm Street of course.
I was around fourteen when I watched my first A Nightmare on Elm Street movie which was part four, The Dream Master. For some reason, when I was younger, I remember my mother and father renting the original A Nightmare on Elm Street, and them saying we will see if you can watch it, but me and your dad are going to watch it first. I had never known them to do this before, but I remember waking up the next morning, while getting ready for school and my mother saying that I wasn't allowed to watch it, as she didn't get past the bit where a young girl was being tossed around the room by an unseen force.
Of course, me being a fan of all things horror even back then, I felt like I had to see this movie. I kept pestering my parents for it, but they would not give in and the fact that the TV show Freddy's nightmares had an advertising campaign where it referred to Freddy as The dream demon really didn't help matters along.
After watching The dream master, I liked Freddy. Not as much as Jason, but he did manage to make me smile, and he was cruel AND cool.
So it was with great excitement that I began watching the original A Nightmare on Elm Street. What hit me first was the atmosphere. This was a very creepy film. Then I saw Freddy, and boy did he seem different than he was in The dream master. He seemed more cruel, more evil.
We see Freddy as he stands in an alleyway, his arms elongating, sparks flying from the razors on his glove as he drags them along the wall, scaring poor Tina (Amanda Wyss) almost to death. For some reason, this is one of the images in the movie that stuck in my mind. Tina then awakens and soon we are introduced to Tina's friends, who are Rod (Nick Corri) who is Tina's rebel boyfriend, Glen (Johnny Depp), and Nancy (Heather Lagenkamp). As the teens are talking at school, they discover they have all been having the same dream involving the same man pursuing them.
Later that night, the friends have a get together and Rod and Tina share an intimate time together. While they are both asleep, Tina has a nightmare involving the man again, but this time he catches her and she grabs onto his face, sliding it off and revealing a smiling skull underneath. Then we cut to the bedroom, where Tina is struggling while lying next to Rod. I had a feeling the bit of the film my mum didn't manage to get past was coming up.
Tina then has 4 long cuts appear on her abdomen, and as blood pours from the wound, she is lifted up by an unseen attacker, where she is spun around, headbutting Rod knocking him over, and then she is dragged onto the ceiling where she is then dropped onto the bed underneath with blood splashing all over Rod. Nancy and Glen rush into the room to find Rod gone, and Tina dead, which makes Rod the main suspect.
From then on, for me it was horror by numbers, apart from a few scenes which i will mention now, and the ending which I have to say, ruined the whole damn movie for me.
One of the scenes I really liked is where Nancy is falling asleep, and Freddy appears pushing through the wall above where Nancy is lying, as if hes trying to break into the real world to get at her. She then proceeds to put a crucifix on the wall, therefore stopping him from breaking through.
Another scene I enjoyed is where Nancy is on the telephone to Freddy, and his tongue and lips appear on the phone, and Nancy drops it in fear. I also enjoyed Glen's death , as I had never seen so much blood in a film before, and was amazed at how they could do it. (It wasn't until I read Robert Englund's Biography Hollywood monster that I found out how it was done).
Now onto the ending. I really enjoyed the battle between Freddy and Nancy, but when you have a guy who can invade people's dreams, who has murdered many people, and you can destroy him by calling him nothing and shit, it ruined it for me. He was powerful. He was the Ultimate evil, or at least that's what I saw him as, and him being destroyed that way just didn't do it for me. In fact, it really did ruin the whole film for me, and I'm sure it goes a long way to explaining why I have never ever found Freddy Krueger even slightly scary. Anyway, here is the original trailer for A nightmare on elm street.
You can also buy the original movie from Amazon by clicking here.
Or you can buy the complete A nightmare on Elm Street box set, which contains all seven movies (and no, that doesn't include the remake) on DVD by clicking here, or if you prefer to buy them all on Blu Ray, click here.
Until next time, drink beer, listen to metal and watch horror and gore all damn day and night.
Darkest regards........Dani.
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