Freddy Krueger is out for revenge as he hunts down the kids of Elm Street in their sleep in this Wes Craven classic. After showing us the creation of the infamous glove with knife-fingers, Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) chases Tina Gray (Amanda Wyss) through a boiler room. The minute she thinks she's safe, he appears from behind and grabs her, only for her to then wake up in bed, where her mom points out four cuts in her nightgown. The next day, Tina shares the story with her friends Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp) and Glen Lantz (Johnny Depp), saying it reminded her of an old jump rope song of theirs, the classic "1, 2, Freddy's coming for you..." After sending away her boyfriend Rod, who is pestering her, Tina asks about a dream Nancy mentioned, but Nancy and Glen suggest she not worry about it, since it was just a dream. Later that night at Tina's house, Glen has a slight issue with a tape he plays while talking to his mom, as he's supposed to be with family. Tina mentions that she spent all day thinking about the man with his weird fingernails, which matches what Nancy dreamed of before: a man in a dirty red and green sweater with some sort of knife-fingered hand that he dragged on things. Glen says it's impossible that they dreamed of the same thing, and when a noise outside spooks them, they go outside and Rod jumps out to give them a scare, having made the noise with a gardening tool. He threatens Glen, apparently jokingly, with a switchblade, and takes Tina upstairs to have sex while Nancy and Glen stay to be there for her and try to sleep. Upstairs, Rod reveals he also had a nightmare recently, but refuses to talk about it and goes to sleep. Tina wakes up later after hearing a noise, and decides to investigate when she can't wake Rod, in the process finding break in the window as someone calls her name. In Nancy's room, a figure suddenly presses against the wall, giving some rather creepy imagery, but she doesn't wake in time to see it. Tina goes outside, following the voice she heard into an alleyway, where Freddy finally steps out in a rather comical way with extended arms, and Tina merely curses. She tries to run, but he appears wherever she goes, since she's dreaming, even when she runs back to the house, where he scares her by slicing off two of his own fingers. He catches her and she tries to wrestle free, while in the real world Rod wakes to find her thrashing around, watching in horrified shock as claw marks appear on her torso and gush blood. Helpless, Rod sees Tina begin floating and get dragged to and along the ceiling, waking Nancy as they scream, and finally Tina's body fall to the bed and the floor. Nancy and Glen finally bust into the blood-soaked room, where they notice Rod has left via the window. Nancy's father, Lt. Donald Thompson (John Saxon), discusses the crime with another officer,w ho is puzzled that a razor weapon was used but not found. He demands to know why Nancy was at another house so late, and with a "psychopath" like Rod, and she snaps that he's not a psychopath and that while he and Tina fought, it was never this bad. She explains they were there because of Tina's nightmare, but doesn't give details other than that someone was trying to kill her. The next morning, a news report about the situation reveals a citywide manhunt for Rod, but Nancy's mother Marge (Renee Blakley) shuts off the tv. Marge doesn't want her going to school, especially since she didn't sleep that night, but relents when Nancy promises to sleep in study hall and return right after school. Noticing someone following her, Nancy takes a different path, where a frantic Rod grabs her, saying he won't hurt her. As he tries to explain what happened, he threatens her for looking at him like he's crazy just as her father arrives. She gets in the way, allowing Rod to run, but other officers surround him and get him on the ground, finding his switchblade in the process. Realizing the man who followed her is a cop, Nancy becomes disgusted that her father used her and leaves for school. There, she becomes bored and dozes off in class, at which point she dreams about Tina's corpse speaking to her. She follows it into the hall, where an unseen force drags it away, and when Nancy gives chase, she runs into a hall monitor who turns out to be Freddy in disguise. Nancy ends up in the boiler room, where Freddy steps out after watching her, then cuts himself open to reveal maggots and yellow ooze. With the exits blocked, she runs deeper into the boiler room where she realizes she's dreaming, and burns her arm to wake up, startling everyone by screaming. The teacher allows Nancy to go home, and as she walks away from the building, she notices a burn mark on her arm. She visits Rod in jail, frustrated as she listens to him try to explain what happened. He says he knew someone was there because the four slashes appeared all at once. She begins listening intently, and Rod tells her about his dream from the night before the murder: there was a man with knives for fingers. This convinces Nancy that he's telling the truth. Nancy goes home and has a bath, and in one of the most iconic shots from the film, Freddy reaches out from the water to slash her. Her mom interrupts, urging her to not fall asleep in the tub, but when she leaves and Nancy falls asleep again, Freddy is able to drag her under. Her mom rushes to unlock the door with a hanger as Nancy screams for help, getting in just as the girl gets out, assuring her she just slipped and is okay. Afraid of falling asleep again, Nancy takes some medicine to help her stay awake, though she is still drowsy as she watches a movie, so she opens the window. To her surprise, Glen is on the terrace outside so she lets him in. He brings up her freakout at school, realizing she hasn't slept since, and becomes confused when she reveals she burned her arm there. She asks if he believes in things like dreaming of the future, and he, knowing what she's getting at, says he's sure Rod's the one who killed Tina. Getting nowhere, she then asks him to stand guard while she looks for Freddy in her dream, and she is soon asleep and out on the streets. She runs to the jail, where she sees Freddy in Rod's cell, and after again seeing Tina, she begs Glen to wake her up, only for Freddy to find her. Running back to her house, Nancy struggles to get up the stairs, with her feet sinking into the steps, and Freddy looks in with a Michael Myers-esque mask of Tina. Nancy gets back to her room, where she finds Glen asleep. She reminds herself it's only a dream, but Freddy leaps out of her mirror and the two wrestle. With Nancy's defenses failing, Freddy goes in for the kill, but her alarm clock wakes her up, and she berates Glen for falling asleep. Her mom checks on her, so she has Glen go back out the window, and when she checks for him, she notices a feather; a remnant of her dream. She and Glen rush over to the jail, where she asks to see Rod again, snapping at the officer there for not understanding her urgency. While Nancy and Glen try to convince the officers, including the surprise entrance of Lt. Thompson, a sheet in Rod's cell slowly wraps itself around his throat. Nancy's dad finally agrees to go check, but they arrive too late; the sheet has pulled Rod up against his cell wall, leading out the window, and hanged him. Nancy attends Rod's funeral and tells her parents the real murderer is out there. When she describes Freddy, her parents become visually upset. Marge takes Nancy to the Katja Institute for Sleep Disorders, where the fear of Freddy makes Nancy reluctant to sleep and dream like they want her to. The doctor discusses the situation with Marge while Nancy sleeps, concluding that she's just a normal girl experiencing what anyone would after traumatic events. Everything proceeds normally as Nancy falls asleep, but when she starts dreaming, the machines go crazy and she goes into a frenzy. They wake Nancy, noticing her hair now has a gray streak, and when she shoves away the doctor's injection to help her sleep, they notice she has scratches on her arms. As they inspect them, Nancy realizes and reveals that she pulled Freddy's hat out of her dream, stunning everyone, especially her mother. Once back at home, Nancy overhears Marge talking about the hat on the phone, confused as to wear she got it. Nancy becomes angry as Marge tries to shrug off the situation, pointing out that Freddy's name is on the hat and demanding to know who he is. Marge slaps Nancy for bringing up her drinking habits, then assures her that she knows Kreuger can't get her. Nancy becomes further enraged upon realizing Marge knew about Krueger but acted like she was making it up, smashing her mother's alcohol bottle and leaving when she suggests just getting some sleep. She meets up with Glen, who reveals he hasn't been sleeping well lately, and suggests she try a Balinese method of sleeping: rather than scream when you have a nightmare, decide to enter a better world. Nancy asks what they do if a monster appears, and Glen states they simply turn their back on it, robbing it of its power. Glen notices she's reading a book about booby traps and says she's starting to scare him when she says she's into survival. Nancy returns home to find bars on the windows. When she demands to know what's going on, Marge invites her to the cellar, where she'll explain everything. There, Marge opens the furnace and reveals that Freddy murdered at least 20 kids in the neighborhood, and that catching him was worse than when he was nameless. Despite the judge and lawyers profiting, Krueger was released due to a search warrant technicality, so the parents found and burned him alive in his boiler room hideout. To assure Nancy that Krueger is dead, Marge unveils what she had hidden in the furnace: his glove. Still certain that there's something more going on, Nancy calls Glen, revealing she hasn't slept in 7 days and that she knows who the killer is. Since she was able to pull his hat out of her dream, she has since decided to try pulling Freddy himself out, at which point she and Glen can beat him. He is skeptical, but she points out that if she can't do it, they don't need to worry because she's just being crazy. Deciding that he'll whack Freddy with something when she pulls him out, she tells Glen to meet her at midnight and be sure to not fall asleep. He does end up falling asleep, but his mom wakes him up after noticing him with his tv and headphones, and tells him he should go to bed. Marge tries to get Nancy to sleep as well, even taking away her coffee maker, but when she leaves, Nancy simply pulls another one out. As she prepares, Glen's parents watch from across the street; his father doesn't want her hanging out with their son anymore. She tries to call him, but he is asleep again. His dad intercepts when his mom answers, then hangs up and leaves the phone hanging. Nancy then gets a return call, hearing knives scraping, and rips the phone out of the wall in fear. To her surprise, she gets another call, which turns out to be Freddy, saying he's her boyfriend now, before turning the bottom part of the phone into his mouth. Realizing that Freddy's after Glen, Nancy rushes downstairs, only to learn her drunken mother locked the house up to ensure she gets some sleep. Across the street, Freddy finally gets Glen, pulling him into a pit in his bed that soon spurts a geyser of blood onto the ceiling for another iconic scene. His mother screams in horror upon finding the blood-soaked room, which soon becomes the sound of an ambulance as paramedics and police arrive. The only one left standing as her dad tries to peace the situation together, Nancy decides she has to act now and take Freddy down. This is one of those classic movies that I honestly didn't see for a long time. I believe this might be way A Nightmare on Elm Street is both a bit scary and hilarious at the same time.
The idea of a killer like Freddy Krueger, who can get you any time you sleep, is pretty terrifying, especially since the only apparent counter is therefore to not sleep. Obviously people have to sleep at some point, and trying to stay awake will only result in you becoming more tired and slipping into sleep more easily without realizing it. I've heard of ways to get out of nightmares since I was a kid, but they're not always easy to implement, especially because it can be hard to realize you're dreaming. Along with the danger to you, there is other the issue of what happens to anyone who happens to be nearby if Freddy gets you, as we see with Rod. Who in their right mind would believe a suspected murderer who claimed the true killer was an invisible man who threw his victim around a room? Further than that, even if you manage to discover Freddy's identity, you'd then be claiming this along with saying that a dead man is the culprit. I don't know about any of you, but I think I would get thrown in the loony bin if I tried to use this as my defense in such a situation. At the same time that this makes Freddy terrifying, he himself is rather comical when you really watch his scenes. Heck, just look at his introduction and tell me you don't think Stretch Kruegstrong doesn't look ridiculous. Tina gives a rather dull reaction to seeing him, which makes it funnier, and then he gives chase with a silly run. This is likely the reason that over time, Freddy became much more comical, like when he uses Jason as a pinball in Freddy vs. Jason. The most likely thing I can think of for Freddy being so silly is that he knows he can easily kill the kids, and as such has decided to toy with them. Considering his glove's weapons are simple knives, no matter how sharp, it's obvious he's not going for immediate kills, at least most of the time. Part of what makes him fun to watch is the excellent performance from Robert Englund, who played the character in ever installment except the 2010 reboot. Englund has excellent cackles that he belts out as he toys with the kids, helping to bolster both the terror and the comedy, and the gravelly voice he gives Freddy helps make him more intimidating. Evidence of Englund's cult status and love from viewers can be seen wherever he goes, as I experienced and saw while watching the makeup competition Face Off. In the first episode of the show's seventh season, Englund appeared as a guest judge for an assignment where the makeup artists applied prosthetics. I became excited along with the contestants as McKenzie Westmore introduced him, with the artists erupting into cheers when he was announced and walked out. Englund then continued the experience with excited chills by growling a guttural "You're all my children now!" This movie also saw the first performance from Johnny Depp, as Glen, and of course he would rise to fame with roles in such films as What's Eating Gilbert Grape and Edward Scissorhands, and receiving praise as Jack Sparrow. A more recent issue with this, however, comes after allegations that he has been physically abusive with his former wife Amber Heard. This post isn't about these allegations, and I know I'm definitely not informed enough to make a statement about them, so I'll just take a quick look at his character here. Glen honestly doesn't say too much in the movie, mostly just reacting to things that Nancy is saying, but the performance is still good. He feels like an actual teenager, especially when Nancy begins to believe the strange dream ideas and he thinks she's a bit kooky. A lot of his best moments come when he's giving a snarky response to the things Nancy is suggesting about the murders. Heather Langenkamp is great as Nancy, expressing genuine concern in her friends as things spiral out of control, and true fear as she becomes a target. The best example of this is the classroom scene, where she smartly wakes herself up and gives a great performance of fear, leaping out of her desk and swatting at the air as she screams in terror. There are also great technical aspects to this movie, down to the seemingly simple choice of wardrobe for Freddy. His classic look involved a red-and-green sweater, and artists will know this is an odd combination of colors. As opposing sides of the color wheel, red and green can complement each other and are used for Christmas, but tehy can also clash. According to a list on Halloween Love, Craven originally had the sweater as red and yellow, but learned red and green are the hardest colors for the human eye to process. The colors also play into Freddy's abilities, as although he can shapeshift, red and green often appear in the forms he takes. Another technical aspect comes from two of the murder scenes: Tina's and Glen's share the same special room. To film the scenes, in which Tina was launched to the ceiling and blood launched from Glen's bed, the room was rotated 180 degrees, according to the A Nightmare on Elm Street Fandom Wikipedia. Though it does have some dated and silly aspects, A Nightmare on Elm Street is a slasher classic from horror great Wes Craven (Rest in peace, sir) and is worth a watch.
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