Just some reviews/inside look of both Nightmare 1&2 I did on my site. More to come.
It's October, the month of horror. I shall begin the celebrations early as we take an inside look at all of the Nightmare On Elm Street films, starting at the beginning.
Nightmare On Elm Street is a horror movie directed by Wes Craven that hit theaters in 1984. Freddy Kruger was a villain like no other. He didn't try to kill you while you were awake, he killed you in your dreams. There was always something so terrifying about dying in your dreams. Sleeping should be your one place to escape from reality at the end of the day, but your now faced with a burnt man with a metal clawed glove on he's hand in your dreams.
Nancy Thompson plays a young teenager who is having nasty nightmares about Freddy. In the movie her boyfriend is Glenn Lantz played by Johhny Depp, who is more interested in sex then anything else. **** begins to go down as Freddy kills Nancy's friend, Tina. Tina has one of the most iconic horror deaths. Before she is killed she gets chased by Fred who is just playing games with her. This has to be some of the best parts in the film. Freddy stretching he's arms, running like a ****ing drunk lunatic, cutting he's fingers off, ripping off the face and of course finishing her off by dragging on up the wall across the ceiling as she is being ripped to shreds.
The rest of the film is Nancy being harassed by the springwood slasher as she tries to figure out who Freddy is. We don't find much about Freddy in the first installment. Just that he was a child murderer and suggested pedophile who was burned alive in a boiler room by the parents of Elm Street when he got out of jail due to a technicality. The technicality was because a search warrant wasn't signed right. Nancy our hero has a plan. Drag Freddy out of her dream into the real world. She does this by waking up holding on to Fred and then knock him out by Home Alone type traps she made. The plan kinda goes off track as Glen is meant to wake up Nancy from her dream but the lazy bastard falls off to dreamland resulting in he's death. But no worries, Nancy drags Freddy into the real world anyway and lights he's ass on fire. But this results in Freddy smothering Nancy's Mom in flames. At the end Nancy defeats Kruger by turning her back on him. Now wasn't that much easier? So the end comes, Nancy's friends and Mom are alive, everything is swell...until we realize it's just a dream as Freddy bests everyone.
The first Nightmare On Elm street is a fantastic movie. Eerie, dark and plenty great visuals. Freddy Kruger is an amazing villain who has an eerie humours side to him. The score also brings the creepiness to a whole new level which would again be played throughout the series.
Overall I give Nightmare On Elm Street 5 out of 5
Fun Facts
Heather Langenkamp worked as a copy girl for a newspaper before she got the role.
- Robert Englund was not the first choice to play Freddy, Craven wanted a stuntman to play Kruger.
- Nancy watches The Evil Dead to stay awake, it wasn't a scene but the trailer.
- In one scene with see a ripped poster from The Evil Dead, in The Evil Dead we see a ripped from The Hills Have Eyes directed by Wes Craven.
- This was the first real movie by New Line Cinema. Before that, they were just a distribution company for college campuses.
- Freddy was originally meant to be a silent character like Myers and Jason
- The words "Elm Street" are not mentioned at all during the movie.
- This was Johnny Depps first film.
- John F. Kennedy was killed while traveling on Elm Street in Dallas
This is the follow up to the inside look at the Nightmare On Elm street film series. You can read the previous inside look
here. The next installment is called A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddys Revenge and it's one hell of a weird film. Before we dive into the plot and the ****ed up scenarios that this film presents, I'd like to note that director and writer Wes Craven was not on board for this sequel. Instead he was replaced in both areas. Craven said he never intended for a sequel to be made and that disliked the script. I can see why. The plot never really made sense to me.
Freddy's Revenge takes place 5 years after the events of the first movie. Nancy and her dad have moved out of there home and now a new family live there, The Walshes. Jesse, the son in the family begins to have nightmares about Fred, who wants to possess the body of Jesse so he can come back to life...Ok hold it right there. Didn't Freddy get dragged into the real world in the first movie which made him kinda powerless? No worries, this movie ignores that and Freddy does have some power. He does some cool **** with this power too, like making dogs have human baby faces...Hey I told you this film would be weird. Jesse has a squeeze in this film who helps him fight Freddy from coming out of he's body. This is Freddy's weak point. Jesse's girlfriend defeats Freddy by telling him she loves him. Jesse overpowers the possession of Fred with the power of love. Ah love, nothing can defeat it.
One of the weakest things about this film is the lack of Freddy who is not in it much and when he is, he acts like ***** due to sharing the same feelings with Jesse. This weak aspect to the film is followed by some bizarre scenes like Jesse walking into some random gay club bumping into his school coach. Now you'd think the coach would ask Jesse to keep what happened between them a secret, but not this coach, he is a real *******. He brings Jesse to the basketball court and makes him run laps, all while the couch is wearing his leather outfit.
Overall this movie is good to watch with friends just for a laugh. It's one of the weakest in the series but it's not the worst. When I get to the worst Nightmare movie you'll know it, because I'm going to rip it into **** shreds.
Overall I give A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge a 2/5
Fun Facts
- Mark Patton, the actor who portrays Jesse, is in fact gay. If you don't know the movie has a very homoerotic theme.
- Robert Enguld to plays Freddy is seen without make-up driving the school bus at the beginning of the movie.
- Brad Pitt auditioned for the role of Jesse.
- The running time for this film is 87 minutes, Freddy appears in just 13 of them.
