A Nightmare on Elm Street

Rating:
Summary: ANightmare on Elm Street gives Nightmares...and that's good!
Review: This is the best horror film so buy it today!

Rating:
Summary: An Original Wes Craven masterpiece!
Review: IF NANCY DOSEN'T WAKE UP SCREAMING SHE WON'T WAKE UP AT ALL.

I love this MOVIE. I THINK FREDDY IS SO MUCH BETTER THAN THAT BRAINLESS JASON. I DIDN'T THINK THIS ONE WAS SCARY AT ALL. BUT MY FAVORITE DEATH IN THAT MOVIE HAS TO BE WHEN JOHNNY DEPP DIES. HE GOES IN THE BED THEN BLOOD COMES OUT. THAT IS SUCH A MEMORABLE SCENE FOR ME. TO BAD THE DVD ONLY HAVE ONE THING IN IT. AND THATS THAT THEATRICAL TRAILER. IT ALSO HAS A CAST AND CREW THING BUT I DON'T LIKE TO LOOK AT THAT. IT ALSO HAS JUMP TO A DEATH MENU. SO IF YOU ARE A FREDDY FAN OR A HORROR FAN (LIKE ME) YOU MUST I REPEAT YOU MUST SEE THIS FILM RIGHT AWAY. IT IS GREAT.

THERE IS OVER 1 MINUTE OF SPECIAL FEATURES ON THIS DVD!

Rating:
Summary: The one that started it all.
Review: Just recently, I saw the first Nightmare on Elm Street, and I was impressed. At first, I wasn't expecting a whole lot. Especially not from a horror movie from such a long time ago and on a small budget. But somehow, Wes Craven did it, and made me jump a little bit, even after seeing tons of messed up things in other movies and online. The ideas this guy had back then is unheard of. And creating the character of Freddy is something we should all be thanking him for. I can't say anything that hasn't already been said in the other reviews, but I'll enforce its high rating.

I'm sure you all know the story by now. It's only been common sense for movie watchers since it first came out. But, if by some amazing fluke you haven't, here's how it goes: A small group of teenagers get together and spend the night in the protagonist's (Nancy) house. But without warning, one of them gets killed in their sleep. She's dragged accross the walls, the bed, and even the ceiling before plummeting on the bed with claw marks all over her. What happened? Freddy happened, that's what. Freddy kills you in your sleep. The idea worked back then, and it holds to this day. It did for sleeping what Psycho did for showers. We soon find out from Nancy's mom that Freddy was a child killer who took children into his boiler room and murdered them a few years back. Because of a technicality (they always say this but it's never revealed what it actually is), he was free to go after the trial. All of the parents of the murdered children got together and burned him alive. Nancy's mom though, happens to be one of the kids from said parents who killed Freddy. But he's back, and is killing their children's children. One by one, the teens get picked off, and it's up to Nancy to end everything somehow. How she does it is pretty cool: she finds out that by grabbing ahold of something in her dreams, she's able to take it back into the real world with her when she wakes up. She does so with Freddy's hat, and uses this in order to put a stop to him. A lot of the deaths here aren't as amusing as those in the next installments, but they're still effective, if a little silly. Just look at all the blood that launches out from Johnny Depp's bed when he's pulled in. And there are some great effects visually, like when Freddy's pressing though a wall. This was done with a sheet of spandex. 'funny how if that was done today, it'd cost a couple thousand dollars and be done on computers.

There are no upgrades for the visual quality really. But there is a Dolby 5.1 audio track which is great. They threw this in all the other NoES movies and it works perfectly. All of the screams and stabs are heard the way they were meant to be. There's still a lot of grain and fuzzyness in the picture, which I'm hoping will be cleaned up in the box set if the movies in that are in fact remastered.

Sadly, NoES has just one special feature: an extremely boring commentary with Wes, Heather and a few others. It's not insightful or entertaining. There're a lot of pauses and everyone sounds bored. What I'd like to know is why Robert Englund isn't on this track. But it's from the laserdisc version, as everyone mentions how clear everything looks "on this laserdisc". It would've been nice if they made a newer commentary track if only to have everyone actually excited to be doing it. But that's all there is for the special feature. And yet it's still more than the other NoES movies. It's actually amusing how only the first and very last Nightmare movies have actual special features. I say this in all of my Nightmare movie reviews in case people just read this movie page: save up for the big Nightmare box set. It has a disc dedicated to special features and saves you money in getting the set alone than it would buying each movie individually.

There's no going wrong with purchasing Nightmare on Elm Street. It's one of the top 5 horror movies of all time, as voted in many polls. And after watching it, I'll go ahead and say that it lives up to the hype. Watching it now for the first time, it may not have as much effect on you, but you'll definately remember it. Besides, you can't help but respect a guy who runs around in a Sesame Street sweater when he kills people. You have to be some kinda bad-ass to wear one of those and scare people to death.

Rating:
Summary: A real "Slasher" movie
Review: Before watching the original Nightmare on Elm Street, I had only seen the numerous Nightmare sequels and Freddy Vs. Jason. As strange as it seems, it's the best way to watch them; subjecting yourself to the inferior but still fun sequels and then comparing it to the original. For me, it really worked a treat. Shocking visuals, a genuinely chilling murderer, young buxom girls getting slashed, a career-making turn from Robert Englund and Johnny Depp in his first ever movie. The best of the long-going series, and an essential for any horror movie night.