Dreams are sacred to me. I've had countless good ones---repeat appearances by George Clooney and Viggo Mortensen topping the list, and once when I was about eight or nine I dreamed a complete Twilight Zone episode, written from the depths of my subconscience, I guess, with a title, credits, music, and everything. On the other side of the coin, I've had terrible nightmares, too, usually brought on by becoming overheated from too many blankets or layers of clothing (or ahem, watching too many scary movies at too young an age). To think that some horrible villain could invade my dreams regularly is more frightening than I can say; something like that just doesn't seem fair. Freddy Krueger has always freaked me out for that reason---and because he always seems to take such a delight in terrorizing people. I was first introduced to this film by my cousin, Heidi; at the opening segment I expressed skepticism---the creepy, grunting old man just didn't seem scary enough to me (then). "Watch what he's making," she said . . .
A Nightmare on Elm Street, 1984. Written and directed by Wes Craven.
"In the dreams of his victims, a spectral child murderer stalks the children of the members of the lynch mob that killed him." (IMDB).
Tina has bad dreams. She dreams she's in a building with a long hall and a boiler room; there are horrible sounds. Metal clanks, scrapes, steam wooshing, and an unseen man's sinister cackle. Tension builds. Suddenly there's a sheep baa-ing and the man appears. He has sharp knives attached to a sort of glove (that he was shown making in the opening segment) and he corners her inside the boiler room. When she wakes, screaming, there are four vertical slashes down the front of her nightgown. The next night she dreams of him again only this time he's outside her window with arms about fifteen feet wide, working the knife-sounds. And he knows her name. Now, as he attacks her in her dreams, this man manages to actually kill her as she sleeps while her boyfriend watches her thrash and flail about the room, helpless to stop what's happening.
Nancy has bad dreams. She's been dreaming about the same guy. Nancy is distraught by Tina's death, and is convinced the man they both dreamed about (as did both their boyfriends) had something to do with it. In another hauntingly brilliant dream sequence Nancy dozes off during her English class and sees Tina, bloodied up, scooting around on the floor inside a body bag. As Nancy follows, she collides with a hall monitor, who, as she's fleeing, admonishes her with the same knife-glove the man wears, "Hey, Nancy! No running in the hallways!" Later Nancy learns that the man's name is Fred Krueger, he was a filthy child-murderer, and that her parents got together with others from the neighborhood and burned him alive. The trick then becomes getting Freddy Krueger out of the dream world and into the real one so Nancy can finish what her parents started (and kill him again).
In a lot of ways, Freddy Krueger is one of the greatest omnipotent killers to grace horror films. His realm is the dream world, there are no rules, no real barriers or taboos. He can run, disappear, reappear, see from afar, cause objects to move, lengthen his arms, cut off his own fingers, and so on. His knife/glove-contraption almost takes on a life of its own, with its always-preceding scrapes and creaks, making it much scarier than the man who wears it. Or is it? This villain is interesting for many reasons but consider for a moment just how deep the vendetta against these parents really is; he isn't stalking the people who were responsible for his death, he's going after their children, indicating time and time again that he wholly enjoys it, too. There is a tiny sexual subtext as well, if you consider the fact that Freddy's physical attacks on the women are shown several times (he's on top of them, touching them, penetrating them with the knives) but when the men's numbers are up their deaths are shown completely impersonally, with Krueger obviously pulling the strings but being physically absent from the scenes. He's a horrid enemy with a horrid history who can reach you anytime, anywhere, as long as you're sleeping. That's scary.
When considering this film among others of its kind, Wes Craven really must be given props. It's of course a slasher film, but it's got such a distinct flavor and personality that it almost needs its own category, like maybe competent, cinematic, well-written with awesome sound and music (in a group with a few prestigious others such as Rosemary's Baby, Christine, and of course, The Shining). Sadly, the rest of the Nightmare franchise, which I still find fun to watch, do not meet these criteria. This original film is special mostly because of its details---the jump rope chant, the orchestral score of alternating major and minor chords, Tina's bodybag escapades, the reading of Hamlet in Nancy's English class ("were it not that I have bad dreams,") booby traps, coffee makers, and that random sheep in the opening? I can't really envision Craven sitting down to write that scene and then deciding, "this scene is good and all, but it could really use a sheep,"---but hey, as with the long-arms bit, I'm glad he threw it in. If there's any significance to that particular animal (was Freddy, um, you know, into barnyard business, too?) I'd love to know what it is.
One final note on the franchise---earlier this year the documentary film I Am Nancy was released, which examined the Nightmare on Elm street experience from actress Heather Langenkamp's perspective (as the actress who played the original heroine Nancy Thompson several times but was unfortunately forgotten as time went by). If you're a fan of the series, you should check it out.
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