Review #474: A Nightmare on Elm Street.
Cast
Heather Langenkamp (Nancy Thompson), Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger), John Saxon (Don Thompson), Johnny Depp (Glen Lantz), Ronee Blakley (Marge Thompson), Amanda Wyss (Tina Gray), and Nick Corri (Rod Lane) Directed by Wes Craven.
Review
The one that started the whole Nightmare franchise, is a really good film. It delivers its practical effects to great use (Instead of CGI, like that...remake, which if you didn't know, had a terrible rendered Freddy, with the effects making him look like cheese), its actors do a fine job, and Freddy...is really creepy, yet excellent. The story is well paced, and the film never makes you impatiently wait for something to happen, instead the film takes its time, and to that extent, it works very nicely. Langenkamp does a fine job, portraying a mostly normal teen, given all the madness. But Robert Englund, even without as much screen time as the others, steals the show. His voice conveys the evil inside Krueger, and isn't that rare, a slasher/horror villain who actually speaks not named Dracula. The ending is decent, though the original ending was changed to make the possibility of sequels, which they did, without Craven involved. Speaking of Craven, he does a good job directing, never failing to scare when he can. I think one of my favorite scenes is when Freddy jumps through the mirror, with Nancy not expecting it. I do wonder how anybody, especially her parents can't believe here, even though she brings Freddy's hat out of nowhere, but it's that tired cliche for horror films over and over again, but it doesn't taint the film too much. Freddy's effects brings mystery, always in shadow until the ending, a perfect payoff. It's an excellent film, and a good choice for Halloween.
Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.
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