Just as Jaws made you afraid to go into the water A Nightmare on Elm Street makes you afraid to fall asleep. Wes Craven has created the modern day bogeyman that can only get to you in your most vulnerable place-your unconscious.In the town of Springwood a group of four friends (which includes Johnny Depp) begin to have nightmares about a razor fingered man in a red sweater and old brown hat: Freddy Krueger. Things go from bad to worse as the group is picked off one by one in their dreams by Freddy until it's down to the lone heroine (Heather Langenkamp) going militia on Freddy.
Wes Craven's creation was probably one of the most frightening images of 1980's horror cinema. That is until a long line of sequels that slowly turned him into a Don Rickles from hell, throwing off one liners as he dealt with the never ending supply of Elm Street children. But in the original film (and to a lesser degree the second one) Kruger (played by Robert Englund) is the embodiment of fear. Craven uses those weird dreamlike qualities to give those sleep sequences the feel of a dream: an example is the arms when they reach between two buildings in the alley. Your safest place is in your bed and even that is shattered in this film.
This is a horror masterpiece. It's one of those films that defined itself and didn't allow itself to become defined by its genre. The problem is the sequels that followed it, each becoming more and more camp as the numbers grew higher. Leave the first one as a standalone film and it's a great achievement on Craven's part. take it as part of the never ending series and it becomes diluted in the crazy scenarios and one liners of the following films.
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