Freddy Krueger is a proper pop culture icon, appearing in video games, cartoons (as Scary Terry in Rick and Morty, the classic The Shinning episode of The Simpsons and many others) and been turned into a Funko Pop figure... the final insult. However, I didn't know that much about this pop culture icon, to be honest.
I knew of Freddy Krueger, as I was born in 1981 and his presence was everywhere like Swarzenegger, Stallone, Mr. T, Michael Jackson, Princess Di and Prince Charles so you couldn't escape his stripey junpered presence. However, I had only seen a short clip of a Nightmare on Elm Street film at a friend's house wayyy too young. It was a scene when Freddy turns into a worm in a doll's house and begins to eats a young woman. The scene scarred me, as I was only about 8 year old at the time, and gave me nightmares for years after. When I plucked up the courage to watch the first film it was when I was in my late teens and it seemed hokey and jokey not terrifying. I watched the third film, The Dream Warriors, several years ago and enjoyed it but, once again, never got around to watching the rest. It remained a blind spot in my filmography so, when I saw the 7 disc boxset at the local Oxfam I picked it up and decided to watch them all in order.
Here are brief synopsis of the films and my thoughts on each.
A Nightmare On Elm Street
Nancy and her friends live on the same street, Elm Street, and are all having the same nightmare featuring the same mysterious figure. Who is he and what does he want? As Nancy, her boyfriend and others get closer to the truth the body count rises. Nancy is the last girl standing and confronts the figure in the shadowy dream realm.
This is a great premise for a movie and Heather Langenkamp plays the lead character extremely well. She is a relatable and likable teen, quite a feat for a 19 year old at the time, and is fearless in taking the fight to Freddy. Her boyfriend Glen, played by a young Johnny Depp, is a great audience surrogate who doesn't understand what is going on but does let her down by falling asleep a couple of times when she needs him most. His death is spectacularly memorable and the whole film is a pretty enjoyable affair with lots of flair shown in the set design and special effects department. The film has stood the test of time and is still worth a look today.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge
Five years after the events of the first film, a new family moves into the Thompson house. The teen son starts to have nightmares of Freddy and learns of the murders, which his father ignored as he 'got a great price on the house.' However, as the boy starts to feel possessed he tried to resist the rising blood lust which would bring Freddy back from the beyond.
This is apparently not a well like sequel and I can see why - the main character Jesse, played quite wooden by Mark Patton, is not an interesting or sympathetic character. The love interest girlfriend Lisa, played by Kim Myers, looks like the mix of James Spader and Meryl Streep. She seems to really be into Jessie but I don't know why as he's an annoying muppet. She is the final girl in this film and does okay but is no Nancy. The final showdown in the factory is a bit of a let down and Freddy flails a lot in this. Overall, this film was pretty bad and I can imagine that, at the time, people being disappointed to have this clunky sophomore slump after the unique first film. In all fairness, Freddy's Revenge is not alone in being the weirdo outlier that tried something different after an impressive original, just look at Zelda 2, Super Mario Bros. 2, Halloween 3: Season of the Witch. I admire that they tried something different but boy was this a piss poor followup.
A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
After the horrific events of the last two films, the traumatised Elm Street teens are placed into a psychiatric ward. However, when Freddy returns to haunts their dreams the OG final girl and now hotshot Nightmare Researcher Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp) returns to help these Dream Warriors fight him at his own game.
I remember thinking when I saw this about 10 years ago that the kids chose shitty weapons to go against Freddie. That one girl who brings flick knives to a big knife fight is a muppet as I would have gone for a bazooka or uzi. Simples!
Watching this again I really appreciated it and do think that it has stood the test of time well. Patricia Arquette and Larry (Lawrence) Fishburn are in this and show their acting chops even if Arquette's papier-mâché making skills are naff at the beginning of the film. Her hand-crafted doll's house is proper creepy and a suitably spooky spot for Freddy to come through.
I also loved the various special effects like the claymation Freddy that strings up a boy using his arteries and veins- a very creative killing indeed.
A nice surprise was seeing Angelo Badalamenti's name come up in the opening credits as I didn't remember that he'd created the soundtrack. This scary soundtrack early on in his Hollywood career before finding it big alongside David Lynch is great, not 'I'm gonna buy the soundtrack on vinyl' great but wonderful when placed alongside the cinematography of the film.
Overall, this is one of the best regarded Elm Street films and it's easy to see why; the iconic "Welcome to prime time, bitch!" is dropped here but also it's just a solid tale of teens coming together to battle a common evil and we can all get behind that.
A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master
The dead and consecrated body of Freddy Krueger rises again and Kristen (played ably by Tuesday Knight and not the then pregnant Rosanna Arquette) reunite with Kincaid and Joey to fight him. It's all thanks to Jason, Kincaid's weird dog and his flaming hot wee ritual.
On a quest for revenge, Freddy seeks out those who killed him in the last film and it's up to final girl Kristen after the other two are wiped out pretty early on. It's no real spoiler to say that she doesn't survive for very long and so ends the line of the Elm Street parents' kids but not before passing on the torch to Alice, her best friend with a special power.
This is a pretty solid sequel with some creative deaths, especially Joey's waterbed death. The new character of Alice (ably played with wide eyed terror by Lisa Wilcox), who has the power to manipulate dreams, is a good addition as she adds another wrinkle into the tried and tested formula as she gains the powers of her fallen friends. However, compared to the previous film the acting is slightly more stilted and overwritten in places. It's not bad by any means but it isn't up to par as the broad comedic strokes get wider and the series becomes more of a spoof with Jaws and The Karate Kid skits with Robert Englund enjoying himself immensely. Having said that, I do like the lore of the two gates of dreams and nightmares with Freddy being the gatekeeper of the latter. It reminds me of how the lore of the Joker in a recent Batman comic, where he is an agent of chaos that has always existed in different incarnations, makes the work more existential and powerful as it hints at something bigger than just an annoying bogeyman.
A Nightmare On Elm Street 5: The Dream Child
Seeking revenge on Dream Master Alice, who defeated him in Elm Street 4, Freddy manages to return through the dreams of her unborn child. Through this loophole, he returns to his murderous ways and continues to kill Alice's friends.
This film is a solid continuation of the series and continues to tell Alice's tale. The deaths are suitably creative but I want to mention the matt painting of the gothic church as it is incredibly impressive and the looong dimly lit corridors are eerie. I also like that another bit of lore is dropped with Melicertes, the King who kills kids because they ruined the way his kingdom is run even it wasn't elaborated on but thrown in... not for foreshadowing either. Overall, this is an okay film and, even though it is the 4th sequel, still pretty good for what it is.
A Nightmare On Elm Street 6: Freddy's Dead - The Final Nightmare
Freddy latches on to the soul of some poor 'Littlest Hobo' type amnesiac sap who ends up in Springwood, a random town well away from Elm Street. He ends up in a shelter where he meets other youths who all have complex backgrounds with trauma. Needless to say, Freddy gets into the dreams of the youths and starts to mess with them.
This is a poor film as it is too light and modern feeling, lacking the colour palette and mood of its predecessors. There isn't a charismatic or strong lead and it all feels pretty darn disappointing. The deaths themselves lack the creativity of earlier installments and seems very cheesy, especially the videogame death that has awful graphics. Overall, this film can be swerved as it is awful.
A Nightmare On Elm Street 7: Wes Craven's New Nightmare
In a surprisingly meta twist, the Dream Stalker comes back from the dead to haunt the stars of the original film and director Wes Craven. As fiction and reality blur, Heather Langenkamp worries that she is losing her mind but is Freddy really back?
It was great to see Heather Langenkamp back in a meta role and the story is clever enough to keep you intrigued throughout.
Overall, I've really enjoyed working my way through these films and filling in that pop culture knowledge gap I've had. I think the films are pretty good for what they are, for the most part. Sure, part 2 and 6 are pretty awful but 1, 3, 4 and 5 tell a cohesive and coherent story with good character arcs what New Nightmare tries something a bit out there and mostly succeeds.
Horror has always been a good testing ground for creativity and inventiveness when it comes to special effects and this series is no different. Across the films we see the use of matte paintings, early CGI, stop-motion, animation and practical effects which are all uniformly impressive and, whilst they show their age now, they must have been impressive for the time considering the tight budgets they were under. Give the series a watch if you haven't before as it is definitely with your time.
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