For me, Freddy Krueger will always be the king of the 80s’ serialized, supernatural horror movie killers. Michael Meyers and Jason Voorhees never really did it for me. They just pale in comparison to a guy who kills you in your dreams. So it seems only appropriate to kick off this Horror Movie Revue with Wes Craven’s Freddy Krueger, the Nightmare on Elm Street.
The original A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) suffers from the same issues that many of the old horror movies do. Namely: the technology just wasn’t there for the directors to really pull off their vision, so when we look back on them they seem more comical than horrifying. This is okay with me, because I love old “awesome-terrible” horror movies. If you’re with me on that, and you haven’t checked out Mr. Krueger, you should do yourself a favor and get on that this October. Also, you get to see a fresh faced young Johnny Depp in his very first feature film role get (minor spoiler alert) turned into a fountain of gravity-defying blood.
As far as character creation goes, Freddy Krueger is actually pretty brilliant. A supernatural killer with power over the dream world offers up nearly endless sequel possibilities. Especially since, being a dream figure, Freddy not only represents but can also tap into the subconscious fears of his victims. This allows for a lot of variation, and a lot of really creative scenes. One of the most disappointing things about the early Elm Street movies is that they don’t play on these possibilities quite enough. For example in the original, there is a scene where primary protagonist Nancy tries to run up a flight of stairs, only to have the stairs turn into a sticky goo beneath her feet. It would have been nice if there was more of this classic, dream-like stuff. But again: time, financial, and technological restrictions need to be taken into account.
Since all (or most) of the big kills happen inside the dream world, you can easily explain away the characters’ illogical actions with the phrase “dream logic.” This is one of the most convenient things about the Elm Street concept, and alleviates an issue that often causes people to shout at their televisions when they’re watching horror movies. Instead of saying something like, “Why the hell would she go into that basement instead of running like crazy?” we intuitively understand that being in a dream makes you do illogical things sometimes.
Freddy is your classic grinning-sadist archetype, and he loves to toy with his prey. Particularly by playing on their deepest fears. These games become more elaborate and interesting as the series progresses, but we still get a good sense for Freddy’s potential in the original. Primary among these is the film’s ability to make you question the reality of what is happening. False awakenings are common in the Elm Street movies, as well as characters not realizing they have fallen asleep until it’s too late–cue the spooky, synth-heavy 80s movie score. This toying with the boundary between real and imaginary is one of the most interesting ways in which the movie messes with you.
Revisiting one of my old horror favorites yesterday turned into a mini marathon. And if you haven’t run through the Elm Street movies before, I cannot stress enough that you should pretend A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985) doesn’t exist, and never happened. It is absolutely terrible in almost every way. Primary among my complaints: Freddy doesn’t act like Freddy. They tried to turn him into some kind of generic poltergeist instead of the horrifying dream-world killer he is. (Wes Craven had nothing to do with the second installment, and you can feel the influence of producers who had no idea why the original one was so awesome.) I could go off on all the reasons I despised this movie, but instead I’ll just suggest that you give it a pass and go straight to A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors (1987). Wherein Freddy gets back to doing what Freddy does best: murdering the hell out of adolescents in psychologically upsetting and creative ways in their dreams.
Oh, and one more thing: do yourself a favor and don’t ever watch the 2010 remake. It is terrible. (Big shocker: Michael Bay was one of the remake’s producers.)
In any case, it’s October, go watch a horror movie already! And if you’re not sure which one to pick up then keep an eye on the BigShinyRobot article feed this month, because we’ll be bringing you our take on a ton of horror classics over the coming weeks.