So I love horror movies, and I love trash. And I love trashy horror movies.
So right away I would have thought A Nightmare on Elm street would be perfect for me. So I decided, as I do that I would binge the entire franchise...and so I did, from the first one up until the eventual reboot.
So lets dive deep into the franchise and see where this mish mash of horror tropes, cliches, and plots as thin as freddies finger knive things.
Each day i'll go into one of the movies in the timeline, so lets get the first one out of the way.
A Nightmare on Elm Street
This film starts off simple enough in the town of Spring wood Ohio. teenagers being teenagers in the 80's. Booze, sex and rock and roll. And lots of noisy sex.
One the teens has recurring dreams of being stalked by a sinister shadowy man in a dingy hat and claws for fingers. While she's at sleep over with her friends, and having annoyingly loud sex she falls asleep and is acosted by her dream stalker. The scene in which she is killed is actually fairly well done for the time, with her being dragged through the air and eviscerated all while her boyfriend watches helplessly.
She dies horribly, and he runs off scared out of his mind and thus a manhunt ensues for the boyfriend thinking that he killed his girlfriend out of jealousy.
Then we're introduced to Nancy, a recurring character and one of the main faces of the franchise. She's just a normal teen (whose dad is also a sherriff) and not much else. She then starts having similar dreams of her recently deceased friend...and then we get to see freddy much much more clearly. And his introduction is not really what I was expecting. The first time we see Freddy he's pretty much a cartoon character
It's actually a good establishing shot for him, even though it's rather silly it showcases the absurdity of what freddy is capable of and how he can do whatever he wants in the dream world. So anyway, Nancy has a few Dreams where freddy chases her and he doesnt really seem to do much other than play with her and have a good time about it. (The word bitch is thrown around quite often)
It should be noted that even though one of her friends died in such a horrific manner, nothing changes and nobody really seems to care all that much since the very next day everyone seems to just move on like nothing happened but the changing of the weather.
Anyway, Nancy becomes plagued by freddy in her dreams and refuses to sleep lest she freddy again. Everyone thinks she nuts, and rightly so. But she keeps producing evidence of freddy being real, inlcuding physical evidence at times in teh form of wounds and even his hat.
Nancy finds out that her parents all know who Freddy is, but dont believe her because Freddy was a horrible child murderer that they all formed a mob to kill for themselves after he was released on a technicality. So they mobbed up and burned him alive. So everything is fine and Nancy should get some rest. Except Nancy still has the dreams and more of her friends get killed...including her boyfriend.
This dude gets it so hard, you dont even see what happens besides the aftermath. In full view of his mother even.
Anyway, Nancy gets fed up with being tormented and her friends killed and plans a way to kill Freddy somehow (Her plan is terrible) and creates home alone-esque traps to fuck with freddy once she gets her hands on him and bring him into the real world.
Cue an 80s montage of gadget making and later Nancy gets her hands on Freddy after he just slashes the air and knocks over a few things in the way (this will be a recurring trend since Freddy seems to have absolutely terrible hand eye coordination) She pulls him into the real world and hijinks ensue. But oh no, she's now trapped in the real world with Freddy and nothing seems to kill him anyway. So now he's lit on fire because somehow that's supposed to be his weakness...only he just runs off to go kill Nancys mom instead. And she instantly gets turned into a burned skeleton and gets lowered down into hell....for some reason. Also in full view of Nancy and her father too.
For some reason after all this, Nancy thinks if she just turns her back on freddy and refuses to believe in him...that all his power will stop and her friends and family will come back. She does this and Freddy dissapears into purple light.
Cue the next morning, Nancy says goodbye to her mom...and joins her friends for school like nothing every happened...except they get trapped in the Freddy mobile and sped off down the road while Nancy's mom obliviously watches...
FIN
My thoughts
As the first movie in the franchise, this one actually holds up pretty well. It's dated for sure. But theres alot of charm to it in a nostalgia way. But it's also very thin in terms of plot or depth.
There's no rhyme or reason given for Freddy's abilities or why he's able to invade peoples dreams. The only thing we know at this point is that Freddy was a horrible child murder, he was gotten off atfer getting caught because of a technicality, and that the parents of SpringWood took it upon themselves to enact vigilante justice. Thats it. Nothing more than that. But he's back now and he's killing their kids for revenge.
It's simple, but...why is he a dream boogieman all of a sudden? no reason...he just is. (as of now)
There's nothing more to be said, beside that the effects and the deaths are very well done for the budget and time and are very effective and being truly horrifying expressions of Freddy's powers.
However Freddy himself is a silly caricature that is just kind of too damn goofy to take seriously
A Nightmare on Elm Street was a simple and humble beginning to a franchise that simply didnt know when to die, how to die or what direction it should go moving forward. But it's a fun horror flick, with some great special effects.
Next up A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: FREDDIES REVENGE!
So right away I would have thought A Nightmare on Elm street would be perfect for me. So I decided, as I do that I would binge the entire franchise...and so I did, from the first one up until the eventual reboot.
So lets dive deep into the franchise and see where this mish mash of horror tropes, cliches, and plots as thin as freddies finger knive things.
Each day i'll go into one of the movies in the timeline, so lets get the first one out of the way.
A Nightmare on Elm Street
This film starts off simple enough in the town of Spring wood Ohio. teenagers being teenagers in the 80's. Booze, sex and rock and roll. And lots of noisy sex.
One the teens has recurring dreams of being stalked by a sinister shadowy man in a dingy hat and claws for fingers. While she's at sleep over with her friends, and having annoyingly loud sex she falls asleep and is acosted by her dream stalker. The scene in which she is killed is actually fairly well done for the time, with her being dragged through the air and eviscerated all while her boyfriend watches helplessly.
She dies horribly, and he runs off scared out of his mind and thus a manhunt ensues for the boyfriend thinking that he killed his girlfriend out of jealousy.
Then we're introduced to Nancy, a recurring character and one of the main faces of the franchise. She's just a normal teen (whose dad is also a sherriff) and not much else. She then starts having similar dreams of her recently deceased friend...and then we get to see freddy much much more clearly. And his introduction is not really what I was expecting. The first time we see Freddy he's pretty much a cartoon character
It's actually a good establishing shot for him, even though it's rather silly it showcases the absurdity of what freddy is capable of and how he can do whatever he wants in the dream world. So anyway, Nancy has a few Dreams where freddy chases her and he doesnt really seem to do much other than play with her and have a good time about it. (The word bitch is thrown around quite often)
It should be noted that even though one of her friends died in such a horrific manner, nothing changes and nobody really seems to care all that much since the very next day everyone seems to just move on like nothing happened but the changing of the weather.
Anyway, Nancy becomes plagued by freddy in her dreams and refuses to sleep lest she freddy again. Everyone thinks she nuts, and rightly so. But she keeps producing evidence of freddy being real, inlcuding physical evidence at times in teh form of wounds and even his hat.
Nancy finds out that her parents all know who Freddy is, but dont believe her because Freddy was a horrible child murderer that they all formed a mob to kill for themselves after he was released on a technicality. So they mobbed up and burned him alive. So everything is fine and Nancy should get some rest. Except Nancy still has the dreams and more of her friends get killed...including her boyfriend.
This dude gets it so hard, you dont even see what happens besides the aftermath. In full view of his mother even.
Anyway, Nancy gets fed up with being tormented and her friends killed and plans a way to kill Freddy somehow (Her plan is terrible) and creates home alone-esque traps to fuck with freddy once she gets her hands on him and bring him into the real world.
Cue an 80s montage of gadget making and later Nancy gets her hands on Freddy after he just slashes the air and knocks over a few things in the way (this will be a recurring trend since Freddy seems to have absolutely terrible hand eye coordination) She pulls him into the real world and hijinks ensue. But oh no, she's now trapped in the real world with Freddy and nothing seems to kill him anyway. So now he's lit on fire because somehow that's supposed to be his weakness...only he just runs off to go kill Nancys mom instead. And she instantly gets turned into a burned skeleton and gets lowered down into hell....for some reason. Also in full view of Nancy and her father too.
For some reason after all this, Nancy thinks if she just turns her back on freddy and refuses to believe in him...that all his power will stop and her friends and family will come back. She does this and Freddy dissapears into purple light.
Cue the next morning, Nancy says goodbye to her mom...and joins her friends for school like nothing every happened...except they get trapped in the Freddy mobile and sped off down the road while Nancy's mom obliviously watches...
FIN
My thoughts
As the first movie in the franchise, this one actually holds up pretty well. It's dated for sure. But theres alot of charm to it in a nostalgia way. But it's also very thin in terms of plot or depth.
There's no rhyme or reason given for Freddy's abilities or why he's able to invade peoples dreams. The only thing we know at this point is that Freddy was a horrible child murder, he was gotten off atfer getting caught because of a technicality, and that the parents of SpringWood took it upon themselves to enact vigilante justice. Thats it. Nothing more than that. But he's back now and he's killing their kids for revenge.
It's simple, but...why is he a dream boogieman all of a sudden? no reason...he just is. (as of now)
There's nothing more to be said, beside that the effects and the deaths are very well done for the budget and time and are very effective and being truly horrifying expressions of Freddy's powers.
However Freddy himself is a silly caricature that is just kind of too damn goofy to take seriously
A Nightmare on Elm Street was a simple and humble beginning to a franchise that simply didnt know when to die, how to die or what direction it should go moving forward. But it's a fun horror flick, with some great special effects.
Next up A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: FREDDIES REVENGE!
