Freddy's first outing,
picking off teens in 'Nightmare on Elm Street'. It's been called
intelligent and horifing, but was it enough to convert a Hard-core
Jason Fan? (Spoiler, no.)
Let's start with the teens
themselves, well the two of note anyway. Nacy is a pretty fantastic
character. I enjoy her head on approach for dealing with Freddy. She
may be afraid of him (for very good reason) but that dosen't stop her
from actively plotting to take the guy down. Although I'm not a huge
fan of the guy, even I had to smile when the intro credits read
“Introducing Johnny Depp” It's always a treat to see early work
of an A-list actor. Especially when it's in something like this. He
gives a really solid performance.
The blood effect used for
Depp's death was puzzling to me. It was so over the top, Evil Dead II
territory. Which in that movie it is for laughs, but it seems
Nightmare was trying to play it straight and it just felt really
silly. The best death was Tina's. It was brutal enough to be
effective without becoming
over the top.
The
ending left me more confused than anything. I've seen enough horror
flicks to see the False happy ending coming. I also understand the
concept of leaving the ending open ended to keep the folks guessing.
But the endings contradict each other and leaves you with no idea of
how things really ended.
Now
onto the man himself, Freddy. I love how he operates on this plane
between reality and the world of dreams. It opens the door to all
kinds of things that you don't see in a typical slasher. The
thing that was the real let down to me is that Freddy is capable of
so much -off screen- but when he is on screen he's kinda lame,
neither creepy or intimidating or even goffy in a
intentional way.
Rating 3/5
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