The idea of a faceless killer going around stabbing teenagers just doesn't frighten me a whole lot, though some of these films do fill me with disgust--a rather different sort of emotion. I am far more frightened by films that deal with distortions of reality, where it's hard for the characters to tell what's real and what's not.
Admittedly, that genre isn't always so lofty either. We are all familiar with the common scene in which a character awakens from a nightmare by jerking awake in cold sweat.
This convention is not only overused, it's blatantly unrealistic, for people waking up from dreams do not jerk awake in such a violent fashion. Moreover, these scenes are usually nothing more than little throwaway sequences designed to amuse or frighten the audience without advancing the plot.
What makes "Nightmare on Elm Street" so clever is how it creates an entirely new convention for representing dreams on screen. The dreaming scenes are filmed with an airy, murky quality, but so are many of the waking scenes, making it very difficult to tell whether a character is awake or asleep. Indeed, the movie never shows any character actually fall asleep, and as a result we are constantly on guard whenever characters so much as close their eyes for a moment.
In crucial scenes, it is impossible to tell whether what we are seeing is real or happening only in a character's mind. But the movie ultimately suggests that the difference doesn't matter.
The premise of the movie, in which a child-killer haunts teenager's dreams and has the capability of killing them while they're asleep, turns the whole "It was all just a dream" convention on its head: in this movie, the real world is safe, and the dream world is monstrously dangerous. The movie finds a number of ways to explore this ambiguity, including a bathtub scene that invites comparisons with the shower scene in "Psycho" without being a cheap ripoff.
My personal favorite scene, and one of the scariest I've ever seen in a movie, is the one where Nancy dozes off in the classroom while a student is standing up in front of the class reading a passage from Shakespeare. The way the scene transitions from the real classroom to a nightmarish version of it is brilliantly subtle. The director, Wes Craven, understood that the anticipation of danger is usually more frightening than the final attack. There are some great visual shots to that effect, including one where Freddy's arms becomes unnaturally long in an alleyway, and another where the stairs literally turn into a gooey substance, in imitation of the common nightmare where it is hard to get away from a pursuer.
The movie continually finds creative ways to tease the audience, never resorting to red herring, that tired old convention used in almost all other slasher films.
Despite the creativity in these scenes, "A Nightmare on Elm Street" is still a formula movie, with relatively one-dimensional characters and no great performances. This was Johnny Depp's first role, as Heather Langenkamp's boyfriend, and although he does get a few neat lines of exposition his speech about "dream skills" , his personality is not fleshed out, and there is no sense of the great actor Depp would go on to become.
Within the genre, however, "A Nightmare on Elm Street" is a fine work. My main criticism isn't its failure to transcend the formula, but its confusing and obtuse ending, apparently put there in anticipation of sequels, but managing to create a mystery that the sequels were unable to clear up. The climactic confrontation between Freddy and Nancy is weakly handled. The crucial words she says to him are surprisingly clunky, and her father's muted behavior during that scene is almost inexplicable.
It has led me to consider an alternative interpretation of the scene, but one that feels like a cop-out. The scene that follows, and where the movie ends, is anticlimactic and unnecessary. These clumsily-made final two scenes come close to ruining the movie, and it is a testament to the film's many good qualities that it still stands as an unusually effective horror film that invites repeat viewings. FAQ Was this inspired by the Atlanta child murders?
If Freddy can disappear and reappear elsewhere, why does he go through Nancy's obstacle course of booby traps? Was Freddy abused as a child and eventually became a child killer for that possible reason? Details Edit. Release date November 16, United States. United States. Nightmare on Elm Street. Box office Edit. Technical specs Edit. Frankenstein 4x3 PuPPack 1. Frankenstein PuPPack 1. Judge Dredd PuPPack 1. Goonies PuPPack! Scared Stiff PuPPack 1.
Avengers Pro PuPPack 1. Austin Powers PuPPack 4x3 1. Having Trouble registering for VPUniverse? Downloads Remaining If you like VPU and enjoy what we bring to the Digital Pinball scene, please consider becoming a supporting member or upgrade your membership today. Contact Discord. Sign In Sign Up. The A Nightmare on Elm Street slot is indeed centered on the Freddy Krueger character, but others who featured in the slot have returned.
The main villain plays the most important role, as he serves the role of wild symbol, substituting other signs and expanding across the reels. When players discover him in a winning combination and line up five wild symbols, they can win up to 10, times the stakes. One of the advantages of an expanding wild is that the symbol can produce winning combos on other reels. The Pick-Me Feature begins when the Freddie symbol appears on the first and fifth reels simultaneously.
It is an interactive mini-game, during which players are invited to select an icon and claim the resulting cash prize. Another cool feature goes by the name of Never Sleep Again Bonus, while free spins are produced by a minimum of three scatter symbols.
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