A very favourite guilty pleasure here. Wes Craven's slasher pic proves conclusively that some communities get the serial killer that they deserve. A tale of the consequences of vigilante justice gone wrong, the film (to me!), makes a number of shrewd observations on the cracks in society into which our sins can pour in, and thus from which our worst nightmares can emerge. I particularly love the cavalcade of crappy parent - child relationships on show, and the potent and thought - provoking views of the banality of small - town American life. Anyway...
On to what we all came for - blood! I have decided to begin with a bang by ranking the three central kills from the film in order of their effectiveness. Here we go!
3) In at three is the predictable (and deserved) demise of one Glen Lantz, boyfriend to heroine Nancy. The kill is most accurately described as the (presumed) result of putting a human body into your common-or-garden food processor, and then forgetting to put the lid on. When Glen falls asleep, an incarcerated Nancy tries helplessly to call on damaged phone lines. Particularly enjoyable is the reaction of Glen's mother, who opens the bedroom door just in time to see her pride-and-joy's entrails decorating his bedroom ceiling a vivid shade of crimson. An inauspicious film debut from a young Johnny Depp.
2) Tina Grey is first to die, and has the dubious pleasure of being the victim of Freddy Kreuger's first screen murder. Craven revels in the agony of waiting, with a particularly untidy chase through Tina's dreams following Freddy's iconic introduction allowing the viewer to see his determined bloodlust in full. The kill itself sees Tina's body flung around the room by an apparently invisible assailant before, gloriously, being scraped around the outside of the room like a mop. This is a very cliched slasher kill, with the victim's virginity having been recently dispensed with, exposing the genre to (somewhat reasonable) accusations of the brutal repression of female sexuality. Fun, though.
1) At the top of this hit parade is the rather more sedate denouement to the life of barely-drawn jock Rod Lane. Locked up on suspicion of Tina's murder, Rod is strangled to death with a bed - sheet, and hung from the bars of his prison cell. The murder is unique within the film for the relative absence of overbearing synth music, and the generally quiet way that Rod succumbs to his end. Here, Craven effectively captures the chills that some of the more spectcular set-pieces eschew, with the significant technical achievement of the kill being intercut with the robotic bureaucracy of the city's police chief's proclamations. The intimacy of the cell, coupled with the reserve of a single sinister laugh from Kreuger is a powerful antidote to some of the film's excesses.
My only request: Please don't dismiss A Nightmare on Elm Street as similar fodder to the rest of a simplistic genre. As well as a wealth of entertainment, Craven's slasher film provides a wonderful central coda of parental responsibility, of atoning for the failings of a previous generation and, deliciously in Nancy's ultimate victory, of an individual's ability to choose to halt a chain of spiralling violence. Don't have nightmares!
floormaster
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6 comments:
My friend used to fancy Freddie - she liked 'textured skin'.
Is that the same 'friend' who had a thing about Yoda? ;)
It's obvious, I know, but the worst thing about this film is the very last shot - if he'd held his nerve and ended with the shot of the girls skipping it would have been really creepy and worrying, but the final shot at the door is not only unnecessary it's also so shockingly badly done!
I remember the first time I saw this film .. scared me shitless .. LOL. Nowadays, I would like to say that I wouldn't be as affected, but I saw it a couple of Hallowe'ens ago (in the US at 1100 in the morning .. what is that all about) and ... it still scared me shitless. Even though you know what is coming because the music starts going all creepy. That is probably why it scares me because I know something is about to happen :)
I agree.. Krueger's introduction, with his fingernails scraping along the corrogated iron fence is verrrrrrryyyyy creepy. I still don't like to go out walking late at night after seeing it.
Is Nightmare a better slasher film than Hallowe'en? I think Craven is a little showier and Carpenter controls tension better. Hallowe'en is a more visceral film. I might be wrong though.....I have been in the past
I'll agree with that Hallowe'en is far more brutal and chilling. Music is used far more effectively and the pacing is controlled to better effect.
Craven's style is pretty campy, and as I suggested in the post, the set-pieces are counter-productive to the production of horror at times. The most chilling part of the film is the very slow journey of Nancy through Krueger's underground lair, where he avoids some of the showiness of other parts of the film. It reminds of that great part in Hallowe'en where JLC is being watched walking down the sidewalk from behind the bushes.
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