Welcome to the first of the Big Three reviews. I will be covering the original films for the three biggest horror franchises of recent times: A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th and Halloween. These three films are synonymous with horror, due in large part to the efforts of their major antagonists: Freddy Krueger, Jason and Pamela Voorhees and Michael Myers, aka The Shape, respectively. While other icons of horror, such as Leatherface, Chucky, Pinhead and Jigsaw, to name just a few, have "carved" their own nich (no pun intended), it's these three film series that stand out above and beyond the others. Let's start with our celebration of the very first A Nightmare on Elm Street.
I never got to see the first three of this series in the theater, having to wait until they came out on video to see them (or, in the case of the third film, cable). The first one, I remember watching it when I was probably 8 years old with my mom and my cousin who was living with us at the time. I enjoyed the movie then, but I remember my cousin having a couch cushion in her lap and every time something scary would happen, the cushion would come up and hide her from what was happening. Needless to say, she was not a horror fan!
The basic premise of the film is this: The teenaged children of Elm Street in Springwood, Ohio, all start dreaming of the same strange sweater-clad man with burns on his face and a knife glove on his hand. This mysterious figure stalks them through their dreams, inevitably leading them to a boiler room. As far as the teens know, these are just strange dreams, but when Nancy's friend, Tina, meets a seriously gruesom end, Nancy begins to wonder if her death isn't more than what it appears to be.
As I said, I enjoyed this film as a kid and it's only gotten better since. The pacing is good, there's some very fine acting, the special effects are amazing... everything lines up for this film. From the arm stretching gag to Freddy's face coming off to something simple like a burn makr on Nancy's arm, everything came together well.
Heather Langenkamp played Nancy, our main lead of the film and the one who realizes that the scarred killer in her dreams is really stalking her and her friends. Her first film was The Outsiders, and she's gone on to reprise the role of Nancy in the third Nightmare on Elm Street film, as well as playing herself in Wes Craven's New Nightmare. Other than the Nightmare series, she also did a cameo on Shocker and was in Star Trek Into Darkness. John Saxon makes his second Happy Horrorween appearance (his first was in Blood Beach) as Lt. Don Thompson, Nancy's father. Besides Blood Beach, he was also in The Night Caller (aka Night Caller from Outer Space), Queen of Blood and Enter the Dragon with Bruce Lee, and Mystery Science Theater 3000 classic Mitchell. Robert Englund plays mystery man Freddy Krueger. This was his first outing as the madman, of course, and hadn't developed Freddy's later characteristic joking manner (though he does play around with his victims somewhat). Englund's become known primarily for his horror roles in such films as Eaten Alive, Galaxy of Terror, Phantom of the Opera, and the host of Shadow Theatre, one of my favorite horror showcase shows. Johnny Depp made his film debut here, as well. He went on to major stardom with such films as the Pirates of the Caribbean series, Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow, Sweeney Todd, Dark Shadows and tons of others. Also look for cameos from Lin Shaye (Dead End, 2001 Maniacs) as a high school teacher and Charles Fleischer (Tales from the Crypt Presents: Demon Knight, voice of Roger Rabbit) as a specialist in sleep disorders.
All in all, a fun viewing was had, and I gladly give this film a 5 out of 5. Tomorrow, we go back to the woods to Camp Crystal Lake. It's Friday the 13th! Until then, this is Red Hawk signing out.
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