A Nightmare on Elm Street (orig. 1984)

This came on SyFy channel last night and for the first time in many years I decided to sit down and watch it. I saw it in the theater when it first came out and have seen it countless times on tv; occasionally in it’s entirety but more often with one eye on the tv while doing something else.

When it came on I had to double check the channel guide because I didn’t immediately recognize it. There was a scene showing, among other things, Freddy’s glove being made. I don’t recall ever having seen this. There were also some other things that seemed different; Tina’s dream sequence seemed a lot longer, the credits looked different and the rope jumping girls’ song (one, two, Freddy’s coming for you . . .") didn’t sound the same.

Was I watching some director’s cut / remastered version or have I been watching an edited version all these years and just don’t recall it correctly?

Btw, I still love this film and think it was brilliant in its time (you couldn’t pay me to watch any of the sequels though).

I saw it when it first came out, and I’ve tried to watch it every Halloween season since. I’ve always used the VHS or DVD version for that, and nothing seems to have changed. I’m betting that the TV versions you’ve seen were edited.

But I just had the same reaction to The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane, which I’ve seen three or four times. When it ended, I was like That’s it? I could have sworn that there were more killings and that the boyfriend died.

I haven’t watched it in a few years, but I saw it when it came out and thought it was brilliant. A few of the special effects didn’t quite work for me, but I can forgive that.

Remember this scene? I recently hunted down its source. At 1:15

Oh God, I could be bounded in a nutshell
And count myself a king of infinite space
Were it not that I have bad dreams

(Sooo creepy the way he whispers it).

I was just thinking about this movie last night when a commercial for the new Halloween movie came on. Nightmare on Elm street was a much better move and Freddy was much more iconic than Michael Myers any ideas why they still aren’t remaking and revisiting Nightmare?

They did remake Nightmare and it sucked. I think there is only one guy who could play Freddy and he’s too old now.

Oh hells yes. One of the many little touches that made this film awesome, as well as the student reading the passage from Hamlet.

Even though the special effects look dated now (and weren’t that great then) things like Freddy’s extra long arms or his tongue coming out of the (unplugged!) phone were just weird enough to be freaky. I very much related to the horrifying thought of “what if your life depended on not going to sleep?”, myself being a sufferer of bad dreams at that time in my life, and knowing how it feels to fight off sleep lest you slip back into a bad dream.

Watching it again now (in full instead of just looking for the quote) I realize it was stated by the teacher. Where’s the facepalm emoji?

Whose idea was it to cast Ronee Blakley, anyway?

Yep. And the hall monitor with the red and green sweater. Or the convertible’s red and green top. Those ‘How did I miss that?’ things.

I remember (though we know that memories can be faulty) seeing the glove made during the opening credits back when I first saw Nightmare on video tape back in my teens.

Syfy showed a Nightmare marathon yesterday. I did discover something I had previously missed in #3 Dream Warriors- Lawrence Fishburne has a minor role.

I’d like to know why anybody still LIVES on Elm Street - you’d think they would have got the message by now.

I always liked 3 better. It has a wicked sense of humor. Otherwise I couldnt agree more.

I loved the original. I liked 3. 4 was okay. 2 and 5 sucked. 6 was just dumb. New Nightmare was good in a meta sort of way. Freddy v. Jason was okay for what it was. Didn’t care for the reboot.

Oh, and I liked the TV series, though it had little to do with Freddy. I think one episode showed his trial, though.

That just means Robert needs less makeup.

I’ve owned that movie in a few formats now, the old Anchor Bay 2-VHS set (the second tape was just ten minutes of SPFX outtakes…kind of stupid but Anchor Bay released a handful of double-tape editions of some catalog items at the same time), the eight disc DVD set and now the BluRay collection. I don’t remember ever seeing different cuts of it, though I sometimes forget that the opening sequence is cropped to a smaller image, Freddy is referred to as “Fred” the whole time (I think), and New Line hadn’t adopted their current logo yet. I do a franchise marathon every three or four years around Halloween, and every time, I find little things that are new to me, for better or for worse.

I think it largely holds up save for a handful of performances. Ronee Blakley is particularly bad, though she’s also ill-served by horrible expository dialogue (“Well, all the lawyers got fat and the judge got famous…”). Johnny Depp gives one of maybe three naturalistic performances in his entire filmography, which is always refreshing. And the FX are pretty damn good for 1984, for being practical, and for being pretty low-budget.

As for the sequels, I’ll defend most of them. I’m in the minority in my dislike of part 2; I know it’s become an iconic piece of gay-signifying cinema, but while I can admire it for that, it’s still a cruddy, nonsensical story. 3, 4 and 5 are all terrific, especially the fourth. Part six is just bizarre and is worth watching…it almost plays like science fiction at points (a tangent which Jason X failed at), and I like the cameo by Oprah Noodlemantra. New Nightmare is the bomb. And I’m out on a limb, I know, but I think Freddy v. Jason was the right story to bring the two characters together, and has absolutely gorgeous cinematography.

omg Lin Shaye was the teacher? Not sure how I missed that. She’s fantastic.

She turns up again in New Nightmare. And she’s also in Tales of Halloween, a late-night viewing of which is how I like to cap off Halloween night.