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Happy Halloween! Our “Wes Craven” themed coverage continues with the director’s highest-rated film (according to Rotten Tomatoes), “A Nightmare on Elm Street”! It’s the film that gave the world one of the most iconic villains of all time: Fred “Freddy” Krueger!
A child murderer who haunts the dreams of children, Krueger’s weird aesthetic and iconic performance would lead to a series of films that featured the character. With his sweater, burnt face, and “finger knives”, Robert Englund and Craven created a unique monster: he’s not the hulking monstrosity of Michale Myers or Jason Voorhees, but instead a small, impish figure who plays more directly with the flourishes that filmmaking provides.
Released in 1984, “A Nightmare on Elm Street” is considered a classic of the horror genre. It took the slasher, which had been a popular sub-genre since Carpenters “Halloween“, and added some creative flair to the template. Slashers are known for their kill sequences, and Craven had the inspired idea to create a villain whose powers were related to the surreal environment of dreams. If you’re no longer limited by the rules of reality, you can have kill sequences that are boundless in their creativity.
That’s the idea, anyway. Did this film capture that?
The Rotten Tomatoes critical consensus reads, “Wes Craven’s intelligent premise, combined with the horrifying visual appearance of Freddy Krueger, still causes nightmares to this day.” The film is currently at 94% on Rotten Tomatoes.
In this podcast, Wes and Clay are joined by Amanda to discuss “A Nightmare on Elm Street”! They have a wide-ranging discussion about how well the film holds up, the sex-drenched morality of ’80s slashers, and Cravens’s inability to write convincing police or medical dialogue! It’s also a fun discussion because of the variety of opinions about the film: if you love it or hate it, you’ll likely find yourself agreeing or disagreeing with somebody today.
Plus!
The gang talks about the choice to remove any reference to Krueger’s pedophilia, the “latchkey kid” phenomenon of the 1970s and ’80s, and the logistics of having knives on your fingers!
Happy Halloween and don’t eat too much candy (or be killed in your dreams by a burnt guy which atrocious taste in clothing)!