A Nightmare on Elm Street

Back in 1984, horror fans were introduced to Freddy Krueger in Wes Craven's imaginative hit A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET.

I have great memories of seeing this in the theater and repeatedly on VHS, which was ALL the rage back in the day.

40+ years later, it's still got plenty of bloody scares, Johnny Depp's first big screen role and one of the worst performances in a major role ever caught on film from Heather Langenkamp. I've heard of wooden performances, but this one's solid steel. There's not a single line of dialogue delivered with human emotion.

I guess Craven thought she could scream well, who knows! She beat out over 200 other actresses for the role of Nancy, including Demi Moore, Jennifer Grey and Courtney Cox, who would go on to star in Craven's "Scream".

He gets many aspects of this series starter absolutely right, starting with a clever concept.

Krueger comes to a bunch of teens in their dreams, peeking around corners in his tattered sweater, straight razors for fingers, spewing one liners galore. The perfectly cast Robert Englund is a hoot. Freddy loves to annoy people and gross them out, alternating between fingernails on a chalkboard (razors on a pipe in his case) and chopping off parts of his body so that green ooze and maggots spill out on the floor.

He's not a guy you want to take to dinner.

Langenkamp plays (?) Nancy, our central character whose friends are dying gruesome deaths in their sleep. Whatever Freddy does to you in your slumber, happens to your awake body. He slices you in a dream, your side opens up in real life.

While this may seem routine now, it was hilariously fresh in 1984.

Johnny Depp owns the screen in a barely written role as Nancy's boyfriend Glen. Impossibly young (24 at the time) this was Depp's first big screen role and he oozes movie star charm throughout. He also suffers one of the coolest on screen deaths at Freddy's hands. Craven has said he was going to cast another actor, but his daughter thought Depp was "soooo dreamy" that Craven cast him.

Writer/Director Craven loads the film with twisted, funny and bizarre visuals, keeping you in suspense for what's next. He loads the corners with supporting characters that are bizarrely funny.

Loved the scene where Freddy seems to be coming through the wall behind Nancy's bed. Damn creepy, low budget perfection and cool.

Poor John Saxon (Enter the Dragon) as the town sheriff looks like he didn't know what the hell film he's in, playing it impossibly straight as all the craziness and a hapless deputy rain down trouble and blood spatters.

Consider Ronee Blakley, so brilliant and Oscar nominated in Robert Altman's 1975 masterpiece "Nashville" as Country Music star Barbara Jean. After a decade of languishing on 70's TV shows like "Vegas" and "The Love Boat", she ends up here as Nancy's mom, Marge. Maybe she's such a great actress, that watching Langenkamp, she thought no one would believe her as Nancy's Mom unless she was a horrible actress too. It's the only way to explain how bad she is in this movie. It's the mother/daughter duo of community theater performances. Painful.

But nobody strolled onto Elm Street for the acting chops. They're here for the gore and Craven delivers it in hilariously exaggerated buckets.

All while Charles Bernstein's now classic music theme plays in the background in perfect accompaniment.

New Line Cinema was saved from bankruptcy by the box office bonanza that was Freddy Krueger, driving $26 million in 80's box office against a $1.8 million production cost.

Craven had spent the 12 years before this film turning out shocking horror films like "The Hills Have Eyes" and "The Last House on the Left", both well known, but creating Freddy took him to the next level.

It also spawned an enormous amount of sequels, some very bad and some (I'm thinking about you, "Dream Warriors"!) pretty damn good.

As for the original, it was just that in 1984, a new, humor infused, gory thriller with a clever concept that rocked audiences. For that alone, Craven's NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET gets a nostalgic B. But I'm being VERY gracious and in a Halloween mood, since Heather's acting keeps pulling everything toward the basement and grinding Craven's best lines of dialogue to a bloody halt.

It's the kind of movie where Sheriff Saxon arrives at the scene of Freddy's latest victim and his deputy says, "You won't need a stretcher up there, you'll need a mop!" and Depp pulls off the line, "Oh, man. Midnight, baseball bats and boogeymen. Beautiful.".

Gold Jerry, Gold!!!

Followed by six sequels, two TV series and a remake in 2010.