I had originally planned on doing full length reviews of each of these movies, but I figured I'd just be rehashing a lot of what has been written before. So, instead I decided to give brief looks at each of them, like I did with the Friday the 13th set. Be warned, there may be some spoilers included.
A Nightmare on Elm Street.
The original still stands up as one of scariest movies made. A slasher film with a rather modest body count, yet some seriously disturbing concepts. The idea of being haunted in our nightmares, that falling asleep could kill you, not something easily accepted. Combine that with the introduction of the one and only Freddy Krueger. The story is simple, but skillfully played out, playing the horror movie cliches to excellent effect.
The tale follows Nancy as she is haunted by a child killer who had been murdered years before by the parents of Elm Street. Now, Freddy is returning to take his revenge. Who and what Freddy is, is slowly revealed over the course of the movie, until Freddy and Nancy have a final showdown.
The acting is above average for this type of movie. Heather Langenkamp plays Nancy, and is well cast as a horror heroine, although Her acting seems a bit awkward at times. This also features the film debut of Jonny Depp, in a blood spattering performance. We also get the perfectly cast Robert Englund as Krueger, a menacing evil character, not the one line spewing joker he would later become.
Video. A bit dark and undefined, but decent, this was released a long time ago and would be well served with a new transfer. It is presented in it's original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The disk also includes the full screen version.
Audio. Presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 and 5.1. For this viewing I used the 5.1 track, and it sounds really good, levels are good, much higher than the 2.0 track. Nothing to complain about here.
Extras. We get the original trailer and a commentary track with Wes Craven, Heather Langenkamp, and Jacques Haitkin. The track is very good, dominated by Craven and Langenkamp, we get tales from behind the scenes, and casting choices, set choices, effects, a very informative track.
Bottomline. A very effective horror film, it created an icon. The beginning of my favorite slasher series.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge.
This one picks up a few years after the events of the first one. The problem is, it abandons the overall creepiness of the first film in favor of making up some new rules and increasing the body count. This time around, instead of going after more of the Elm Street kids, he focuses on a single teen, Jesse. He is using him to kill people in the real world in order to gain strength for his eventual return. This strays from what was established in the original, with Freddy attacking them in their dreams.
There are some good things about the film. The Freddy makeup looks good, and we get a better look at it this time around than we had in the original. Robert Englund continues his great portrayal of Freddy, even if he is hampered by a weak script. it was directed by Jack Sholder who would make the far superior The Hidden next.
Video. A little on the dark side, and not very good on detail, I've seen worse, but this deserves much better. It is presented in it's original aspect ratio of 1.85:1.
Audio. Presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 and 5.1, I used the 5.1 track for my viewing. It sounds good, not completely immersive, but has strong levels, better than the 2.0.
Extras. A trailer, that's it.
Bottomline. It strikes me as a film that was thrown together for the money and not much else, arguably the worst of the series. Probably only needed for the completist, otherwise skip it and move directly to 3.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors.
This is where the series takes a turn for the better, while it doesn't live up to the genuinely scary original, it skips over the weak second film and advances the mythology of the character while taking a more surreal turn for his attacks. Not to mention the talents of Laurence Fishburne, Patricia Arquette, and a returning Heather Langenkamp, not to mention the continued menace of Robert Englund.
This time around we find Freddy terrorizing the last group of Elm Street kids who are housed in a psychiatric hospital. They are all being treated for a shared delusion, which is actually just Freddy coming to them. Heather returns as Nancy, now a medical student, to help them cope with their attacker. Of course, opposition is met along the way, but it comes down to Nancy and a fast shrinking group of help. This movie brings back the dream aspect in a big way, this time using it as a battle ground where Freddy can exercise his creativity and also where the kids can experience the magic powers of their own dreams.
This one helps the myth development with the introduction of Amanda and the 100 maniacs, this combined with the story of Freddy's real world demise in the first film come together to start giving our killer some depth beyond the typical "Kill teens!" schtick which plagues many movies of this type. I'm sure it is helped by having Frank Darabont as the writer, he went on to script The Shawshank Redemption among others, and also director Chuck Russell has made a number of entertaining movies over the years.
Video. A little on the soft side, but not bad. It is presented in it's original aspect ratio of 1.85:1.
Audio. Presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 and 5.1, I used the 5.1 track for my viewing. It sounds good, but has strong levels, better than the 2.0. The audio crackles a few times and doesn't always seem natural, having a bit of an overlay type effect.
Extras. A trailer, that's it.
Bottomline. I like the direction this series took with this installment, giving an interesting mythology to the character and an new take on the use of dreams and what could be done in them. Much better than Part 2 which ignored a lot of the dream possibilities.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master.
This one picks up right after the end of part 3. The three survivors are trying to return to normal lives, at least as normal as high school can get. This time Freddy is back to finish the work he began by killing the survivors, and then moving on to new prey. Sooner or later he has got to run out of Elm Street kids.
The series continues to come up with more surreal landscapes for Freddy to lay waste to the kids. It is also continuing the trend of turning our killer into a joker, constantly firing off one liners. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it does diminish his evil presence and undermines the mythology a bit. They also continue to add more supernatural aspects to the kids, adding more psychic type powers.
It isn't quite as good as Dream Warriors, but it does have a number of good sequences. The film Has a decent creative team behind it, headed by director Renny Harlin (The Long Kiss Goodnight) and writer Brian Helgeland (LA Confidential, Mystic River). This time around they don't really add to the mythology, but that is OK, there is more to come.
Video. A little on the soft side, but not bad. It is presented in it's original aspect ratio of 1.85:1.
Audio. Presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 and 5.1, I used the 5.1 track for my viewing. It sounds good, but has strong levels, better than the 2.0. The audio crackles a few times and doesn't always seem natural, having a bit of an overlay type effect.
Extras. A trailer, that's it.
Bottomline. Building nicely off of the previous entry, they begin to play with some threads between films and the possibilities by adding to the background, as opposed to the mish mash that became part 2. There is some decent acting and good kills.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child.
Once again, this one picks up where The Dream Master left off, making it the third of a Nightmare trilogy, ironically bookended by the two worst, which are then contained by the two best. After the events of the fourth entry, Freddy needs to find a way to gain new victims.
Out hero, Alice, finds herself seemingly having nightmares while she is awake. Now her friends begin dying. We learn that Freddy is using the dreams of Alice's unborn child to manipulate his victims. This time, the key to defeating the latest Krueger menace was to use a Krueger, Amanda.
This film revisits the mythology first explored in the third part. We learn of the son born of a hundred maniacs, and the strange circumstances surrounding his birth. We learn more about his mother and how she holds the power to defeat Freddy. The story built up over the middle three films is great, wonderful fuel for the fire to bring this character to life, moreso than the story given for Jason Voorhees.
If there is one thing I would complain about here, it's the Freddy makeup. In short, it looks terrible. It makes him look more like an old man than a burned killer. The direction the design was moving in seemed to be more soft and simple as opposed to the more gruesome burned look of the earlier films.
It was directed by Stephen Hopkins who would go on to work on 24, and direct Predator 2 and Lost in Space. He does a good job at keeping the focus and creating the surreal landscapes. Overall a good edition and good end to the arc started with Dream Warriors.
Video. It is presented in it's original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. It looks good, good color saturation, it could use a bit more detail though.
Audio. Presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 and 5.1, I used the 5.1 track for my viewing. It sounds good, but has strong levels, better than the 2.0.
Extras. A trailer, that's it.
Bottomline. I liked this film. This series has done a good job of creating nightmarish realms and interesting ways to kill people. I also liked the concept of using an unborn child's nightmares.
Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare.
What a horrible potential end to the series. This was just a bad movie, played almost entirely for laughs, and it doesn't hold up that well today. The film feels very dated, especially with the corny video game sequence, not mention the cameo from Tom and Roseanne Arnold.
There is one last Elm Street kid, and Freddy is using him to lure more victims to Elm Street so that he can regain his strength. It turns out it is a search for his child, who he plans to use as a conduit to new victims. It was just a bad film, so many bad jokes and corny characters. It was laughable, up to and including the 3D sequence at the end of the film.
Video. It is presented in it's original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. It looks good, good color saturation, it could use a bit more detail though.
Audio. Presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 and 5.1, I used the 5.1 track for my viewing. It sounds good, but has strong levels, better than the 2.0.
Extras. A trailer, that's it.
Bottomline. The worst film of the bunch, no imagination, no creativity, just a shameless cash grab. Freddy's spewing bad jokes, he has degenerated into a shadow of his former self. Avoid this one.
Wes Craven's New Nightmare.
Wes Craven returns to the character that he breathed life into so many years ago. After the miserable "finale" they concocted with Freddy's Dead, it was only proper that Craven comes back and give us a fitting end to the razor fingered lunatic. Instead of some goofy one-liner spewing killer, instead of psychic kids and typical teen fodder, we get a more psychological horror film playing the edges of reality and fiction.
The film follows Heather Langenkamp and Wes Craven as they work on a new Freddy film. It is revealed that Freddy is not just a character, but an evil presence which has been trapped in literature throughout time and is now attempting to crossover into the real world. The only way to keep him where he is, is to make another, final, film about him.
This, depending on my mood, is my favorite of the series, it is also the least gory and has the smallest bodycount. Those last two items are usually not considered to be positives, and they are really a non-factor in this film, it is just written so well. This movie is a step above your typical slasher fare, giving us an intelligent story, well crafted characters, and a good payoff. It was nice to see Freddy brought back to respectability after the previous disaster.
One of the highlights of this film is the new Freddy design. It is possibly my favorite look of the series. It's not gooey looking like the first few, nor is it quite as old man and soft looking like the mid to late entries. It is menacing and just evil looking. Plus we get a new design for the glove with boney looking joints holding the blades in place, plus there is the addition of a thumb blade which was not in any of the others. On top of this, they took away the hat and added a trenchcoat to complete the transformation.
The other highlight is the wonderful way reality and fantasy are blurred as the film goes on and we watch the nightmares spilling over into reality and reality slipping into the nightmare. Very good film.
Video. Presented in it's original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. It is best looking of the series, probably because it is the most recent. But whatever the case may be, the transfer is very nice.
Audio. There are 2 audio tracks, Dolby Digital 2.0 and 5.1. Like the rest of the series, I chose to listen to the 5.1 track and it is a very good mix.
Extras. We get the original trailer and a commentary track with Wes Craven. The track is very good, Craven is not the most lively speaker, but he has a lot to say. He relates great stories on the filming, tales from the set, very good listen.
Bottomline. It's interesting that the best films of the series are the first and the last, and the two worst are the second to last, and they all bookend an interesting trilogy which tries to create an interesting mythology for our killer. This is an excellent film, well written, well acted, definitely a cut above your typical horror film.
Wrap Up.
One thing is for sure, this series is due for upgraded transfers. A series of this stature in the horror realm deserves to have top notch transfers and a plethora of extras. Since New Nightmare was the only one uncut, I am sure there has to be some deleted/extended scene footage around.
As for the series as a whole, it is easily my favorite of the long running slasher films. They tried, not always successfully, to have a story that was a cut above. They built an interesting mythology around the character and always had inventive scenarios to place their characters in.
Ordering of my preference:
1. Wes Craven's New Nightmare
2. A Nightmare on Elm Street
3. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
4. A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master
5. A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child
6. A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge
7. Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
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