View Full Version : HCR Rates The Movies #114: A NIGHTMARE ON ELM ST.
So, our next film, Classic or Crud, Hit or Miss, what say you ALL?
Our next film open for discussion, and ultimately an Overall RATING by you all:
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET
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Let the discussions flow. Likes, dislikes, classic film or overhyped trash, and DONT FORGET to place an Overall Rating when youre done.
Its easy, just give a Rating from 1 (Jaws 4:The Revenge) to 10 (Jaws), and thats it. Course I'd love to have you all give reasons as to why you feel it deserves this Overall Rating, and more than encourage discussions with us all about them.
So, what say you all?
Next Film: ??????
A true Horror Classic, and easily one of my Top Ten films of this genre ever (along with such films as The Omen, The Exorcist, Halloween, and The Thing) I love horror films, always have, always will, and this first picture of a Wes Craven classic creation, is truly well deserving of its Iconic stature.
Before Freddy became an anti-hero, mass murderer, killing people in a variety of funny and creative ways, he was simply one thing: DEATH. An unstoppable force that took control of your dreams, and killed you in your darkest nightmares. A God of Dreams, that enjoyed cutting you to pieces, laughing at your screams of fear and pain. Freddy Krueger was terrifying and incredibly scary, and this film was done with incredible care with its story, acting, music and cast of characters.
Craven did a great job in getting us to know our doomed teenagers (as I felt he did so well years later in Scream as well), before putting them in life threatening danger, from a vengeful demon who we later find out has an interesting connection to them all.
Great scares, great villain, great film. The first and to me definately The Best of the Nightmare series, a true classic in the Horror Film Genre.
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET - 9.25 / 10
I'm going to have to think about my number for this one. But I do have to say that when I first watched this it actually scared me.
Right up there with Halloween.
And still scary as hell, despite the sequels and the caricature that Freddy has become.
10/10.
This is the only horror movie to ever give me nightmares (well...so did Night of the Living Dead, but I saw it when i was three so that can hardly be counted). When I first saw this movie (I was about 9) it scared me so much. I have since watched again, and kinda laughed at it, but it is truely a B movie at it's best. 9.5/10
Okay, had enough time to think about it.
Only one horror movie scared me more the first time I watched it, and that was The Omen (combine the fact that I was young and in Catholic school at the time and you can see that one!). I was in high school when I saw this and I had serious trouble sleeping that night. That is a well done film! And the bad guy wins :eek:
I'm going with a 9.25 on this one (I was bouncing back and forth between a 9 and a 9.5, thinking we could only do half-points until I saw DTM's vote and remembered we could do quarter-points! :laugh: )
Rokk_Krinn
02/14/2007, 20:48
Anyone else get a kick every time they see Johnny Depp in this film? :)
I will say one thing - as I have to consider a rating for this - but the new "Nightmare on Elm Street" comic series is surprisingly good. I mean, really, give it a try - I think if you liked the first movie you'll be pleased. Latest storyline ties into Aztec mythology (the Aztecs believed in dreams being dangerous places so they had a "dream demon" you could summon to protect you so some students are trying to figure out how to call up the ancient dream demon for protection from Freddy).
Sooooo, only 4 of us have seen Nightmare On Elm St. well enough to rate it, eh?
Sooooo, only 4 of us have seen Nightmare On Elm St. well enough to rate it, eh?
Such an angry TOC administrator! ;)
:o I take offense at such remarks, and cancel your rating out for your blasphemy.........actually, I want more votes......OK, Im counting yours twice then, serves you right. :p
Seriously though, wasnt mad in the least (though a bit surprised at the low rating turn out of this one), just sometimes these threads need alittle kick in the bum to help them get going is all. :)
Carnage-E-Hall
02/15/2007, 12:33
10/10
Probably my all time fav! There are alot of generic horror slashers out there, but when Nightmare on Elm St. was first released it was an amazing concept! I mean, this guy was a child killer who was captured and burned alive by neighborhood parents. His spirit is so evil, it continues preying on the children....in their dreams! Brilliant!
lensnart
02/16/2007, 15:48
The film that started a genre, there may have been teen horror's before this and some of them may have even used a bit of humour, but this was the first time that it worked well enough to spawn a legion of rip-offs. As a child of the eighties I grew up in the golden age of teen horror and this one scared the pants off of me, far more clever than Halloween or Friday the 13th, this is the horror franchise that all others aspire to.
9 out of 10
Rokk_Krinn
02/16/2007, 15:54
This is an interesting movie to rate so many years later because you have to think of it both from the time of its' original appearance and the effect it had on later years (and the transformation the series underwent). It's a bit dichotomous viewing Freddy in this film and realizing what a parody of himself he would become in the later bits of the franchise (briefly "saved" by the "New Nightmare" and then back to old habits in "Freddy vs Jason"). While you can see some early hints of the tendency towards too much wise-cracking (though really that's also a bit of a Wes Craven trademark as well - he's got a good wit and it creeps into his work), the overall Freddy character works here. I'll be honest, the idea of a killer that gets you in your sleep kept me up all night the first time I "encountered" this film - the fact that I couldn't -see- the film (I was just hearing it from the other room where my parents were watching it) probably added to the horrour (to use my oft-cited Hithcock paraphrasing bit: what you don't see scares you far more than what is thrown in front of your face). Overall quality of the movie was alright for its' time but nothing super-special meaning it hasn't aged as well as some others of the genre - and there is the "Freddy effect" that's hard to forget (c'mon, when the guy starts getting marketed to age-groups that can't even watch the films you know something is messed up) - but for what it was at its time and the "legacy" it set (whether good or bad, it's still a lasting legacy as he's still a fairly well-known pop-culture icon/reference) you have to give the film credit.
Score: 8.0
Id also like to add that this movie contains some pretty darn creepy music in it as well, especially the first "building of the glove" bit, and its actually a pretty well known horror movie theme score for Freddy.
CURRENT HCR MEMBER RATING:
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET - 9.29 / 10
(7 members rating)
I'll give it a 10/10.
Truly a scary movie, if there ever were. Great ambiance, just enough gore, it had it all. A classic among classic.
JackAssterson
02/16/2007, 23:07
9.5. Easy. A seminal horror flick that broke out of the hockey mask killer mold and hasn't ever quite been duplicated.
Nightmare on Elm Street, Dream Warriors and Freddy vs. Jason make a nice triple feature.
I'll give it an 7.5. For me it is really hard to separate the first from alot of the #### that came after, but i'll try. I never got into Robert Englunds camp hamming it up for the cameras. Having said that this has some of the better scenes of mainstream horror movies that for me were capped by the sequence in which Freddy walks down the alleyway arms stretched out and getting progressively longer. Also i have to give props to this movie as I had a poster of freddy in my room which scared the hell out of my younger brother. That and the fact that Johnny Depp is a hot hot man.
I'm also a big fan of horror like DTM but this doesn't edge into my top 10 or anywhere near it. I think that in the end it was one of the better horror movie ideas to come out in the last 30 years but the execution could've been a whole lot better.
CURRENT HCR MEMBER RATING:
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET - 9.20 / 10
(10 members rating)
Darth Sabre
02/17/2007, 04:37
This was a great movie, but I'm actually a fan of #3. Freddy is still the best of the movie villains. My rating:
9.00
iameleveneight
10/01/2007, 15:54
9/10 Elm St movies are by far my FAVORITE 80s slasher flicks. Freddy has this charisma and just can't be beat. I agree with Sabre though, #3 is hands down the BEST of the series. This one comes in at #2.
Prof. Aragorn
11/04/2008, 18:40
It's a bit dated by today's standards*, but there are some truly terrifying parts - especially Wes Craven's inspiration for it.
It's also Freddy Krueger - who is probably the more formidable/realistic slasher. Michael Meyers seems to survive anything despite being human, and Jason is just an effing joke now. Freddy has an excuse to keep coming back, and he can truly terrorize.
8.3 out of ten.
*I don't mean it isn't gory enough - I mean it doesn't frighten me anymore. It's not like the Romero zombie movies that still give me the creeps sometimes.
CarlosMucha
10/07/2010, 15:30
I was searching this forum and I did not see the Freddy vs Jason thread yet. There is one?
Krueger666
10/07/2010, 17:04
My favourite movie of all time! And my nickname proves it!
Rating: 10/10!
Enough said!
I was searching this forum and I did not see the Freddy vs Jason thread yet. There is one?
No, I dont believe we have done Freddy vs Jason here yet. Im actually going to be getting back into these, creating new ones and re-calculating several of the older ones from new (or newish) votes. :)
CarlosMucha
10/08/2010, 05:41
Awesome! I saw the movie again and I just was curious.
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