A Nightmare On Elm Street- 1984 (DVD Review)

A nightmare on elm street is directed by Wes craven and stars Nancy Thompson and also Johnny Depp in his first feature. The film follows the story of a group of teenagers who all begin to experience disturbing dreams about a sadistic man, these dreams then start to become reality. 

Knowing that this film is a well renowned classic, I was expecting an intense horror film, of which you would remember for weeks after. Unfortunately this is not what I experienced, as I finished watching the film I was undeniable disappointed. 

I felt that this film moved along way too fast, as an audience we were thrown straight into the deep end and were expected to know every character perfectly. There was almost no character development, and along with this comes inevitability cliche characters, which I just didn't believe. These characters weren't helped by the actors and actresses who played them, (with the exception of Johnny Deep, who I felt was the most believable and well developed character) the characters portrayed seem to be the sturdiest people on the planet, dealing with their friends death as if it had never even happened. The story itself is simple and innovative, bringing some completely new concepts to the table, this however is dragged down by a few scenes which involve 'Freddy'. I did't particularly like the character of Freddy, for a start I don't think that he should have been revealed so many times in the film, by seeing his whole body along with all his facial features he quickly lost his shock factor and just became the 'bad guy'. It came to a point in which most scenes involving 'Freddy' became laughable, this is partly due the odd choices of interaction with the characters as well as the occasionally poor CGI. Now I can't really knock the CGI, as it was made in the 80's so I wasn't expecting anything phenomenal , however the CGI did affect a few scenes making them look a bit cheap and as I said previously, laughable, this for me lowered the intensity of the film, as I was chuckling at times that were supposed to shock. 

I can definitely see why this film is loved by most delivering a really creative story-line and a classic horror villain. I just couldn't look past these positive points as problems like the acting and the characters were blocking the view. 

70%- A solid film, with undeniable faults which may deter you from enjoying the inventive story.