A Nightmare on Elm Street

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Wes Craven's 1984 horror film is a better movie than it is generally credited for being. Forget the tawdry sequels; this highly original, almost surrealist work stars Robert Englund as a mutilated monster who kills teenagers during their dreams. Craven, who only directed one Elm Street sequel (Wes Craven's New Nightmare), takes the Hitchcockian step of layering in psychological explanations for the terror and then proving them all irrelevant in the face of mindless evil. The horror in the film is emotionally raw, in contrast to the overimaginative set pieces of most of the sequels that followed; and the final scene is as deeply unsettling as anything Luis Buñuel ever committed to film. --Tom Keogh

Description

Digitally remastered, this is the original Nightmare film that started it all. Written and directed by Wes Craven and starring Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger, A Nightmare on Elm Street remains an innovative and shocking horror-fantasy.

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary
Production Notes
Theatrical Trailer

Customer Reviews:

Nightmare Indeed!.......2007-08-07

This was the movie in which Freddy Krueger was ACTUALLY scary (to most)

A Nightmare on Elm Street is the first (no duh) and the best in the series (no duh)

It's eeire and has a great villain.

It also has good performances, great make-up effects, and imaginative dream sequences.

I'd definitely recommend this to all horror fans!

The Reason Craven is Great.......2007-07-26

This movie is classic. It has an original idea that never been done better. All of the the kills, although they are limited, are creative and beautifully done. The acting in this movie is really not bad at all, as it is sometimes in the the first Friday the 13th. This movie has a few good scares, and is not at all just a mindless slasher film. Although lately Wes Craven hasn't been able to release any good movies lately, this movie still shows what great potential the director has.

Scary as hell!.......2007-07-26

A true classic horror movie. This movie use to scare me when I was four, but Freddy is my hero now, thanks to my brother! This movie is still creepy to me, but that's why I watch it! Good special effects, good plot, good acting, etc. This is very frightening and a very original idea. Thank you Wes Craven, and thank you cast and crew for making this frightening classic horror film!

Nancy: "It's only a dream!"
Freddy: "Come to Freddy"
Nancy: "Goddamn you!"

The behind the scenes info is well worth the price.......2007-06-07

I won't go too in depth into the story. If you don't know who Freddy Krueger is then you've been out of the pop cultural loop for well over two decades. What I will say is this DVD gives a great deal of info behind one of the classic slashers of the 1980s. Finally seeing the two alternate endings as well as listening to Wes Craven's commentary on his best movie helped to deepen the respect I have for this masterpiece, and yes, this is an excellent film.

Truly one of the best.......2007-05-31

Freddy's debut. This film has it all, scares, gore, blood, thrills, and Freddy in his best scariest movie. This is a Nightmare On Elm Street, pleasent dreams.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (Infinifilm Edition)

Average customer rating:

Nightmare Indeed!
The Reason Craven is Great
Scary as hell!
The behind the scenes info is well worth the price
Truly one of the best

A Nightmare on Elm Street (Infinifilm Edition)
Starring: John Saxon , Ronee Blakley , Heather Langenkamp , Amanda Wyss , and Jsu Garcia
Director: Wes Craven
Manufacturer: New Line Home Video
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ASIN: B000GETUDI
Release Date: 2006-09-26

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

Nightmare Indeed!.......2007-08-07

The Reason Craven is Great.......2007-07-26

Scary as hell!.......2007-07-26

The behind the scenes info is well worth the price.......2007-06-07

Truly one of the best.......2007-05-31

Freddy's debut. This film has it all, scares, gore, blood, thrills, and Freddy in his best scariest movie. This is a Nightmare On Elm Street, pleasent dreams.

Average customer rating:

Back to the original mould and melting master
for die hard fans only
The Best Nightmare
A MUCH-needed improvement.
Gruesome and Inviting...

Wes Craven's New Nightmare
Starring: Jeff Davis (VI) , Bodhi Elfman , Robert Englund , Cully Fredricksen , and Ray Glanzmann
Manufacturer: New Line Home Video
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ASIN: 0780630904
Release Date: 2000-08-22

Amazon.com

English-professor-turned-horror-auteur Wes Craven brings both careers to play in this ingenious reinterpretation of the Nightmare on Elm Street series as a modern-day fairy tale--a sort of Hansel and Gretel for big kids. Heather Langenkamp, star of the original film, plays Heather Langenkamp, an actress and mother wracked with nightmares as Los Angeles is rocked with unexplained earthquakes. Meanwhile, her son starts sleepwalking and croaking Freddy Krueger threats. Is it a coincidence that Wes Craven (playing himself) is turning his own troubled dreams into a new screenplay, which he calls "a sort of nightmare in progress"? According to his visions, the imaginary Freddy has become the embodiment of ancient evil and is trying to break out of his movie prison and into the physical world. It's a rather literal and glib explanation, but words have never been Craven's strong suit. His central thesis, the cultural importance of stories, is more resonant in the web of imagery arising from dreams, movies, and the subconscious. Robert Englund and John Saxon play themselves and their movie characters (though this Freddy is decidedly less wisecracking and more demonic). It's a thoughtful, imaginative, and often gripping modern horror film that echoes with suggestions of The Exorcist and Poltergeist. Though less of a fun-house thrill ride than previous Nightmares, it's scarier and smarter than any of the other series sequels. --Sean Axmaker

Description

Heather Langenkamp learns the Nightmare movies were protecting the world from a real-life demon. Also starring Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger.

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary
DVD ROM Features

Customer Reviews:

Back to the original mould and melting master.......2007-02-15

It's not enough to bring Freddy Krueger back to life one more time after his official death. But Wes Craven has to come back too with the original characters, Nancy and her stubborn cop of a father. But we cannot really revive characters in a film so many years after their first appearance. So Wes Craven pushes what he calls « only make believe » one iota further and farther. Freddy was only a disguise for a real bad spirit in the world (Anne Rice has done that with her vampires and the Queen of the Damned, or Stephen King has also used this formula with his Dark Man in quite a few novels, liek The Stand, and short stories) and this really bad spirit has decided to come back to the real world once and for all and under his own identity if possible, or under that of Freddy Krueger if the minds of people are obsessed by his existence. This evil spirit is of course the devil himself and it will be revealed in the very last scene. So the actors are playing their real parts and Freddy is invading their real world. It is then « make believe power two ». And it is all the more efficacious and effective because the actors are themselves and no fake identities. Wes Craven brings along his particularly caustic mind and spirit and really gets the mickey out of medical authorities, doctors, women and blacks alike, and all the fake myth about the protection of kids first and for all against their own parents. Wes Craven definitely seems to accuse society to be the real culprit, the real cause of all problems with kids, and grown-ups too. This society that classifies everyone in one little box and that can put a six year old boy in the schizophrenia box without realizing that it is going to make him schizophrenic. The classification creates the items that are classified in it. Any taxonomy is our own creation, our own delusion and we must get rid of all these taxonomies to maybe recapture some sanity and balance. But since Wes Craven is back do not be surprised if you recognize some tricks like the crazy phone calls borrowed from Scream and so many other films (it always works anyway). That's part of the game. Wes Craven borrows from everyone, himself included, and just shakes the cocktail differently and changes dressings. The sauce always becomes slightly more piquante when it is served a second time by our waiter Wes Craven. He even visualizes the first destruction of Freddy, the lynching of this child molester who attacks males first to kill them, and women second to enjoy their slow suffering and their yelling. So Freddy Krueger is roasted to death a second time, and it is when his face becomes the horny - ah ah funny ! - head of the devil. Can we hope the saga is really finished now ? Probably not. There must be some forgotten sequel somewhere, though seven is a magical number and the point has been made that it is not movies that make children epileptic but all the Freddy Kruegers, Tommyknockers, Candymen, and other boogy boogy bogeymen overfed on beetle juice instead of milk, kept in the cupboards of our minds.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Paris Dauphine & University of Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne

for die hard fans only.......2007-01-26

I really love the first Nightmare on Elm street movie. the rest of the series are just absurd and borderline ridiculous. I thought this movie would be better since Wes Craven was directing/writing it.
In my opinion it's everything but scary.The concept of this evil entitity trapped in stories for eons is interesting, however not very well explored in my opinion.The scenes remind us of the first Nightmare on Elm Street, a bit cool when it comes to nostalgia but they completely have no surprise effect whatever.
It was nice to see some people of the original movie, like John Saxon and Nick Corrie. Yet they have such small roles which undermines their presence in the movie.Corrie doesn't even have a line.
The "scary" scenes are actually hilarious at some points. This movie could have been better in my opinion...

The Best Nightmare.......2006-12-30

"Wes Craven's New Nightmare" is set in 'The Real World', where "A Nightmare on Elm Street" is just a movie. In it, Heather Langenkamp (playing a fictionalized version of herself) is on a promotional tour for the 10th anniversary of the original. The problem is that both she and her son Dylan are dreaming of Freddy Krueger, at the same time someone is calling her house in Freddy voice making threats. She meets Wes Craven and he tells her he's been working on a new 'Nightmare' script, and soon things get much worst as earthquakes start happening, and then crew members from the original movies start dying. Eventually Craven (who also plays himself in addition to writing and directing) explains the Freddy is sort of real, more specifically he is the latest incarnation of an ancient evil that thrives on cultural fear. Soon Heather is in a struggle to fight off Freddy and save her son.

The last few "Elm Street" movies have been pretty bad, especially "Freddy's Dead". And so Wes Craven returned to the series and made things right with this hyper surreal entry that takes the original movie's concepts of fantasy, reality and blurring the two and taking it even further with movies, kind of life imitating art taken to the extreme. I love the concept, and it has been done well before (i.e. Arnold Schwarzenegger's "The Last Action Hero" and John Carpenter's "In the Mouth of Madness"). But Craven took a already well known icon and made it bigger, more mythic and epic. The scope of the movie really eclipses anything else I think he's ever done before. This is not a slasher movie (though the deaths are impressively gruesome) but a thinking man's horror movie; an Art House Elm Street movie.

The acting is brilliant. Heather Langenkamp plays a mother who dose not want her child exposed to horror movies, even though she can trace her own success to it. John Saxon plays himself and Donald Thompson when Freddy finally obliterates reality at the end. Wes Craven is also a supporting player in his movie, as the man with the answers, who is trying to finish the script before Freddy finishes Heather. Robert Englund appears three times in the movie. He plays himself, an actor who
is scared to death of the frightening reality of his creation. He plays movie Freddy, the incarnation who hams it up and jokes around with fans at a talk show. And then thee's demon Freddy, who is back to basics evil, dripping with menace and threat. He plays all of them well, but the more evil Freddy is he best he's done in years. Freddy is scary again.

I always thought there were lost opportunities to have Craven and Englund confront the demon Freddy; Craven would be able to best him, while Englund would die the horrible death. But still this is the best of the sequels, just shy of being as great as the original by an inch. Defiantly a thinking man's horror movie beside "The Exorcist".

A MUCH-needed improvement........2006-12-23

After the horrible Freddy's Dead, Wes Craven, the creator of Freddy Krueger, sat down and feverishly wrote the script of what may be the most interesting Nightmare movie ever. Wes Craven's New Nightmare is about reality. Heather Langenkamp, who starred as Nancy in the first, plays herself, Robert Englund, the guy who plays Freddy, is himself as well. The whole movie is supposed to take place where the Nightmare movies really are just movies. However, after Freddy was killed off in the 6th movie, the evil that was in them - an evil entity which has become used to looking like Freddy - has finally escaped, and plans to wreak its evil on the world as Freddy. Another interesting thing in the movie is that it's as if Wes' script for the movie becomes a reality, and there's even a shot of the script that shows everything that was said in a conversation betwee Wes and Heather. Freddy (who is still played by Robert Englund) looks a lot more evil than in any of the other Nightmares. His glove also isn't a glove. It's as if it's a part of him now, as you can see vains and what-not on it.

I'dsay more about this movie, but Daniel Jolley in the spotlight review already said pretty much everything that needs to be said about this movie. So if you gave up on the 6th movie, there's a good chance this movie will return your fanship of the series, and it's bound to put a smile on any fan's face. Wes Craven's New Nightmare is made to look VERY realistic. But don't worry, it's just a movie.... or is it?

Gruesome and Inviting..........2006-11-05

I recently borrowed a DVD in this franchise, thinking it was this movie. It actually had the word final in it, but it was from around 1991. It was awful, see my review on it, a couple weeks ago.

But this was the classic I expected and appreciated. This was a terrific sequel, and one that the Director can rest his acting cap on. I really loved the first movie in the series, and this, hopefully will be the last one, and a great finish.

Recommended!

The American Nightmare - A Celebration of Films from Hollywood's Golden Age of Fright

Average customer rating:

Interesting Documentary Of Films From The Golden Age of Fright
A truly superb ode to the golden age of horror.
Insightful, Respectful Documentary
the best doc on horror movies, ever!

The American Nightmare - A Celebration of Films from Hollywood's Golden Age of Fright
Starring: David Cronenberg , Tom Savini , John Landis , John Carpenter , and Tobe Hooper
Director: Adam Simon
Manufacturer: New Video Group
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00018YCJQ
Release Date: 2004-03-30

Amazon.com

The explosion of gruesome horror cinema in the wake of George Romero's Night of the Living Dead is explored in this serious documentary, which has a welcome respect for an easily derided genre. A few academics make piquant observations (no film critics, although Robin Wood pioneered this line of thinking years ago), but mostly we hear from the filmmakers themselves: Romero, John Carpenter (on Halloween), Wes Craven (Last House on the Left), Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), and David Cronenberg (Shivers). The directors focus on those films, not their entire careers, which limits the scope of the movie. Juxtapositioning newsreel horrors with movie scenes introduces provocative ideas about where horror comes from, but also feels a little facile. Unexpected bonus: the enthusiasm of John Landis, in describing the out-of-kilter experience of watching these affronts to good taste, and suggesting why they thrill as well as scare us. --Robert Horton

Description

Disfigured knife-wielding murderers. Buxom teens fleeing for their lives through dark woods. Hordes of the undead limping along deserted streets. These images, now synonymous with horror movies, were born in the groundbreaking films of horror masters su

Customer Reviews:

Interesting Documentary Of Films From The Golden Age of Fright.......2006-02-15

This is a documentary about horror films and their impact on the world between 1968-1979. We get to hear the points of views of the directors of some of the most frightening classic horror films ever made. IFC interviews Tobe Hooper, John Carpenter, David Cronenburg, John Landis, Wes Craven, George Romero and more. We get an in depth look at the politics and upheaval of the 60's and 70's and how they influenced everyones life and the horror genre.

The DVD contains clips from events in history such as the Vietnam War, assasinations of some of the most prominent figures in America, clips from classic horror movies and discussions on what horror is about and why we go to see these films. The directors discuss some of their inspirations for the films, what scared them as a child and the horrors of the real world. Theres many striking and powerful images in this documentary, both real and fiction.

In a way it reminds you reality can be just as frightening as fiction, the real events that happen can be compared to the horror films, just with a diffrent face. Some of these events do happen in real life, yet we dare to face them, facing it gives you the illusion of control or knowing and that is the first step. Confronting it. And you can even examine what parts frighten you and what parts you enjoy and ask yourself why?

Professor Tom Gunning's words- Why do you go to see a horror film? some compare it to a roller coaster ride, theres a desire in a funny way for stimulus, we sometimes get disatisfied with that protection and we want it to be pierced.

Director Adam Simon left out some important horror/thriller films of the 70's like The Exorcist, Jaws, Carrie etc.. But i assume the movies he covered were some of his personal favorites. The ones he covered were enough to satisfy but i would have liked to have seen more films discussed.

Very good documentary and Highly recomended.

A truly superb ode to the golden age of horror........2006-02-13

This documentary is an absolute treasure for any true horror film buff. Containing insightful interviews from film philosophers and sociologists analyzing the films and the circumstances and reflections of the times in which they were made along with detailed and compelling interviews with such pioneering genre filmmakers as Tobe Hooper, Wes Craven, David Cronenberg, George A. Romero, John Carpenter and others. The interview with special effects master Tom Savini in which he recalls gruesome images from his tour in Vietnam is riveting, adding to the overall bleakness of the piece. Fascinating, thoughtful, chilling and ultimately unforgettable. I applaud director Adam Simon for assembling the components to pull off this highly analytical serenade to the most profound and influential horror films and filmmakers and his ability to do so with integrity and intelligence and an obvious love for the genre. Extra kudos for the Godspeed You Black Emperor soundtrack. Brilliant.

Insightful, Respectful Documentary.......2004-08-26

A well directed, informative documentary that explains the links between horror films of the late sixties and seventies and the social changes going on in the United States at the same time. This documentary serves as a great companion to David J. Skal's book "The Monster Show" and other essays that tackle horror movies from a more sociological standpoint. One cannot ignore what was going on in the world at the time their favorite film was made. Even with escapist fare, the social and political goings on of the era often trickle into horror movies in the most surprising of ways as this doc shows. I've always been a fan of George Romero's Zombie movies, but was even more impressed with the way this doc dealt with Wes Craven's "Last House on the Left" and David Cronenberg's "Shivers", two movies that I've found in the past to be pretty unredeemable. Hearing the filmmakers discuss their motivations for these two movies helped me understand them better and made me want to give them another look! My only complaint with this movie was that it was not longer. I think that the film makers could have expanded on their thesis and covered more ground. I would love to see a sequel documentary that deals with the slashers of the later seventies like "Friday the 13th" and the arrival of the more psychological and fantasy oriented "Nightmare on Elm Street" series that came on the scene in the eighties and how they were linked to their respective decades.

the best doc on horror movies, ever!.......2004-04-03

a beautiful documentary that treats these horror films with the respect they deserve" dawn of the dead, shivers, halloween, last house on the left, texas chainsaw massacre.

it combines interviews with the directors, tom savini, and several film scholars; as they all describe how the films were actual unconscious reflections of the times. combined with the beautiful music of "godspeed you black emperor," this film gives overdue creedence and social justification to these films.

Customer Reviews:

The Two Best........2004-05-03

If you're like me, you found the annoying, over-publicized, wisecracking Freddy Krueger of the "Nightmare" sequels truly embarassing, Apparantly so did Wes Craven. After directing the absoloutly brilliant original "A Nightmare on Elm Street" (1984), he finally eturned to the series ten years later to right what was wrong and give Freddy a proper burial in the ingenius "Wes Craven's New Nightmare" (1994). After the completely pitiful, direct-to-video 'quality' of "Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare" (1991), Craven proved that horror can be artistic and scary, as well as pack a major punch. Both the original and "New Nightmare" stand as a testament to this. Craven changed the face of horror with the original by introducing a villian you couldn't escape from. Fred Krueger haunted your subconcious mind, stalking you through dark dreams until you were dead in real life. None of the subsequent sequels recognized the genius of the film, and assumed that all the audience wanted to see was bloody murder and cheesy jokes. then came "New Nightmare" to get the series back on track. Smart and scary, the movie reunited most of the cast of the original "Nightmare" as well as the producers and makers of the whole series ina wacky and twisted plotline in which Freddy is a real force kept quiet by capture in the films, but now that the films have ended, he's back. Both of these films are smart and scary, and get 100% recommendation from me, unlike the tawdry sequels.

As usual for New Line Cinema, the quality of these DVDs is very, very high. The grain that inhabited all previous version of part 1 is totally absent now, and the darkness of the dream sequences can be realized like never before. "New Nightmare," being the most recent, of course looks great, and also features one of the most heartpounding 5.1 soundtracks ever. Both films contain excellent, in-depth commentaries from Craven and the crew. These both shed a lot of light on the making-of and intentions of both films. Press biographies for the cast and crew is also available on both of these discs. Also, don't miss the fun theatrical trailers, especially "New Nightmare," which continues the 'film-within-a-film' idea of the movie.

This set gets my highest recommendation. You get both of the best "Nightmare" films without being attacked by the horrible sequels. *****

The Nightmare comes to Life.......2004-01-04

New Line Cinema took a new direction from the old Nightmare series by literally bringing Freddy out of the screen. Krueger comes to life to stalk actress Heather Langenkamp having been laid dormant in the unproductive Nightmare Series for too long.

Wes makes a daring and successful attempt to resurrect Freddy. He returns the demon to his dark and humourless self giving him a terrifying new "shadowy" look. He furthermore blurs the line between reality and fiction bringing the slasher into the very world that is suppose to be our sanctuary.

With a palette of special effects, Freddy returns to the claw abandoning his creative murders in exchange for the "catch and slash" Nightmare was originally famous for. Fans of the saga must be willing to accept this long-winded, stand-alone film at its newest angle and embrace the post-modernism. For those looking for another addition to the series, I'd recommend Freddy vs Jason.

DVD:

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