A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET The slasher genre was in palpable decline in 1984. With a successful "final" chapter of Friday the 13th making a theatrical bow, it looked as though the teen stalker sub-set had run its course, with a hopeful resurgence of zombie features on the nearing horizon (the upcoming Day Of The Dead and an ambitious indie, Return Of The Living Dead). That's just when genre vet Wes Craven delivered his little Christmas goodie A Nightmare On Elm Street and highlighted a supernatural element to an otherwise atrophying form. A teenaged girl named Tina (Amanda Wyss) has invited a group of friends to spend the night while her parents are away. She's been having nightmares, and there's a brief suggestion that her bad dreams overlap with the same nightmares of her friends. Something about a surly man in a striped sweater and a fedora hat, with a bladed glove. Tina's terrors come true as she once again dreams of the same fiend, but oddly, the same fatal injuries from her dream happen upon her sleeping body. The authorities blame her boyfriend (Nick Corri) for the crime, while survivor Nancy (Heather Langenkamp) believes something more is at hand, though her ever-present boyfriend Glenn (Johnny Depp) is a harder sell. Nancy's investigation into her hometown Springwood's sordid past reveals the years-ago vigilante burning of one Fred Krueger, a filthy child murderer. Krueger (Robert Englund) has managed to remanifest himself as a dream ghoul whose attacks during a nightmare result in real-life death for the dreamer. Nancy's skeptical parents (Ronee Blakely and John Saxon) eventually come to face the horrors of Krueger's vendetta against Springwood during the harrowing climax. Make-up duties fell chiefly to David Miller, whose one-of-a-kind Krueger design was redone numerous times in sequels until about the fifth one, in which someone wised up and decided to reincorporate his definitive version. Charles Bernstein's original nine-note Elm Street motif remained a holdover, regardless of whoever was scoring each sequel. Little did Mr. Craven know he was literally creating a monster. Robert Englund has portrayed Fred (or Freddy) Krueger eight times now, the most recent being the $80 million-plus blockbuster Freddy Vs. Jason, which pitted the scarred one against a certain hockey masked mama's boy. In 1984, A Nightmare On Elm Street was merely a modest horror hit. But it spawned a cycle which developed a mythology of its own which boasted higher budgets and a more innovative mythology than was usually expected of a teen slasher franchise. Who knew it would launch a saga? Next Review >> Cast: John Saxon .... Lt. Thompson Ronee Blakley .... Marge Thompson Heather Langenkamp .... Nancy Thompson Amanda Wyss .... Tina Gray Nick Corri .... Rod Lane Johnny Depp .... Glen Lantz Charles Fleischer .... Dr. King Joseph Whipp .... Sgt. Parker Robert Englund .... Fred Krueger Lin Shaye .... Teacher Joe Unger .... Sgt. Garcia Mimi Craven .... Nurse Jack Shea (II) .... Minister Ed Call .... Mr. Lantz Sandy Lipton .... Mrs. Lantz David Andrews (I) .... Foreman Jeff Levine (I) .... Coroner Donna Woodrum .... Tina's Mom Shashawnee Hall .... Cop #1 Carol Pritikin .... Cop #2 Brian Reise .... Cop #3 Jason Adams (I) .... Surfer #1 Don Hannah .... Surfer #2 Leslie Hoffman .... Hallguard Paul Grenier .... Tina's Mom's Boyfriend << Back