Another film that I had never seen before, but had seen a few isolated scenes was Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street.  This ballooned into a huge franchise with Freddy Krueger becoming one of horror’s greatest icons.

However, the start here was a bit shaky.  Some of the acting felt weaker and Freddy Krueger himself would see better days.  The story was challenging to follow and, while that is not a bad thing, it did make me uncertain exactly what was happening.

Yet, there was something about the film that spoke to me.  It had its moments of biting humor and it had the iconic scene where Johnny Depp as Glenn gets pulled into his bed and suddenly becomes a blood fountain.  Huh?

The fact that you are never quite sure what is going on is most likely part of the point.  Dreams can be very surreal and this film shows that effect.  Nancy, played by Heather Langenkamp, was being isolated by the monstrous “Fred” Krueger (I have to say, it was shocking every time someone called him Fred) and her lack of sleep continued to make the story confusing.  What exactly was happening?  Not sure if we really know.  And that ending?

Freddy revitalized the slasher genre in the 1980s with this clever work from Wes Craven and will always be one of the giants of these types of films.  While I have never been as fond of slasher type horror films as I am in other versions of the genre, I appreciate where the franchise was able to take this character and how it scared a generation of people.