DVD available at Amazon.com
Writer-Director:
Wes Craven
Cast:
Robert Englund”¦”¦”¦.Freddy Krueger
Heather Langenkamp”¦”¦”¦.Nancy Thompson
John Saxon”¦”¦”¦.Lt. Thompson
Ronee Blakley”¦”¦”¦.Marge Thompson
Johnny Depp”¦”¦”¦.Glen Lantz
Amanda Wyss”¦”¦”¦.Tina Gray
Jsu Garcia (as Nick Corri)”¦”¦”¦.Rod Lane
New Line Cinema presents A Nightmare on Elm Street. Running time: 92 minutes. Rated R. DVD release date: September 26, 2006. MSRP: $26.98.
Every town should have an Elm Street. If there’s not, Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street is probably the reason why. For the parents of Springwood, 1428 Elm St. has special importance. It was the address of Fred Krueger (Robert Englund). Was, in the fact that he was killed, and rightfully so. He was a child molester who slew his helpless victims — he killed at least 20 children — after he was finished with them. Since the legal system failed to provide the justice the town so much desired, the adults saw fit to administer their own style of vengeance. He was burned alive by an infuriated mob of parents.
The evil that plagued Springwood was gone, and life returned to some sort of normalcy. Years later, the teenagers on Elm Street begin to have nights of unrest. Waking up in the dead of the night with sweat pouring, nightmares disrupt their sleep. The film opens on a girl named Tina (Amanda Wyss) venturing down into the bowls of a steam-filled boiler room. She is being pursued by a mysterious figure wearing a hat and a dirty sweater. His voice echoes the catacombs, calling her name, and laughing with that sadistic laugh of his. Nails, more like finger knives, scrape along the metal pipes. Standing in front of a boilerplate the haunted atmosphere grows to a fever pitch; Tina screams in terror. But right before the sinister figure grabs her, she wakes up to discover razor cuts in her nightdress. Razor cuts that she received inside the dream.
The following morning she talks about her nightmare with friends. As it turns out, her best friend Nancy (Heather Langenkamp) had the exact same dream. When Tina dies terribly in a locked bedroom, the cops instinctively believe that it was her boyfriend Rod (Nick Corri) who committed the murder, as he was the only other person in the bedroom at the time of death. Nancy would soon disagree with this assumption.
Having experienced nightmares in the wake of Tina’s death, Nancy tells her father (John Saxon), the lead investigator on the murder case, that the true killer is a burned man wearing a ratty red-and-green sweater and a glove with long knives attached. This gives him pause, but he does make mention of what we know to be true — that the man his little girl described was Fred Krueger. In the meantime, teenage bodies start to pile up as a narcoleptic’s worst enemy slices, strangulates, and drains the life out of his sleeping victims.
Here’s Freddy!
It isn’t until an induced sleep at a dream therapy clinic that Nancy begins to understand the kille’s power. The scene is especially important, because what takes place in her near fatal dream is not shown. Today’s crop of horrormeisters would exploit the carnage, while Craven illustrates the importance of psychological trauma. Less is more, in this case. Nancy wakes up with a cut on her forearm and a battered hat that she was able to pull from her nightmare.
Wondering the importance of the hat Nancy pressures her mother (Ronee Blakley) into revealing the truth. After a short history of Springwood and the man who terrorized the streets, the mother admits that she was one of the many parents that burned Krueger alive. The legend of Fred Krueger combined with her newfound ability to pull things out of dreams is Nancy’s key in devising a way to try to pull the demonic child killer out of the dream world and into reality.
Is she successful? Well, unless you have been living under a rock (or in a boiler room) you’d know that Wes Craven’s slasher movie lives beyond the scope of A Nightmare on Elm Street. Krueger would turn into a pop culture phenom. A merchandizing blitz of trading cards, posters, figurines, pull string figures, and a television show hosted by the infamous character would follow. Not to mention six sequels that would stretch well into the nineties.
The sequels couldn’t quite match the greatness of the original, though A Nightmare on the Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and Wes Craven’s New Nightmare are two of the better ones. Fred Krueger was shortened to Freddy, and Robert Englund would crack jokes at the expense of his victims. Which isn’t a bad thing. Freddy slices his victims while leaving you in stitches. So animated and versatile in his delivery, it’s hard to imagine anyone else but Englund in the raggedy red-and-green striped sweater and sooty fedora hat. And so far no one has. Englund has slipped on that glove with magic fingers eight different times — seven Nightmare movies and in the battle of the horror icons Freddy vs. Jason.
Here’s Johnny!
A quick tangent as it should also be noted that Craven’s film was also Johnny Depp’s big-screen debut. He plays Nancy’s boyfriend Glen. Depp does his best with the clichéd-riddled dialogue, but that’s not saying much. What can be said? Hmm, it doesn’t end pretty for the future Captain Jack Sparrow.
Okay, back to the review.
Loosely based on true events, Wes Craven was inspired to write this movie after reading a series of articles in the Los Angeles Times. The pieces were about a group of Cambodian refugees and their children who suffered horrific nightmares having fled to America from Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge regime. The distress of the Cambodian genocide was so intense that the children would eventually die in their sleep. Blending fantasy with reality, Craven created Nightmare and the most iconic of horror icons. Sorry fans of Michael Myers (Halloween) or Jason Voorhees (Friday the 13th), a glove-wielding killer in a ratty sweater is more menacing than a painted-white Captain Kirk mask or the superhuman hockey goalie of hell.
Wes Craven relies more on psychological fear than cheap parlor tricks that proliferate today’s horror to scare the viewer. Nightmares are particularly scary, no matter if they are about phobias or human nature. The mystery surrounding dreams and distinguishing between what is real and what is not has a lingering effect. The rising action, climax and catharsis in Craven’s story are taut, and the direction isn’t bad either. It is a fulfilling mixture of horror, thriller and fantasy, never mind the cheesy 80’s verbiage.
THE VIDEO
(Presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen)
Having seen comparison shots between the previous release of A Nightmare on Elm Street on DVD and this new special edition, I can honestly conclude that this is the best the movie has ever looked. Flesh tones are more lifelike compared to the original, and color definition remains strong. The blacks are persistent, emphasizing shadows in the darker scenes. The colors have a cooler feeling in this new transfer, as some of the scenes have a bluish tint. The scene inside the dream therapy clinic is a prime example. I must note that there are some inconsistencies when it comes to grain intruding upon the image. Though, damage to the film print has been curtailed, almost becoming non-existent.
Videophiles should take note of the set up screen options located on the main menu. In the option settings you can tune the television image with the color bars provided so that the picture may be improved.
THE AUDIO
(English — Original Mono mix, Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 6.1 ES)
With three different sound mixes, plus two commentary tracks, the listener has many options at his disposal. The sound engineers definitely please the fans of this horror classic. By sampling all the tracks, the rear channels provide atmospheric undertones. Sound effects are nicely timed and come from different speakers at the right moment. Dialogue is clear and free of any distortion. Charles Bernstein’s supernatural score is akin to Harry Manfredini’s compositions for Friday the 13th; the music is well balanced and does not overpower the characters’ words.
The DTS track has a slight edge in the bass department, but the 5.1 mix isn’t bad. The mono track that is included will strictly appeal to fans of this original Nightmare, as it allows the listener to watch the slasher film in its purest form. In all, a great audio package from the guys at New Line.
SPECIAL FEATURES
Some years ago New Line Cinema released a box set with all seven Freddy films plus a bonus disc. The original Nightmare on Elm Street DVD had a commentary track and theatrical trailer. While not a barebones release, it paled in comparison to the laserdisc release from 1996. The laserdisc had a commentary that would later be carried over to the DVD. The deleted scenes were missing, however.
With this Infinifilm release, New Line Cinema has completely redeemed itself.
Disc 1:
Again, the original commentary track from the previous DVD release returns with writer-director Wes Craven, cinematographer Jacques Haitkin and actors Heather Langenkamp and John Saxon. The comments are relaxed, the discussion decent. The best pearls of wisdom come from Craven who describes Kruege’s origin, and Haitkin’s hands-on comments about the technical ingenuity in setting up particular shots.
The first disc treats us with another commentary, a newly recorded one at that. The participants read like a who’s-who of Nightmare‘s cast and crew. Wes Craven, Robert Shaye (founder of New Line Cinema), special effects technician Jim Doyle, editors Rick Shayne and Patrick McMahon, David Del Valle (film historian), cast members Robert Englund, Heather Langenkamp, Amada Wyss and Ronee Blakley, and a few others. Of course, these participants were not sitting in the same recording session together. It is an edited commentary, by which I mean the comments were recorded separately on different occasions. Depending on the listener, this can be a good or bad thing. The commentary is strictly nuts-and-bolts as each speaker focuses on a specific aspect. Spontaneity is pretty much a moot point. Before every comment a narrator pops up to introduce the next commentator. Guess it’s easier than remembering each person’s vocal inflection.
The next extra is the infinifilm feature. Infinifilm is a special line of New Line DVDs that provide a more interactive experience for the viewer. The very first title was Thirteen Days, which gave the viewer more background information on the Cuban Missile Crisis. Though most of the titles are more popular in nature, including Elf and Austin Powers in Goldmember.
According to the Website, infinifilm is a “portal” to extra features and footage that expounds upon the movie’s premise a unique, one-of-a-kind viewer-directed experience. When the DVD is inserted into your player, you have the choice of viewing the film independent of the special features. Or, experience the film with the infinifilm option enabled. If selected, throughout the main feature, icons will pop up that will allow you to view extra content that relates to the scene currently playing. (Extra content includes interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, deleted scenes and more.) When the extra is finished playing, you will return to movie — right where you left off. You can also ignore the pop-ups if you wish, and make selections at your discretion.
Given that description, you pretty much know what to expect. The disc plays as pop-ups appear on screen. This may not be the best way to explore the special features, since many would rather watch the film without interruption. That is why the second disc of this two-disc special edition has all the infinifilm content in as standard special features.
Features that won’t be found on the second disc include a fact track option — a selectable subtitle stream of trivia; a trailer montage with theatrical trailers for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: The Beginning, Snakes on a Plane and home video ads for Final Destination 3 and Running Scared; and DVD-Rom features like reading the original screenplay while watching the film or playing the “Don’t Fall Asleep” trivia game.
Disc 2:
The first offerings on the second disc are two “infinifilm Beyond the Movie” features:
The House that Freddy Built: The Legacy of New Line Horror (22:47) is a featurette that explains the brief history of New Line, and how it went from a small independent company to a major Hollywood studio. Most of the success was dependent upon how well A Nightmare on Elm Street and its sequels performed. Founders of New Line Cinema, Robert Shaye and Sarah Risher, began by distributing genre films — horror, especially — because they were cheap and easy to obtain and sell. They financed Alone in the Dark with that one-arm-pushup thespian Jack Palance, an actor who proved difficult to work with. The success of the first Nightmare, which earned four million opening weekend (not a lot compared to today’s standards), was a huge boost. Most of the documentary is dedicated to how Freddy changed with each subsequent sequel. His origin was altered. As for the character, he went from child killer-turned-boogeyman to becoming this boogeyman with better jokes and one-liners than a late-night monologue. To this day, New Line is primarily a niche studio, and the rest of the featurette explores that aspect by discussing the horror movies that were produced in the wake of Elm Street‘s success. Titles include Critters, Final Destination, as well as two Jason movies — Sean S. Cunningham (producer-director-creator of Friday the 13th) got the film rights from Paramount — and of course, Freddy vs. Jason.
Night Terrors: The Origins of Wes Craven’s Nightmare (15:55) goes beyond the scope of Elm Street and talks about dreams. What are they and how do you define them? This piece features a Jungian psychologist and authors who have studied dreams and the mysteries they contain. Interspersed with their comments are scenes from the seven Freddy movies, some of which delve into those nighttime visions. Wes Craven pops up and speaks about his inspiration for the Krueger character and the film. Much of this I made mention in the review. The extra, while not extensive, is a good overview about dreams, nightmares more to the point, and gives us a better idea of what Wes Craven’s intentions were when he created Fred Krueger.
More supplemental material can be found under the “infinifilm All Access Pass” option on the main menu. This section includes alternate endings, the original theatrical trailer and a documentary.
For the alternate endings three are included. The first is the scary ending (0:53), a different take on the ending used in the final cut. The happy ending (0:47) features the Freddy nursery rhyme but no surprise killings. The third alternate ending is the Freddy ending (1:01). Let’s just say it’s the original finale but with more of the boogeyman.
These unused, could-have-been endings are nice, but are merely the appetizers to the main course. Never Sleep Again: The Making of A Nightmare on Elm Street (49:52) is a seven-part documentary. Each section has a title that explains the content contained within: “Dreams Behind the Nightmare”; “The Nightmare Becomes a Reality”; “Nightmares on the Set”; “Unveiling a Nightmare”; “The Nightmare Magicians”; “Concluding a Nightmare”; and “A Nightmare is Unleashed”.
The documentary begins with a little background on Wes Craven. Growing up in a strict Baptist household, his parents taught him at an early age that movies were the “devil’s playground”. A student in college, Craven had a bout with paralysis that was near fatal. The episode made him take up poetry and creative writing, but he never wrote horror. He became a professor who later quit after discovering the works of Fellini and other European auteurs. Movies became his love. So, he worked with Sean S. Cunningham in New York on various horror projects. Craven even did some uncredited directing in the first Friday the 13th. Cunningham returned the favor doing second-unit directing for A Nightmare on Elm Street.
Succeeding sections talk about the problems experienced during production, including the pre- and post- phases. Craven’s script was shipped around from studio to studio. No takers until Robert Shaye stepped in and showed interest. Money shortages were prevalent at odd times during the 32-day shooting schedule. The studio wanted at least two big stars or the movie would not get a greenlight to shoot. Those stars were John Saxon and Ronee Blakley.
The feature also covers location scouting (including the boiler room), how Robert Englund was a classically trained actor at the Royal Academy. As performer, both Klaus Kinski (Nosferatu) and James Cagney were inspirations that he drew on while donning the ugly face makeup. We get information on the special effects used in the film: the bathtub scene, the revolving room with Tina on the ceiling. Editing proved to be the biggest challenge; there are 80 effects shots in the span of 90 minutes. The editors were also unsure how much they wanted to show of Krueger. Less is more in this case, while the sequels had him ready for his close-up. Craven weighs in on the cuts that had to be made to get his movie a restricted rating. The cuts were minor, but Craven is steadfast in his dislike of the MPAA’s censorship. And he isn’t the only one (see This Film is Not Yet Rated).
Completing the special features on disc 2 is Freddy’s Coming for You, an interactive trivia challenge in which you answer questions. If successful you get to see a clip. If not, lock your doors, grab your crucifix, stay up late and never sleep again.
THE INSIDE PULSE
Whew. As you probably can tell, this double dip release of A Nightmare on Elm Street is loaded to the gills. New Line has done a top-notch job at updating the picture and sound, while also including a large assortment of extras. The popularity of Freddy Krueger is undeniable; posters with his likeness adorned my walls when I was ten or eleven. Watching the original again brings back memories. Fans of pop culture boogeyman are sure to want to pick it up.
