A Nightmare on Elm Street ★★★½
1 MICHAEL, 2 Jason, 3 Freddy
That’s my ranking of the three greatest slasher characters in horror film history.
Michael Myers from the Halloween series has always been the most compelling on all levels, with Friday the 13th’s Jason Voorhees just edging him for brutality.
Freddy Kruger I can basically take or leave, but a recent re-watch of his first appearance in Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street gave me a better appreciation.
He’s still a little too comic for my liking, but the early films are still part of a ground-breaking modern horror wave.
There is no doubt the 1984 original film features a great premise – a madman stalks and kills people through their dreams – which has been dissected by critics, fans and academics and given a range of allegorical meanings.
You can certainly get that level of discourse from Craven’s film, particularly some of its sequels, but let’s focus on how it works successfully as purely a horror film.
Almost all the kills are set-up and executed well and there is a good helping of jump scares along the way. Robert Eglund wasn’t the studio’s first choice as Freddy but he gives a memorable performance and has made a career out of playing him.
The second act drags a little, but the majority of the film still holds up today.
Watched on Apple TV.