A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Director: Wes Craven

Writer: Wes Craven

Composer: Charles Bernstein

Starring: John Saxon, Ronee Blakely, Heather Langenkamp, Amanda Wyss, Jsu Garcia, Johnny Depp, Charles Fleischer, Joseph Whipp, Robert Englund

More info: IMDb

Tagline: She is the only one who can stop it... if she fails, no one survives.

Plot: Nancy is having nightmares about a frightening, badly-scarred figure who wears a glove with razor-sharp "finger knives". She soon discovers that her friends are having similar dreams. When the kids begin to die, Nancy realizes that she must stay awake to survive. Uncovering the secret identity of the dream killer and his connection with the children of Elm Street, the girl plots to draw him out into the real world.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again? Yes.

It's hard to believe I've only seen this twice now.  I never caught it back in the 80s when I was in my teens. How could that have happened?  The third picture is the only other Elm Street movie I've seen and that was a few years ago.  Now I'm starting from the beginning to work my way through the entire franchise.  I recall this first one being better.  It feels much slower than before and it's only 90 minutes long.  The special effects are great and Englund as Freddy is iconic.  It's surprising that he didn't have more to do in this one.  Ya know, if there were more Freddy and less Nancy (Langenkamp) this would be a much better picture.  Heather Langenkamp and Ronee Blakley are the weakest acting links but they provide some unintentional laughs so it's not all that bad I suppose.  I'm looking forward to burning through this series much like I did recently with the FRIDAY THE 13th films.  Hopefully I won't come out the other end with a bad taste in my mouth.