A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Watched this film again, and I must say, the problems I had with it bothered me a lot less this time. The characters are all well rounded and realistically portrayed, and I really like the protagonist Nancy, who’s played pretty well by Heather Langenkamp. The very concept of the film is solid gold, extremely creative. The direction is excellent, Wes Craven manages to make even a scene outdoors in the middle of the day scary. Freddy Krueger is just fantastic. I love how he’s clearly having fun, but not stooping down to full on comedian like in later sequels, and the makeup used is great. The music is creepy and sets the tone very well. The kills in the film are creative and brutal, way more fun to watch than people just being hacked open with a knife. There are some things that still bother me, like the nonsensical ending, and other minor things, but mostly, I love this film.

8/10

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985)

I fully expected to hate this film, but… I actually didn’t mind it. It had a creative concept (even if it completely contradicted the first film), a good story and alright characters. The protagonist, Jesse wasn’t a bad one, and played pretty well by Mark Patton. He did a good job conveying what I think would be a horrible situation. The love interest, Lisa was also pretty good, and acted well. She wasn’t just a stereotypical bimbo, and did things to advance the plot. Freddy once again shined, and is it just me, or does his makeup make him look heaps angrier now? A far cry from bubblegum Freddy of part six, or plastic Freddy of Freddy vs. Jason. So, yeah, even though it had some stupid moments (the parakeet scene, the gym teacher making Jesse run laps in the middle of the night, that pool party massacre), I actually didn’t think the film was that bad.

6/10