A Nightmare On Elm Street

At a time when the stalker movie had been exploited to all ends and the image of
mute, staggering, vicious killers had been etched into society’s consciousness to
the point of exhaustion, a new kid entered the block. The year was 1984 and it
was time for a new villain to enter into the horror genre. A villain that was agile,
intelligent, almost inviolable yet viscous, and by all means deadly. A Nightmare
on Elm Street introduced the distinctive presence of Fred Krueger to the horror
industry and to the audience. Freddy Krueger took the center stage and with him
a new era of horror films began. This horribly scarred man who wore a ragged
slouch hat, dirty red-and-green striped sweater, and a glove outfitted with knives
at the fingers reinvented the stalker genre like no other film had. Fred Krueger
breathed new life into the dying horror genre of the early 1980’s.
Horror films are designed to frighten the audience and engage them in their
worst fears, while captivating and entertaining at the same time. Horror films
often center on the darker side of life, on what is forbidden and strange. These
films play with society’s fears, its nightmare’s and vulnerability, the terror of the
unknown, the fear of death, the loss of identity, and the fear of sexuality. Horror
films are generally set in spooky old mansions, fog-ridden areas, or dark locales
with unknown human, supernatural or grotesque creatures lurking about. These
creatures can range from vampires, madmen, devils, unfriendly ghosts,
monsters, mad scientists, demons, zombies, evil spirits, satanic villains, the
possessed, werewolves and freaks to the unseen and even the mere presence of
evil. Within the genre of horror films falls the sub-genre of teen slasher/stalker
films. These teen slasher/stalker films take the horror genre film characteristics
into account, however they add more to the formula. More violence, sadism,
brutality, and graphic blood and gore are used to increase the terror factor.
Sexuality and gratuitous nudity are also key characteristic of many of these
films. Imitations and numerous sequels are also a common characteristic of teen
slasher/stalker films as well.
A Nightmare on Elm Street and all of the following six sequels fall into its own
sub-genre of the teen slasher/stalker sub-genre as well, know as the Nightmare
on Elm Street Series. This series of films adds a new dimension to the typical
teen slasher/stalker film, depth of character and story. The characters are not
there only to be killed, but rather they have distinct personalities, they are
independent and intelligent, particularly the female lead characters. The killer,
Fred Krueger, as well is not only there to murder his victims. He displays a great
amount of wit, sarcasm and intelligence. The audience comes away with a
knowledge of each of the characters individual personalities. The storyline takes
on a greater depth as well. The story goes beyond the simple gore and focuses
more on the psychological terror that lies within and scares society the most.
The line between nightmare and reality becomes blurred and the terror is
allowed to build up, which results in a tremendous amount of suspense.
Horror films developed over a century ago and have come from a number of
different sources: folktales, witchcraft, fables, myths, and ghost stories. The first
horror movie was made by Georges Melies, titled The Devil’s Castle (1896).
Another of the early influential films was The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919).
The shadowy, dream-nightmarish quality of this film was brought to Hollywood
in the 1920’s and continued on into the horror films of the 1930’s. Horror
entered into the Dracula and Frankenstein era during the early 1930’s. The
studios took stories of European vampires and mad scientists and created some
of the most iconic beings ever known on the screen. Dracula films and sequels
were less successful than many of the Frankenstein sequels. Many of the films in
the horror genre from the mid 1930’s to the 1950’s were B-grade films, inferior
sequels, or low budget gimmick films. During the 1950’s most of the films were
cheaply made, drive-in teenage oriented films. To counter the popularity of
television, experiments with 3-Dimensional films were made. These low budget
films helped to keep the horror genre alive when the larger Hollywood studios
turned away. Horror films branched out in all different directions in the 1960’s
and afterward. Film censorship was on the decline and directors began to frankly
portray horror in ordinary circumstances and seemingly innocent settings. Alfred
Hitchcock brought out his most horrific film, Psycho, at the start of the decade,
which changed the face of horror films. In 1968, the MPAA created a new
ratings system with G, M, R, X ratings in part to the violent themes of horror
films. In the 1970’s the horror genre was subjected to far more violence as well
as blood and gore. Slasher films, in which the victims were stalked and killed by
mortal or immortal psychopaths, also became popular during this decade, with
films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and Halloween (1978). This
trend carried through to the 1980’s as well with films like A Nightmare on Elm
Street and Friday the 13th , with the sequels to these films carrying them
throughout the rest of the decade and into the 1990’s. During the 1990’s Wes
Craven, the writer and director of the original Nightmare on Elm Street, has
been credited with bringing the horror genre back to life with films like Scream.
The characters in these films are now aware of the history of the slasher horror
film and know all the rules. “They survive the movie based on their ability to
outguess the twists of the formulas in which they are trapped” (Mast, Kawin,
553).
The horror genre, as well as slasher/stalker genre, and The Nightmare on Elm
Street genre have been influenced by Expressionism, rendering inner states as
aspects of the outer world. “Masks, madness, and shadows come together in the
Expressionist horror film, where the threatening figure is often uncontrollably
destructive, sexually aggressive, masked or in heavy makeup, and acting out
some culturally repressed impulse” (Kawin, 94).
A Nightmare on Elm Street was written and directed by Wes Craven. The movie
was released in 1984 and challenged the typical slasher genre film of the time in
many aspects. The movie begins with the haunting children’s song, “One, two
Freddy’s coming for you /Three, four, better lock your door / Five, six grab your
crucifix / Seven,eight gonna stay up late / Nine, ten never sleep again.” A
teenage girl wanders around a dark boiler room in only her nightgown, as a
screeching is heard as knives are scratched against the pipes. A badly burned
man wearing a dirty hat and striped sweater with knives for finger grabs her
from behind and she then wakes up screaming in her bed, it was only a dream.
Not long after this, the same girl is in another dream where she is being chased
by the same man, he catches her in the dream and in reality she is thrown around
the room in a state of unconsciousness and stabbed repeatedly by an attacker
that can only be seen in her dream. The film is already different from the typical
slasher/stalker film in that the terror is taking place in both the dream state, as
well as in reality. The basic plot resembles other slasher films in that a scary,
strange entity is stalking teens in order to kill them. The setting is dark and
spooky with a foggy appearance. As in many horror films a character who is
thought to be one of the main characters is killed off early on and that is where
the similarities end. The plot of this film gives a reason as to why Fred Krueger
is after these teenagers. The parents of these teens who live on Elm Street had
gotten together, captured him and burned him alive because he had gotten out of
jail, charged with murdering children, on a technicality. Now as his revenge he
must kill the children of all the parents that were involved in his murder, by
stalking them in their dreams. By making Freddy Krueger the result of a dark
secret in the neighborhood, the motivation is much deeper than the average
slasher film. Although Freddy is a horrible villain, his crimes existed in the past.
The teenagers parents are now responsible for the reawakening of the terror
because they committed an act just as horrible and as a result, their children
must now pay for their sins. The nightmare world is connected to reality, which
effects the visual style of the film. This allows for anything to happen, there are
no limitations. While other villains are restricted to real world laws of physics,
Freddy Krueger can do anything when looking for people in their dreams. There
are no physical limitations to what he can do. This also allows the filmmakers to
do things in terms of effects that had not been done before, such as when Freddy
pushes through the wall and knocks the crucifix over Tina’s bed onto the floor.
Weaving the reality sequences with the dream sequences so that the audience did
not know which was which also had an impact on the visual style of the film.
Some of the dreams appeared so realistic that when it was cut to reality or
switched back into a nightmare it added even more surprise to the where the
story was.
The characters in this film are also very different from the typical characters in a
slasher horror film. These characters have personalities and are intelligent.
Nancy ,the female lead character, is a particularly strong character in the film.
She is not about to let herself be killed by Freddy. She fights back by trying to
stay awake drinking coffee and taking caffeine pills. She also discovers ways to
go into the dream state and learn about it without being killed. She even
manages to find a possible way to bring Freddy into reality from a dream and
sets him up to be killed. Nancy redefines the role of a victim in this genre of
film. She does not just run from the attacker to get away, nor does she try and
hide from him. Rather she goes right into the killers world announces that she’s
there by screaming out “Krueger, I’m here”, captures him herself by going after
him, fights back and destroys Krueger for the time being by not fearing him and
standing up to him. Freddy Krueger also redefines the typical role of a killer in
this film. The typical stalker was one that never spoke, was unimaginative, and
vicious, that captured their victim by chasing them down to a dead end. While
Krueger is scary and dangerous, it is his wit and intelligence that really come
through. He has a brain and knows how to use it, he uses all the tricks of the
trade to lure his victims to him and is very cunning while he does it. He uses
sarcasm and plays with the minds of the victims, for example when Krueger
transforms himself into a high school girl hall monitor and asks Nancy where
her hall pass is. This is not the typical image one would have of a killer but this
lets the audience know that he is lurking about just waiting to make his move.
The film also deals with certain thematic concerns, such as the role of parents
and the police in society. The parents in this movie are not interested in what
their children are telling them. Nancy’s mother, who is an alcoholic, won’t
believe her when Nancy tells her about Freddy. Nancy’s father, a police officer,
doesn’t show up to help Nancy when she brings Freddy out of her dream into
reality, even though he said he would be there. Nancy believes that something
might happen to Rod while he is in jail and she asks the police to check on him.
The police don’t check up on Rod and he is murdered in his cell by Krueger. The
parents feel that there is no problem because they think that they solved the
problem by killing Krueger themselves. The parents won’t listen to their kids,
which is a common theme in many movies.
A Nightmare on Elm Street adds to the horror genre, by bringing into light the
psychological aspect of horror, which can be much scarier than blood and gore.
It brought a new perspective to the typical horror movie and allowed for serious
character development. Therefore, it became possible to battle the killer, it
became an issue of the mind, not over who was bigger or stronger. The movie
gave motives for the plot and made it interesting and intelligent It also made a
connection between what society fears and the reality of those fears.
In an time when the horror film had become little more than a mindless game of
cat and mouse, with excessive amounts of blood and gore, Wes Craven brought
hope to the genre. A Nightmare on Elm Street intelligently probed into the
audience’s fear of nightmares and combines that with the fear of being trapped
within a nightmare in order to create a very intelligent thought-provoking movie
that helped to redefine the horror genre. Bibliography
Brown, Gene. Movie Time, A Chronology of Hollywood and the Movie Industry
from Its Beginnings to the Present. Macmillan Company, 1995.
Mast, Gerald and Bruce Kawin. A Short History of the Movies, Seventh Edition,
Allyn and Bacon, 2000.
Kawin, Bruce. How Movies Work, University of California Press, 1992.