A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) or, Don't Fall Asleep!

9/02/2013

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) or, Don't Fall Asleep!

♥♥♥♥

Something vicious lurks in the shadows of sleep on this neat, painted poster for Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street

I really love this film and definitely consider it better than the just reviewed American Graffiti.

Teenager Nancy and her friends find themselves in mortal danger due to the deceased neighborhood child molester Freddy Krueger, who steals them away in their nightmares.

The original Elm Street is the 7th theatrical feature from great Ohioan writer/director Wes Craven (The Last House on the Left (1972)). It has ultra-cool practical effects, Robert Englund's (I Want to Be a Soldier (2010)) charismatic, diabolical performance as Krueger, sweet girl Heather Langenkamp (The Demolitionist (1995)) as iconic final girl Nancy, Ronee Blakley's (She Came to the Valley (1979)) memorable turn as her souped-up mother, the always competent John Saxon (Killing Obsession (1994)) as her father and a very young, very delectable Johnny Depp (Lucky Them (2013)) as an ill-fated youth in his movie debut.
The central idea of getting offed by your nightmares is very scary and evocative, and Craven made this film an outstanding and marvelously entertaining classic for every fan of horror.

Related posts:

Wes Craven: 2011 in films - according to Film Excess Scream 4 (2011) - Craven & Williams serve an irresistible slasher treat
My Soul to Take (2010) - Craven returns with a subpar teen slasher
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) or, Your Kids and the Bastard Son of 100 Maniacs
Remake: A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) - Another terrible remake of a horror classic

Watch a short TV ad for the movie here

Cost: 1.8 mil. $
Box office: 25.5 mil. $ (North America only)
= Mega-hit (returned at least 14.16 times the cost)
[A Nightmare on Elm Street premiered in October (West Germany) and runs 91 minutes. Craven based his idea on reports about male South East Asian refugees in America in the 1970s, who were dying in their sleep from extreme nightmares, while basing Freddy Krueger on his childhood bully. The prospect was rejected by major studios except for fledgling distributor New Line Cinema, who went into production with Nightmare, which solidified the company immensely. Shooting took place in California, including Los Angeles, from June - July 1984. 500 gallons of fake blood were used. Jsu Garcia (Traffic (2000)), who plays Rod Lane (as Nick Corri), had recently been homeless and took heroine during filming. Craven and New Line leader Robert Shaye disagreed on the ending, which made Craven reject making the first sequel. The film opened #10 to an 1.2 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it later peaked at #2 in its only week in the top 5, behind holdover hit Beverly Hills Cop. The foreign grosses are not made public, but the film must have made at least 30-35 mil. $ in total. Craven returned with Chiller (1985, TV movie) and an episode of Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color (1986) and theatrically with Deadly Friend (1986). Langenkamp returned in Nickel Mountain (1984), Englund in V (1984-85), Hollywood Beat (1985, TV-series) and theatrically in the first Nightmare sequel A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985). A Nightmare on Elm Street is certified fresh at 94 % with a 7.7/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of A Nightmare on Elm Street?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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9/02/2013

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) or, Don't Fall Asleep!

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