A Nightmare On Elm Street DVD Review

Written by Daniel Hirshleifer

DVD Released by New Line Home Entertainment

Written and directed by Wes Craven
1984, Region 1 (NTSC), 92 minutes, Rated R

DVD released on September 26th, 2006

Starring:

Robert Englund

Heather Langenkamp

John Saxon

Johnny Depp

Review:

The word “horror” can elicit a wide range of imagery, but the word “slasher” immediately calls to mind three names. The first, Michael Meyers, kick started the modern slasher genre with Halloween. The second, Jason Voorhees added a hefty amount of splatter and gore in the Friday The 13th series. And the last one, Freddie Krueger, is known for bringing the slasher genre into entirely new territories. Specifically, dreams.

Of the “big three,” Freddie has always been the most frightening, and at the same time, the most interesting. Unlike Jason and Meyers, he’s explicitly supernatural. And unlike the others, he can talk. His modus operandi of appearing in dreams allows for some incredibly surreal imagery that very few other slasher flicks ever use. Furthermore, everyone sleeps, and everyone dreams. There is no way to avoid it. If something like Freddie Krueger actually existed, no one would be safe.

Watching this film in the wake of its increasingly silly sequels, it’s surprising to find that Craven’s vision is still as disturbing now as it was then. Freddy is genuinely scary in this film, the sores and burnt flesh on his face making him look like a real burn victim, as opposed to a victim of bad Hollywood makeup. But what shines through more than Freddy is Craven’s style. Scream may have eclipsed Nightmare in popularity, but by the time Craven made that film, his style had become to streamlined, too mainstream. A Nightmare On Elm Street benefits from Craven’s earlier, visceral style, the kind he used to great effect in Last House On The Left and Hills Have Eyes. The shots are often rough, with only some of the film exhibiting the smoothness that Craven would later cultivate. This, combined with the palpable feel of true horror that Freddy exudes, combine to make a horror classic.

For those who haven’t seen the film, a simple plot synopsis may make it seem like any other generic slasher. A group of teenagers are terrorized by a man who wants to kill them. However, the overall plot is where the similarities end. The teenagers in the film are far more developed than the generic fodder provided in almost every other slasher flick, especially Heather Langenkamps’ Nancy, who ably carries the film. And Freddie’s dream world make Meyers and Jason both look tame in comparison. If Meyers is the troubled little boy who can’t stop killing, and Jason is the embodiment of revenge, then what Freddie represents is something darker: the darkness that lies within our own unconscious. With such rich options open to him, it’s no surprise Craven was able to forge such a creative and strong film as A Nightmare On Elm Street.

Video and Audio:

All things considered, I was actually very impressed with this transfer. Make no mistake, Nightmare is a low-budget movie, and this transfer is representative of that. The film is grainy and the whole thing has a look that you only find in '80s movies. That being said, this transfer is very detailed and strong. I could detect not artifacting at all, despite looking closely for it. And for a film with this much grain, not to see an artifact is quite impressive. The color reproduction is also very strong, with the transfer not looking overly washed out. I liked this transfer a lot.

A Nightmare On Elm Street has three audio options: Dolby Digital 5.1-EX, DTS-ES 6.1, and the original mono track. The surround tracks work quite well, with the scratching of Freddie’s nails being quite eerie, and the famous piano theme haunting all the speakers. The surrounds don’t get used constantly, but when they do, it’s effective. I could discern almost no difference between the DTS and the Dolby Digital. It’s also nice to have the original mono track available.

Special Features:

This new Infinifilm edition of  A Nightmare On Elm Street has a lot of new features that did not appear on the first DVD release.

The Infinifilm feature from which the set derives its name is actually nothing new. It’s almost exactly the same as the “Follow The White Rabbit” feature on The Matrix DVD. As the movie plays, scene-specific extra material pops up that you have the option of watching. It’s actually a neat system. For example, as the movie opens, you see Freddie working on his infamous glove. About halfway through the scene, a bar pops up at the bottom which says: “See an alternate take of Freddie constructing his glove.” It even tells you how many minutes and seconds the feature is. Sometimes it will have two or three features to watch. During Tina’s death scene, you have the option of watching her stunt double during the filming of the scene, as well as a similar death scene from Wes Craven’s A New Nightmare. Not every single feature is related to the film, but even those are fun diversions. Some of them are about the filmmakers, some about dreams or other interesting academic subjects. It’s a cool feature that enhances the experience of watching the film.

It’s also not the only feature that overlays the film. There’s a feature called “Beyond The Movie” that plays a subtitle track with factoids about the film. The cool thing about this feature is that you can play it not only during the main feature, but while listening to audio commentaries, as well.

And the disc does have two audio commentaries. The first is the original commentary track from the first DVD, which features Craven, Lagenkamp, Saxon, and DP Jacques Haitkin. It’s a roundtable commentary with all the pros and cons that entails. The pros are you get to hear some good interaction between the participants. The con is that they can get off track at times. There is a new audio commentary, made just for this release, which features a much wider range of participants, including New Line founder Robert Shaye and Freddie himself, Robert Englund. This one is scene-specific, but is edited together from different recording sessions. Between the two of them and the factoid track, and the Infinifilm, you get just about everything you could ever hope to learn about A Nightmare On Elm Street.

But is that enough for New Line? No. They give you an entire second disc with several documentaries. The first is called “Never Sleep Again: The Making of A Nightmare On Elm Street” The second is “The House That Freddy Built: The Legacy of New Line Horror.” The third is “Night Terrors: The Origins of Wes Craven’s Nightmare.” It also has several alternate endings. Sadly, the screener copy I received from New Line contained two copies of disc one, and no copies of disc two. When I receive a correct copy, I will amend this review with a rundown on the second disc’s features.

Grades:
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Conclusion:

A Nightmare On Elm Street is a horror classic, and spawned one of film’s biggest horror franchises, as well as put New Line Cinema and Wes Craven on the map. Without Nightmare, there would be no Lord of the Rings, no Dark City, no Scream. This is, without a doubt, the best offering that the slasher genre has to offer, and this new DVD edition is the best possible way to see it.

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