Whatever you do, don't fall asleep. Those words will haunt my nightmares for as I live.  The blades scratching against the wall, the sadistic laugh, and the remarks of an asshole make up a pretty haunting yet wicked killer.  Who am I speaking of?  Freddy Krueger of course.  This is the movie that kicks it off and spits out more sequels than you can have pets.

Let me start off with a little summary about the movie.  The children living on or near elm street are having nightmares and what really starts to freak them out is that their all the same nightmare.  A man with a razors for fingers, wears a bad hat and sweater, and a bone-chilling laugh terrorizes them all.  Nancy (Heather Langenkamp) starts finding it weird that all her friends are having the same dream and then start dying one by one at the hands of this "boogeyman". 

This is what the 80s horror genre should all be about.  A very unique and creative idea and well directed by the master of horror himself Wes Craven (Last House on the Left).  Having Freddy once being a child predator who was served street justice just to become a child predator again but this time in the afterlife is genius beyond recogition.  Robert Englund (Krueger) could not have his shoes filled as the role of Freddy.  The slim Englund makes Krueger looks not scary but when you combine his appearance with his laugh, then we have a natural born monster.  I still repeat his laugh while the movie has been over.  It's justs one of Kruegers recognizable trademarks.  The claws are a unique weapon that many have never seen in previous horror films but a little comedic attire.  With the red and black striped old christmas sweater and dirty brown hat, he gives off the feel of a homeless person.   But with Kruegers supernatural ability to whatever he damn well pleases.  He can extended his arms out 5 times his body lenght, he can pull people through their beds and splat their blood all over their ceiling, and he can even french kiss you over the phone.  Yes, Freddy Krueger is definately one of a kind, he is the one and only boogeyman.

Langerkamp also does a well-respectable performance as Nancy.  He portrayal of fear and emotion to keep her friends alive is believable.  I did find it somewhat silly at times.  One scene comes to mind is when Nancy pulls Freddy out of the dream.  She had constructed traps all along her house and when she had pulled Krueger out, he fell for every single trap.  Just those few scenes seemed a little cartoonish. 

One of my favorite scenes was the ending.  A gripping ended that makes you wondering what happens next?  What happened to the teens?  Nancy in that fact?  or better yet, How could you kill something made up of dreams? For the cinematography, it was somewhat too dark.  The lighting in some of the dream sequences became to unrecognizable and blurry.  Other than that, the other scenes were done quite well.  The special FX were modern for it's decade with some animatronics (which is always good) and that tone music, well, that tone is just another creepy edition to Nightmare on Elm Street's outstanding qualities.