Directed By: Jack Shoulder
Written By: David Chaskin; Based On Characters By: Wes Craven
Cinematography By: Jacques Haitkin & Christopher Tufty
Editor: Bob Brady & Arline Garson
Cast: Robert Englund, Robert Rusler, Kim Myers, Clu Gulager
This film truly lives up to it’s Title because having to sit through it is a nightmare. It is one of the ugliest movies I have seen. Growing up I had always caught this movie here and there. Seen a scene or clip in a sanitized version or see the preview on HBO in the 80’s. The Scenes always were awesome to my young mind. A Canary going crazy and flying to it’s kamikaze death. A clawed hand reaching out of a stomach strangely with no blood or gore involved. A clawed hand (From Guess Who) impaling someone to a door and slowly watching it go down and the blood pool on the floor as he is gutted. Then one day I actually sat down and watched the whole movie. What a mistake. I should have let the legend of this movie grow in my mind. Upon finally watching it, I didn’t expect such a letdown.
Where to start, First off this movie is dark not tone wise necessarily but lighting wise its hard to make out what is going on in some scenes, Plus there seems to be a huge effort not to show Freddy Krueger’s face where as in almost every other elm street movie they go overboard to show it.
Then there is the homoeroticism. In the film loads of shots of teenage boys with there shirts off and only in shorts makes this feel like a Larry Clark movie. Also the inclusion of a gym teacher with a sadomasochistic fetish who dies naked in the same manner doesn’t help kill that theory.
This also the movie that has the least amount of freddy it’s only 87 minutes long and freddy is only in 13 minutes of it. I guess to build up suspense.
This film is noteworthy for the fact that Freddy through possession can enter the real world. People are witnesses to it, so he’s no urban myth or boogeyman yet in each subsequent movie no one other then adults remember him, even though these films take place in the same town of Springfield. They also take place not too log after each other no teens ever seem to remember the deaths of previous films, plus the adults never move or try to do something when there kids who seem to be suffering by the same guy do nothing to try and help or even believe them. This is also one of the few films where adults actually die by Freddy’s hands. It’s no shock that no one in this movie went onto bigger and better roles as none of them is truly noteworthy. Though in hidsight it’s intresting to note that John Stamos, Brad Pitt and Christian Slater Auditioned for the lead. The biggest star in this movie other then Robert Englund is Robert Rusler. Who went onto WEIRD SCIENCE And VAMP.
This I can honestly say is the worst film in the Nightmare on elm street series. I Would advise to skip only watch if you are a completist of movie series. The only noteworthy scene is the massacre at the pool party.
GRADE: D
I recently watched the whole series, most for the first time. Yes, this is a truly bad movie. It's inconsistent in it's treatment of Freddy, and started a disturbing trend in the film series where the house is more important than Freddy. This is really just a poltergeist/haunted house movie, and not a very good one.
ReplyDeleteStill, there are a couple good moments, the death of the mom at the end of the first movie is clarified, and at least it's set ON ELM STREET unlike the next few which keep the title but can't find good ways to involve the house.
The movie makes no sense, and it's not fun to watch really, but in little ways I think I like it better than part 5. ...what is Freddy taking revenge for exactly?
Again i think it's in title only it sounds good. it also says i survived the first attempt to get rid of me, Now i'm back and pissed. So i'm taking everybody out by posessing this kid and making it look like he's killing you.
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