Vintage slasher film kicks off series of bloody horror

By Taryn Gillespie

The 1984 classic horror film Nightmare On Elm Street was directed and produced by Wes Cravens. While the film is rated R for its adult situations, language, nudity, and violence it is a commonly viewed slasher film.

Wes Cravens died earlier this year of brain cancer. The death of such an iconic director and producer in the horror business brought a lot of sadness to me as well as others following his life.

This is the first of nine movies in the franchise. The series also includes “Nightmare on Elm Street 2 Freddy’s Revenge” (1985), “Nightmare on Elm Street 3 Dream Warriors” (1987), “Nightmare on Elm Street 4 The Dream Master” (1988), “Nightmare on Elm Street 5 The Dream Child” (1989), “Freddy’s Dead: The Final nightmare” (1991), “Wes Craven’s new Nightmare” (1994), “Freddy vs. Jason” (2003), and “A Nightmare on Elm Street” (2010 remake).

The movie is set in Springdale, Ohio, where a group of teenagers are having nightmares about a killer coming for them.

A high school football player, Glen, played by Johnny Depp in his movie debut, along with his girlfriend, Nancy, played by Heather Langenkamp, and two schoolmates start having terrifying nightmares.

The man trying to kill them has a distinct face that was scarred up and rough looking. He also wears gloves on his hands with knives sticking out from the fingertips.

This killer is a disfigured midnight mangler who preys on the teenagers in their dreams, which, in turn, kills them in reality.

After investigating the phenomenon, Nancy begins to suspect that a dark secret kept by her and her friends’ parents may be the key to unraveling the mystery.

The teens who were allowed to live tried to discover this secret the parents are keeping and stop any more deaths at the hands of Freddy Krueger.

For Johnny Depp, the film was a chance to make a splash in movies.

The role was different for him than the ones we see him in now. He was just a mid-level actor who didn’t strive to make himself stick out too much.

Watching this type of older slasher film is refreshing for me.

Reducing the amount of blood and gore and increasing the jump scares and the physiological creepiness of the movie bring a greater fun in watching to me.

I really like this series and suggest you find time to cuddle up and let it scare your shorts off with this horrifying classic.

A screening of The Nightmare on Elm street will be showing in the Crimson Courtyard on Oct 28 from 9 p.m. to 10:45 p.m.

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