A Nightmare on Elm Street

This is my favorite movie of all time. The story, the characters, the music, everything is great about this movie. Freddy Krueger is my favorite movie villain portrayed by my favorite actor, Robert Englund. Nancy is one of my favorite movie heroes played by one of my favorite actresses, Heather Langenkamp. Directed by my favorite movie director, Wes Craven (Rest in peace). There's nothing I don't dislike about it.

I bought this copy of the movie because there are some cool special features on the second tape. On the first tape, there are theatrical trailers and TV spots. On the second tape, there are deleted alternate scenes, alternate takes and endings, and some cool workprint excerpts and FX tests I haven't seen on any of my DVDs. The VHS slipcover case opens and has a quote from Wes Craven, a description of the movie, and screenshots from the movie.

Overall, this copy of A Nightmare on Elm Street is well worth the money for the special features it comes with on the second tape. If you are a fan of A Nightmare on Elm Street, and are a completist and haven't seen all the special features, then this tape is well worth buying and adding to your collection.

First Nightmare is still the best. The character of Nancy carries the entire film. Heather does a great job. Freddy of course is terrific but lacks Englund's personality since you rarely see Freddy funny enough in this one compared to the sequels. I also think they under-utilized the dream sequences, etc. For example Freddy's long arms only lasts maybe five seconds on screen. The scene which makes this movie a masterpiece is the wall stretching Freddy over Nancy. Perhaps one of the most memorable in all horror history. It's still the best out of the entire series and looks terrific on blu-ray. Just needs a proper special edition release with better artwork and new commentaries since the one featured is from the laserdisc many years ago. I really still feel they could do a proper sequel to the original with Heather and Robert again.

This Wes Craven slasher is the one that started it all & sparked the Freddy Krueger phenomenon as well as Wes Craven's movie making career which was also inspired by directors like John Carpenter, George Romero, Stephen King, and Brian De Palma.

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET was set in the fictional Midwestern town of Springwood, Ohio revolves around several teenagers who are killed by the relentless Freddy Kruger(Robert Englund)in their dreams if they fall asleep, thus causing their death in reality with the teenagers Nancy Thompson(Heather Langenkamp), Tina Gray(Amanda Wyss), Glen Lantz(Johnny Depp), and Rod Lane(Nicholas Cori) all being unaware of the cause of this strange phenomenon since, but their furious vengeful parents hold a dark secret from long ago about Freddy being a convicted child murderer whom they hunted & burned to death and is now manipulating their children to exact his revenge on the neighbors who killed him from beyond the grave.

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET was released in the Fall of 1984 and was on an estimated budget of $1.8 million which was a sum this film earned back on its first week and was an instant success amassing a total of $25.5 million at the box office.

Additionally, Wes Craven's A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET is credited on many troops found in low-budget horror flicks of the 1970's and 1980's, originating in John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN which had its theatrical release in the Fall of 1978 along with the fact that A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET was the scariest movie since HALLOWEEN back then as well, including the morality play that revolves around sexual promiscuity in teenagers resulting in their eventual death, leading to the term "slasher film" along with the fact that the creation of the Freddy Krueger character in A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET was also inspired by the Michael Myers character in HALLOWEEN.

Unfortunately, this horror flicks sequel A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET-PART II: FREDDY'S REVENGE didn't do nearly as well as the original since the sequel tanked at the box office during its theatrical release in the Fall of 1985 and was called "The Bummer of the Summer" back in 1986 since Wes Craven refused to be a part of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET-PART 2 since its director(Jack Sholder)changed the premise of its predecessor by having Freddy attack people in the waking world instead of murdering them in their dreams, plus Craven didn't like the idea of Freddy manipulating the protagonist into committing the murders either.

In addition to why A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET I did so much better than A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET PART II; the reception from most critics was very negative since much of the criticism of "Freddy's Revenge" in the title of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET-PART 2 was aimed at the fact that the film while continuing the storyline of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET I taking on a completely different direction which made Wes Craven's situation with A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET-PART II: FREDDY'S REVENGE very similar to John Carpenter's situation with HALLOWEEN 2 when it was released in theaters back in the Fall of 1981 since Carpenter declined to direct the sequel to his masterpiece HALLOWEEN that was released on Wednesday October 25, 1978 since Carpenter like Craven didn't even want or plan on making a sequel, which was why HALLOWEEN II didn't come out until 3 years later from its predecessor, despite the fact that HALLOWEEN 2 was an awesome successful flick and sequel that was almost as successful as HALLOWEEN I was, unlike A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET-PART 2, especially since they don't make sequels they way they used to either.

Since John Carpenter refused to direct HALLOWEEN 2 during its theatrical release on Halloween weekend of 1981, the directors position to John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN was given to director Rick Rosenthal who did an awesome job with making HALLOWEEN II virtually identical to its predecessor by making HALLOWEEN 2 conclude from HALLOWEEN I on the same night which was supposedly Halloween night of 1978 proving to viewers that the nightmare & ordeal with Michael Myers wasn't over yet.

Additionally; the success & popularity of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET eventually led to the inspiration of Wes Craven's future horror flicks like DEADLY FRIEND in the Fall of 1986, SHOCKER in the Fall of 1989, and SCREAM in the Fall of 1996 just like the creation of HALLOWEEN inspired John Carpenter with future flicks like THE FOG in the Winter of 1980, ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK in the Summer of 1981, THE THING in the Summer of 1982, and CHRISTINE in the Fall of 1983.

So now I'm anxious to see if Bayer's version of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET from the Spring of 2010 isn't as messed up as Zombie's version of HALLOWEEN that came out in the Summer of 2007 since remakes are never as good as the originals, including PSYCHO and CARRIE.

I am so happy that I upgraded my standard dvd to blu ray. The picture is amazing. Let me say that again AMAZING! This film is over 20 years old and I don't know what New Line did but they should share their formula with other studios who blame age for crappy blu ray results.

The sound is also amazing.

I didn't see this movie in theaters I found it on cable and I remember being transfixed by the first nightmare when the girl was being dragged across the ceiling. The story was/is innovative and introduced the audience to something new in the genre.

I also enjoyed the special features which explained how hard it was to get this movie made and how it became a bona fide horror classic.

Don't hesitate to upgrade so worth the blu.

When the original Nightmare on Elm Street DVD I've had since it was first released back in 2001 began to have little glitches I decided to get a VHS to go with my Halloween VHS and this video was the first listing I found. Absolutely the price I wanted to pay for it, it came fast, and it plays so great in my VCR on my old dial TV it's one of the best time-warp experiences I could ever ask for! This is the original Nightmare video to have if you're going to get one!