The True "Nightmare" on Elm Street

On Sept. 28, infinifilm is going to drop a 2-disc special edition of the original "A Nightmare on Elm Street". Also, the movie is going to be re-released in theaters for a brief time. For any of you that never saw this movie, or are only familiar with the series through the later sequels (with the "jokey" Freddy Krueger), I strongly recommend checking out the original movie in a theater. Although the movie has its flaws, the more I've seen it, the more I've gotten drawn into it because there is a lot more going on in that movie than it originally seems. Once the shock/novelty of waiting for and watching Freddy kill teenagers wears off, and you pay more attention to what is going on between killings, there's a subtex to that movie that highlights a much more real-life fear.

The best horror movies use their set-ups and allegories to examine a society's unspoken fears. Often, these fears exist at certain points in time, and once time moves on and the fear passes, these movies lose their power. Other times the movies can center around a feeling common to most people, even if the feeling passes (or is proven wrong) in time.

I think A Nightmare on Elm Street centers on the latter, which is why I am interested to see if this movie finds an audience among today's teens. I don't think this fear is obvious in the movie, I had to watch it a few times before it made itself clear to me.

The first time you watch the movie, you are going to get caught up in the action, in the things that Nancy Thompson has to do to figure out what's going on, and what she needs to do to stop Freddy. So the first time viewer is going to concentrate on the slice and dice aspects, and be scared by that. Although it is scary, it's not very realistic, in the sense that few of us are ever going to be chased (in our dreams or real life) by a maniac that is trying to kill us.

But after seeing the movie a few times, I found the overall story more interesting. As the story unfolds, it becomes apparent that these kids are being targeted for death because their parents killed Freddy. So he is coming back for his revenge.

Here is where it gets interesting. Because as Nancy is trying to figure this all out, her parents spend their time telling her she is delusional, that she is wasting her time, that she should just get some sleep and forget the whole thing. Yet from the time she is describing Freddy to her parents, they would know exactly what she is describing is based in fact, since they helped to kill Freddy. But rather than help Nancy, they will do their best to thwart her, because they would rather see their daughter die than to face the sins of their past. They will sacrifice their daughter for peace of mind.

To state the fear more directly, the parent's don't really care about their kids, and whenever something in the kid's life threatens to disrupt the parent's life, the parent's will chose themselves over the kid. And it will be up to the kid to look out for herself. That is the central fear/theme of the movie, a fear that is not rooted in just one point in time. I think this gives the movie a more timeless quality than most horror movies. Thinking your parents don't really care about you is a much more real-life issue than being chased by a maniac.