A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
I have never had much interests in the 80s slasher series, but having been through many giallo films, I needed to familiarize myself a bit with these. Honestly didn’t expect this to be so good and enjoyable as it was. First of all it looks fantastic. Clearly high production value and good cinematography. The gritty rough look can work too, but in this case it really helped the film to not look overly cheap. As the story is built around an effective blend of dream and reality, it is vital that those scene look convincing, and they nail it. Every dream sequence feels unique and well executed. There is a level of creativity I didn’t expect. I was completely taken aback by the full on Exorcist mode, that sealed this film in the “Why haven’t I seen this before now?”-category. A few things doesn’t work that well, like the ending is weird and off-tone compared to the rest, and the acting can sometimes be clunky. But what an absolute classic!
Rating: 4