A Nightmare on Elm Street '84

 

Meet Nancy (Heather Langenkamp). Lately, she hasn't been sleeping well. 

Synopsis

Teenagers on Elm Street begin to have nightmares. In their dreams, a bizzare creature appears. He has disfigured face, wears a striped, red and green sweater and has metal hands with long claws. His name is Freddy Kruger.

Review

When we meet Nancy, she and her friends seem like typical teenegers. However, looking closer, the difference between the girls and the boys is clear and, may I say, it is not flattering for the latter. Nancy and Tina (Amanda Wyss) might seem silly (boys talk and lots of giggles) but they have the capacity to spot there is something out of place and disturbing about their nightmares. They pursue the issue, finding out more strange details. Meanwhile, all Rod (Jsu Garcia) ever thinks about is how and when to jump his girlfriend. And, Glen (Johnny Depp's first movie) acts like a cute but completely useless puppy (failing at making a simple phone call).

Freddy begins his killings shortly after we are introduced to the Elm Street bunch. The movie would have been perfect, if Mr Kruger didn't turn out to be a bit of a misogynistic pig. His male victims are killed with a lot of splash and fully clothed. Whereas girls face Kruger either wearing hardly anything, or nothing at all (the bath time scene). Their killings are highly sexualised and far less bloody. Other than that, Nancy kicks ass. She is the only one who is smart enough to figure out what is really going on. She proves she can think and act on her own. Whenever a guy is asked to help, he fails spectacularly and the neighbours life and sanity lay entirly on Nancy's shoulders.

Turns out, these suburban girls can fight, who knew?

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