A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) Review
What ultimately worked about this movie I already explained in my review for the director's follow-up a decade later (Wes Craven's New Nightmare). But it's only until now that one reason, which nearly transcends logic, finally came as an epiphany: If you ever dreamt about Freddy Krueger yourself and it was a nightmare, can you consider yourself practically having been too aware of it to have legitimately counted as a nightmare? Yes, you're horrified, yet you also know he's not exactly real and, by default, brings you into the consciousness of being awake. That awareness alone can convince you enough to realize you're more in a dream than even the most realistic nightmares. Sure, there may or may not be cases where someone can still have a bad enough dream that just so happens to have him in it. However, It was still this type of wonder in horror that made the movie all the more interesting. Of course we wouldn't get another movie that aimed to explore dreams in a mind opening manner again until perhaps Inception. We just have yet to return to the kind of creative yet macabre existence The First Nightmare on Elm Street was aiming to at least envision (With perhaps It: Chaper Two at least coming ten times closer than the 2010 remake).