Nightmare on Elm Street
Dir: Wes Craven
The final film I’ve recently watched was Nightmare on Elm Street (Wes Craven, 1984) and it really stands out from Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978) and Friday the 13th (Sean Cunningham, 1980) in terms of theme and character. The theme of the main character Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp) shows a great example of feminism in the classic horror film (Christensen 24). Also, Nancy’s strength and independence, which assumes she would be heightened by friend and family disintegration (Lowenstein 19).
A Nightmare on Elm Street was not as big as Friday or Halloween but it is considered a classic of the horror genre and also a high-water mark (Muir 406). Nightmare on Elm Street did not make as much money as these previous films but it’s still an iconic film like Halloween, Friday and Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960) and has the same themes as the classic monster films like Dracula (Tod Browning, 1931), Frankenstein (James Whale, 1931) and The Wolfman (George Waggner, 1941).
Nightmare on Elm Street starts off with a young girl who is walking down a dark hallway, we are then introduce to a mysterious figure in a fedora and striped sweater. She wakes up, in her bed and we the audience notice that it was a nightmare nothing else. We now know her name is Tina (Amanda Wyss) then well into the next night she has a nightmare by the same character. Her boyfriend Rod (Nick Corri) is framed for being the killer, he is arrested and sent to prison, meanwhile Nancy is being haunted in her nightmares by the same character and he is known as Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund). Nancy is then taking to a dream clinic and manages to take Freddie’s fedora and her mother says he’s not real. Later in the movie her mother describes who Fred Krueger is and what happen to him. But later on, her boyfriend Glen (Johnny Depp) tries to stay awake, to keep an eye her but falls asleep. Nancy plans to kill Freddy as he’s trying to kill her. She keeps saying “This is all a dream you’re not real,” opens the door, Freddy disappears and everything is back to normal.
The film addresses how, through Nancy, A Nightmare on Elm Street undermines, and also brings feminism into the slasher genre and the Final Girl (Christensen 30). Also in Carol Clover’s book, Men, Women and Chainsaws, Halloween’s Laurie Strode her character was more pure, quiet virgin is laid back, avoids vigorous temptations although she smokes a joint. She can fight off Michael unlike her friends who drank, smoke and were not prepared to confront him unlike Laurie who was (37). The difference is big in Friday the 13th where the main character had sex but manages to kill Mrs. Voorhees and changed the formula a bit. Also in Clover’s book, What Nancy in Nightmare had that was different was she was ready to fight Freddy and take him on almost like the expression “Mama raised no bitch, I’m going to kill this asshole.” What that showed was she had more masculine emotions and thoughts preparing to take on Freddy rather than run away or coward then attack like most of the previous films had.
Nancy grew in knowledge, wisdom and resolve as she integrated the experiences of those around her to combat Freddy (Lowenstein 19). Also, very similar to the other girls in previous films she was not getting help from anyone. What was different was she did her best to fight Freddy and not to be afraid and get rid of him once and for all, noticing that it’s all a dream and Freddy disappeared from existence.
Unlike the other slashers this one was tweaked a lot with terms of character development of the Final Girl, feminism and Nancy’s strong independence. These films have always before had the Final Girl being quiet, shy and (sometimes) pure but in Nightmare the character of Nancy was different in those terms.
Works Cited
Friday the 13th. Dir. Sean Cunningham. Paramount Pictures, 1980. Film
Halloween. Dir. John Carpenter. Compass International, Falcon Productions, 1978. Film
Nightmare on Elm Street. Dir. Wes Craven. New Line Cinema, 1984. Film
Christensen, Kyle. “The Final Girl versus Wes Craven's ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’:Proposing a Stronger Model of Feminism in Slasher Horror Cinema.” Studies in Popular Culture, vol. 34, no. 1, 2011, Jstor.org. Web. 08 Mar.2017
Clover, Carol J. Men, women and chainsaws: gender in the modern horror film. Princeton, NJ: Princeton U, 1997. Print.
Lowenstein, Adam. "Alone on Elm Street." Film Quarterly 64.1 (2010): 18-22. Jstor.org. Web. 08 Mar. 2017.
Muir, John Kenneth. Horror films of the 1980s. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2007. Print.