A Nightmare on Elm Street: Death to Sleep

 This time around, I wasn't sure what to do. So, I thought about it. And I came around to this idea that I had about the franchise headlined by Fred Krueger. I am just going to kind of go over my thoughts on how the scariest thing in these films is not Freddy, but the loss of access to sleep. Something that I feel was lost in most of the non-Wes Craven films. 

This idea materialized as a product of my rewatches of the franchise. It is quite fascinating what you can pull out when you watch movies over and over. And the Nightmare series is a franchise that I feel has such a terrible average. 

This is not really an uncommon phenomenon. Most things can't keep up with expectations or consistency. In comparison, I think that Friday the 13th blows Nightmare out of the water if we take a look at the whole. But the individual scale will always lean toward Nightmare's favor. Like, Nightmare 1, 3, and New Nightmare are leagues above anything that Friday the 13th has ever put out. Yet, the worst Friday the 13th movie is way more watchable and entertaining than the worst Nightmare films. And the stats lean more toward the franchise just having mediocre or bad movies. 

The goal is not to shit on Nightmare, but to showcase where the franchise excelled, and how that was ignored for the growing Freddy Dollar. That will always be one of my biggest hang-ups. You have this phenomenal presence with Robert Englund, who is selling you on a terrifying sleep demon. But the direction after the first film, with the exception of New Nightmare, shifts toward the small, comedic bits that were interlaced in the original. So, now I am going to give my thoughts on how each film handles that fear of going to sleep, and how that fear turned into this focus on Freddy moreso than anything else.

A Nightmare on Elm Street needs no introduction. A film that I have mentioned before because it is something that I can always go back to and marvel at. Not because it is renowned, but because the film just understands the aspects that make it scary. Nancy and her friends are being tortured in their dreams by a mysterious, burned man in a fedora with a knife glove. A sleep demon if you will. The game becomes this thing where your natural need for rest and sleep can kill you. 

The film reinforces that even the tiniest amount of sleep can cause pain and anguish. It's why I love the little touches of Nancy getting the white streak in her hair, or her rage-fueled conversation with her Mother in the kitchen. Nancy has become so strung out, that I can't help but feel for her. Not only do I think the writing for Nancy in particular is phenomenal. I think that Heather Langenkamp sells every bit that the script is aiming for. A truly perfect movie that I wouldn't change a thing about. 

But another exceptional aspect from Nightmare 1 is kind of the reason for the season. What I am talking about are the transitions from Reality into the Dream. These are so well done. It's why Nancy is losing it. She can't sleep because if she sleeps, he's there. Sleep deprivation is already something that can exhaust someone to death. To add in a supernatural killer is just the cherry on top. Many people would never want to sleep again. That was certainly the case for the Hmong refugees that Nightmare 1's story is based around. I recommend looking into the story, the LA Times has the archives available to the public. 

But to get back to the topic at hand. Nightmare 1 puts the focus on sleep, and it's removal from a person's daily routine. Sadly, this aspect all but dies here. And the Freddy show begins with A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge. A misguided film that kind of keeps the trappings, yet doesn't at the same time. I typically rank this movie at the bottom because of the lack of dreaming. The whole concept that Nightmare 1 was based on becomes mangled. 

The sleep aspect only effects our main character, Jesse. Everyone else can just do whatever unless they are near Jesse. So, the only tangible threat is this Gay Teenager. By missing the Nightmare element in the title, I just have to place it below movies that are much worse. It sucks because the idea is intriguing, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. Shoutouts to Mark Patton who played Jesse though, he killed it. 

That brings us to A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. A phenomenal sequel to Nightmare 1 that signals the beginning of the end. Those really good one-liners are the death of me. They are so well done, yet the response to them was to switch the series into a Horror-Comedy instead of Suspense. Not to mention, they started to craft more character specific environments. Like with Taryn's seedy alley that reinforced her issues with substance abuse. 

While I think Dream Warriors nails this attempt at giving the cast more depth. Ultimately, this removes the deception that Freddy uses in the first film so effectively. Outside of Phillip and Jennifer, the film largely ignores these reality-bending scenes in favor for the more fantastical. And the more I think about it, this trend continues for the next two movies as well. Where you have a more deceptive Act 1, and then you switch over to the more personally crafted dreams. You could make the argument that people dream differently, but the fact that a pattern forms makes it look like play-calling rather than character significance. 

Now let's move onto A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master. To be frank, I think this movie is ass. Alice is terrible, and the returining cast from Dream Warriors are removed in like 15 minutes. Absolute wild way to start off the sequel to a movie that got so much right. So, the shift away from the seriousness and overutilization of the Dream Powers make it lack that bite. There's no Nancy crashing out or Kristen (Specifically Patricia Arquette) to really bring it all together. It's all about Freddy. The dreams are just complimentary. 

And the same can be said about A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child. With the exception being that the cast is better. Alice returns and is infinitely more likeable. She has a personality this time around. Yet the film never really evolves the series like Dream Warriors. You are just left with a better movie than the last. Not a high bar that's for sure. And it's just that simple. The movies stop being scary for quite a while. The Dream Child has too much cool shit that it forgets that the characters still need to fear Freddy's presence at a minimum. Remember when they had to try and stay awake. It's crazy to think that this was just abandoned. 

This is the sentiment that continues into Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare. Not only did they drop the title, but they also just said fuck it. This is Freddy's show completely. This movie is so lucky that Freddy's Revenge did so many things wrong. I want to say that we finally reached the lowest point, yet I have an actual bone to pick with the Remake. A movie that I have not watched in years. But the main issue with Freddy's Dead is the everything. The only good scene is Carlos's death. They cooked well enough here. Everything else is so goddamn stupid. It actually catches you off-guard with how it matches the other terrible films in the series. No one is remarkable, Freddy's new origin is partially sympathetic toward him, it's too long, and it just lacks any frightful atmosphere. A truly sauceless movie. 

A statement that I would never use to describe Wes Craven's New Nightmare. The Scream before Scream if you will. Wes just gets it. A story that asks, "What if Freddy was real?" It is also nice to see Heather Langenkamp come back and nail it. Not to mention you get to see more Robert Englund and John Saxon. Along with the very menacing Freddy redesign. 

While New Nightmare doesn't quite reach the peaks of Nightmare 1, I still regard it as a great sequel. It's also nice to see those reality-bending elements make a comeback. I will never get over seeing those hard-to-spot transitions. It really just comes down to understanding what should scare the audience, and not, "When is Freddy gonna show up?" 

So, the next movie is Freddy vs Jason. I count this one for both Nightmare and Friday the 13th. While I think the movie skews more toward Nightmare, Jason is still in the movie. Regardless, I have come around on this film from the Nightmare side. Mark Swift and Damian Shannon really understood some of the elements Wes was going for. And Ronny Yu's directing style complimented the script quite well. The best example of this is with the Mark character (Brendan Fletcher). 

A victim of one of Freddy's rampages by proxy, Mark is held at Westin Hills alongside co-lead Will Rollins (Jason Ritter). Mark's character arc revolves around this knowledge of Freddy's past. He happens to just be too smart for his own good. By the time Jason had built up enough fear points for Freddy, the objective would be to take out Mark. The choice makes sense and the scene that follows is the best in the film. Mark gets the only Freddy death in the whole movie, and it delivered better than the franchise had seen in most of the sequels that followed Dream Warriors. 

But that train would instantly derail by the time that A Nightmare on Elm Street Remake would roll around. My knowledge of this movie is hazy at best, yet I remember it being a worse version of the original. They wanted to play the hits. So, you get a very digital Nightmare as a result. It sucks because the series thrived on the practical effects side. This is sadly what a lot of modern films lost out on for me. Ultimately, this film never justified its existence like Friday the 13th (2009) did. As a result, I never purchased the home release. 

So, the end result for the Nightmare franchise as of now is disappointing. There are definitely some directors out there that understand Wes's vision. Yet, the series is so dead, and there doesn't seem to be a reason to try and go back to the success of A Nightmare on Elm Street . A movie that made sleep look like a death sentence. 

And remember to Free Palestine, Free Congo, Free Sudan, Free Venezuela and to Free Lebanon from the onslaught of their oppressors. Never stop talking about them. They think that we don't care, but we see everything. Never forget that. They are trying to suppress our voices because they matter, remember that. There may have been a ceasefire in Gaza, but Palestine still needs to be completely free.