Stalked by a burned man with blades on his fingers, a young woman in a nightgown runs through a hallway and into an abandoned factory. Suddenly the man jumps out from the shadows and plunges his weapon into her stomach and... she wakes up. It was just a nightmare. Or was it? The girl looks down to see the front of her nightgown torn to shreds as if by a fistful of knives.
From the first 10 minutes of A Nightmare on Elm Street, it’s clear we’re dealing with something special. Not only do we get our first suspenseful, surreal dream sequence and a little hint of Freddy Krueger’s initial creation, but we meet the four leading teenage characters, learn enough about them to be able to define them and discover the shared plight that will drive the rest of the film. It’s all indicative of a film that’s become part of the Mount Rushmore of the slasher subgenre, one that provided a surprising showcase for not only the director’s filmmaking aptitude but his writing talents as well.
