nightmare on elm street analysis

a nightmare on elm street; what makes it scary?

There is no doubt that out of all horror films, Freddy Kruger is easily one of the most recognised and iconic of all horror villains. His charred disfigured face, stripy jumper, trilby and clawed glove are all identified with him, and give him the ability to install fear into the minds of almost everyone in the audience. But what really makes a nightmare on Elm Street scary? There are many reasons, some of which are ideal for the horror opening we’re making.

I'm my personal experience, what makes nightmare so terrifying is the fact that Freddy can infiltrate dreams, a state where we are most vulnerable and defenceless. His is seen as unfightable, it is impossible to flee from him, as it’s impossible to not sleep. This, coupled with the fact that he can alter his form, makes him the ultimate enemy. A good example of this is when he increases the length of his arms in Tina’s final dream sequence. She proceeds to run in the opposite direction, only for him to appear right in front of her. this is made more shocking due to the tight camera angle, which shows very little to Tina's right, which is where freddy appears. the tighter the angle and the less the audience can see, more is left to their imagination, heightening the fear factor Despite it being tinas dream, Freddy is most certainly in control. His power is cemented when he kills Tina in her dream, only for the very same to happen in the real world. This unique ability is what makes Freddy scary. It should also be noted that Tina and rod had sex the night before they were both murdered. This is a convention of horror which ultimately lead to their brutal demise.

Tina’s final dream and death: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=609GY6-QDSg

Kruger's jumper was initially meant to be red and yellow, but wes craven changed this when he read that red and green are the 2 most contrasting colours the human eye can distinguish. This would further add to the shock factor of Freddy's appearance. The red and green striped pattern also appears on objects Freddy possesses, such as the car in the final scene, making his presence iconic. To an extent this is something that we would like to do for our film, with our killer wearing a specific item while killing, which could identify the audience to the killers real identity. Such an effect was used well in scream, where many on the characters had the same boots as the killer, ghost face.

Nightmare on Elm Street ending scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mnNpqc7rXA

A more useful aspect I have taken out of nightmare is the excellent use of foreshadowing. After Tina wakes up from her first dream, she has 4 slashes in her nightwear, the part which covers her stomach. Later on when she is actually killed she has the same 4 slashes, only this time on her stomach, killing her. There is also some clever foreshadowing for the death of glen. As he is falling asleep, the radio announces ‘It is now 12midnight and this is station KRGR’. KRGR is the word ‘Kruger’ without the vowels. As we intend to use quite a lot of foreshadowing in our horror opening, nightmare is an excellent film to study for doing so successfully.
Glen’s death scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKIW0zbFsxM

The dream sequences are really where this film is at its scariest. Unlike the remake, the dreams are surreal and capture the ideas that real nightmares contain. Freddy is supernatural, blood pours from ceiling; he is able to extend his arms to insanely creepy lengths. These ideas make the film all that more frightening and places the focus on horror not gore. Wes craven has shown on 2 occasions now (nightmare and scream) that the slasher genre can be far deeper (bad pun) and more complex than it initially seems.