A Nightmare on Elm Street - 4K Blu-ray Review

Movie
When it comes to slasher films, there are 3 or 4 names that REALLY stick out in everyone’s minds, even the normies. Names like Jason, Michael Myers, and of course Freddy Krueger. Freddy has become such an iconic household horror names that he’s basically guaranteed to be a Halloween costume in every costume shop each and every year, and his razor knife fingered glove is instantly recognizable. Sprouting up in 1984 from the mind of legendary Wes Craven, Freddy became one of the longest running slasher franchises, starting with good intentions, only to slowly devolve into the ridiculous over the years. As a lifelong 1980s slasher fan, I really don’t care. I’ll watch each and every film non matter how garbagey they are ever Halloween, and feel like a 12 year old kid once more.

For the 40th anniversary year we get to go back in time to 1984, where our film could be in anywheretown USA. The story focuses on a young highschooler named Nancy (Heather Langenkamp) and her boyfriend Glen (Johnny Depp in his first major film at age 21. It’s a normal school year, but Nancy’s friend Tina (Amanda Wyss) has been having horrible nightmares about being chased by a creepy scar faced man with knives for hands. While Nancy and the rest of their friends scoff it off as nothing, Tina is absolutely terrified and ends up begging her friends to come over for a sleepover to help keep her company. It’s that fateful night that Nancy, Glen and Tina’s “rebel without a cause” boyfriend Rod (Jsu Garcia) find out the hard way that going to sleep could be killer.

The major plot for A Nightmare on Elm Street was actually pretty clever for the start of the 1980s slasher craze. A maniacal child murderer named Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) has found new life in the world of dreams. He’s come back to the land of the living (at least in a way) to haunt the children of the people who had him killed years ago by torturing them in their sleep. In the dream world HE has the power, and now he wants murderous revenge. And of course there is teens, dumb decisions, and our pretty heroine is bound and determined to defeat him. Pretty much the plot of MOST of the slasher films of the day. But ironically, unlike Friday the 13th, you’re actually rooting for the hero to get his comeuppance rather than rooting for the killer (maybe I’m weird, but watching Jason Vorhees slaughter dumb kids always puts a smile on my face).

The film is clever enough, but what REALLY sells the film (the entire franchise really) is Robert Englund as Freddy. Englund has become a Bruce Campbell esque horror legend over the years, but he is really KNOWN for playing Freddy Krueger, and for good reason. England really sells the twisted character with the rasping voice, and he just hams it up at every second. While the series had not gone off the rails into complete slapstick horror, Craven weaves in a light undertone of comedy throughout (the end battle in the real world was almost like a Benny Hill skit in ways) making Freddy both terrifying and mildly humorous at the same time. Heather Langenkamp does a solid job as Nancy, and it’s downright shocking to see a 21 year old Johnny Depp in his first feature film role (little bit of trivia. Johnny actually came to L.A. to become a rock star, but ended up trying films instead, and voila, here we are). The indominable John Saxon fills out the support cast as her over protective and dismissive father, making A Nightmare on Elm Street one of the seminal slasher films of the 1980s.

This particular set actually gives us the unrated cut of the film as well, which while only 9 seconds longer, gives us some really nice extra gore that makes the film earn its R rating. I don’t think I’ve seen the uncut version for YEARS since my UK import of the Blu-ray set only had the theatrical cut (as did the U.S. version) but comparing them side by side it’s not a huge difference. But despite being only a minor difference visually, the extra gore makes the film a bit more impactful. Kind of a nice addition even if it’s not a night and day different cut of the film.




Rating:

Rated R by the MPAA




4K Video: Video:

2010’s Warner Blu-ray was the best we had, but it sadly wasn’t THAT great. The film was using the inefficient VC-1 coded on a BD-25 disc, open matte’d to 1.78:1 (very common for Warner back in the day), and was filled with lots of digital noise and some odd color timing. I mean, it wasn’t really that BAD for the time, but looking back in history 14 years and looking at it from a more mature format, it definitely wasn’t as good as it couldn’t. For this 40th anniversary disc we get a brand new 4K remastering (for both the theatrical and unrated cuts) that looks light years better. The image looks much cleaner and more natural, with a healthy grain layer that isn’t overly noisy or blown out with overly ruddy color time. Warner hasn’t used Dolby Vision, but the HDR10 image looks quite nice, with a much dimmer and more tamed color palate all around.

On the flip side, A Nightmare on Elm Street is never going to look RAZOR sharp and perfect. It was shot back in 1984 with cinematic techniques that could sometimes looks soft and somewhat gauzy. Especially when you consider the fact that this movie is supposed to be somewhat “dreamlike” to begin with. Specific moments may not be super bright, or super crisp (the one that stood out to me was Johnny Depp laying in that bed with his headphones and portable TV just before he’s gonna get killed), but overall this is a quite a good looking image for A Nightmare on Elm Street and a fairly drastic upgrade that looks a lot more natural.









Audio:

Not going to lie, I was actually surprised by the audio mix for this one. I actually glossed over the fact when I got the press release from Warner that this was getting a Dolby Atmos remix, AND a lossless 2.0 Monorail theatrical mix as well. I’m almost always a purist, so I was happy to see the inclusion of the theatrical mix, but I was also blown away at how good the Atmos remix is. Warner has done a great job at taking the original mix and fleshing it out, and also including in almost ALL of the original audio cues and effects from the theatrical mix. It just sounds fuller, richer, more dimensional, and above all, really pleasing. The Atmos isn’t so overboard as to completely alter the tone and feel of the sound, but it’s more 3 dimensional, and adds some great power to the audio. Voices are clean and clear, and the 1980s effects are pinpoint accurate. Overheads get some mild use due to the score (and a few key moments down in the boiler room), but they don’t go crazy with them. All in all, this is one of the more impressive ways to modernize a mix without altering it drastically, AND kudos to warner for including a lossless Mono mix for the purists who don’t want the upgrade. Bravo Warner, bravo.












Extras:

• Ready Freddy Focus Points
• Commentary with Wes Craven, Robert Englund, Heather Langenkamp, Ronnie Blakely, Robert Shaye, and Sara Risher.
• Commentary with Wes Craven, Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, and Jacques Haitkin.
• Alternate endings
• The House that Freddy Built: The Legacy of New Line Horror
• Never Sleep Again: A Nightmare on Elm Street
• Night Terrors: The Origins of Wes Craven's Nightmares
• Languages: English, Spanish, Parisian French














The Nightmare on Elm Street series has never been the most serious, nor the best of the slasher genre, but it created one of the most iconic serial killers in all of horror history that rivals the greats like Michael Myers and Jason. Freddy Krueger is a household name at this point, and the first A Nightmare on Elm Street is a very GOOD horror movie (which is surprisingly more comedic than I remembered, in a good way) before the series devolving into goofy comedic horror. This 40th anniversary edition is a solid release, with good video, great audio (the biggest surprise) and a nice array of extras. Solid thumbs up.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: John Saxon, Heather Langenkamp, Amanda Wyss, Johnny Depp, Ronee Blakely
Directed by: Wes Craven
Written by: Wes Craven
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core, English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono
Subtitles: English SDH, French, German SDH, Italian SDH, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: R
Runtime: 91 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: October 15th, 2024