A Nightmare On Elm Street
"The original A Nightmare on Elm Street was
inspired by an extraordinary series of
unnoticed stories in the Los Angeles Times. A
young immigrant male, early 20's, usually
from Southeast Asia, a son, would have a
severe nightmare where he would wake up
screaming. The next day, he would tell his
family it was the worst nightmare he'd ever
had, and he had been terribly shaken by it.
The next night when he went to sleephe
died. Six months later I looked in the paper
and there was a very similar story. I clipped it
out and put it with the other one. Then the third
appeared about a year and a half from the first
one, this time in Northern California. And the
elements were the basis for the film. The rest
is horror history."Wes Craven, Director of A
Nightmare on Elm Street.
At a time when the stalker movie had run its
course to all ends and the image of mute,
staggering, vicious killers had been etched
into society's consciousness to the point of
exhaustion, a new kid entered the block. The
year was 1984 and it was time for a new villain
to enter into the horror genre. It was a villain
that was agile, intelligent, almost invincible,
yet viscous, and by all means deadly. A
Nightmare on Elm Street introduced the
distinctive presence of Fred Krueger to the
horror industry and to the audience. Freddy
Krueger took the center stage and with him a
new era of horror films began. This horribly
scarred man who wore a ragged slouch hat,
dirty red-and-green striped sweater, and a
glove outfitted with knives at the fingers
reinvented the stalker genre like no other film
had. Fred Krueger breathed new life into the
dying horror genre of the early 1980's. This
paper will enter the realm of the ideas in the
movie, such as the psychological horror it held
for the viewer, as well as the use of reality
within the film. Not knowing what was real and
what was a dream made for A Nightmare on
Elm Street to be a successful horror movie.
Horror...
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