Grade:  A

Director:  Wes Craven		Released:  November 1984
Writer:  Wes Craven		MPAA Rating:  R
Players:  Heather Langenkamp, Robert Englund, Johnny Depp		Running time:  91 minutes

Ratings System

This was the movie that got me interested in modern horror.  I began to buy Fangoria magazine, I built my own Freddy glove out of copper tubing and sheet metal, I had Freddy posters on my walls.  It was Freddy-Mania, I tell you!  And still Freddy is my all-time favorite horror villain.  My father's generation had Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolfman and the Mummy; my generation has Freddy, Jason, Mike Myers, and Leatherface.

It's hard for me to objectively critique the acting, direction, or production, because when I was 14 it all seemed so perfect and cool.  However, the makeup and special effects are tremendous.  By 1984's standards they were top-notch, and by today's standards they look a little bit fake, but still more real than a lot of the cgi stuff that movies give us today.  And the soundtrack is also excellent, the music has become as classic as the music from the Halloween movies.  And most importantly, the story holds up 20 years later.  It's not dated, and has some fairy tale elements to it that make it so classic.

This movie isn't going to scare anyone today, not after we've seen The Blair Witch Project.  Dracula doesn't scare anyone anymore either, but both movies are classics in their own right, and are integral to any history lesson on the horror genre in film.

- crocoPuffs