A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

The film is a landmark for its surreal atmosphere and iconic villain but also helped usher in an era of campy, pun-filled horror sequels. Craven excels at blending sexualized imagery with dream logic and parental guilt themes.

The critic calls the 1984 film an ingenious and jauntily outrageous shocker that upends the idea of being kept awake by fear. They highlight its cheerfully crass black-comic energy and the film debut of Johnny Depp.

The film revitalized the fading teen slasher genre with its premise of a killer invading dreams. It singles out the iconic creation of Freddy Krueger and memorable nightmare sequences like the blood geyser from the bed for praise, while noting a somewhat weak finale.

The film is a slick, effective horror entry that merges teen nightmares with reality through inventive special effects. Canby notes the emphasis on bizarre visuals over graphic gore from Craven's earlier work.

The critic finds the film good scary fun despite the later franchise overshadowing it, praising the genuinely frightening dream sequences and throwaway black humour while noting the subtext wanders.

A highly imaginative horror film that delivers the shocks expected by genre fans, with original special effects that effectively blend dreams and reality. Craven merges the elements tantalizingly but does not fully resolve the thematic threads at the end.

The critic praises the film's innovative premise of a killer invading dreams and Robert Englund's mesmerizing, gleeful performance as Freddy Krueger, which revitalized the slasher genre. It notes the iconic visuals and Nancy as a strong final girl but observes that campy elements and dated effects make it less scary for modern viewers, though still a classic.

The critic singles out the film's fresh approach to the slasher genre through Freddy's supernatural dream-based attacks and rich backstory, which allowed for inventive and disturbing set pieces. It calls the original the purest and scariest version, crediting Craven for disrupting stale tropes with a new iconic villain.

The critic praises the film's atmospheric and unsettling quality, highlighting its surreal dream sequences and the primal fear of sleep. They note it stands out from typical slashers with rich concepts and haunting ideas, though Freddy becomes clownish in sequels.