A Nightmare on Elm Street

Wes Craven took the premise of his 1984 film from Los Angeles Times reports on Southeast Asian refugees who died in their sleep after violent nightmares. During the four years it took to finance the film he researched the subject at the UCLA dream clinic. The threat is not a pursuer but sleep itself, so the suspense scenes are scenes of staying awake and the pacing tracks Nancy’s exhaustion. Tina’s death on the ceiling is carpentry, not computing: Jim Doyle built a room four stagehands turned by hand, with Craven and cinematographer Jacques Haitkin shooting from car seats bolted to the wall. The rig went up again for the blood geyser out of Glen’s bed. Freddy’s red and green sweater came from a 1982 Scientific American piece calling those the most clashing colours on the human retina. The closing scene, though, was producer Robert Shaye’s call; Craven wanted Nancy to win by refusing to believe in Freddy. Johnny Depp makes his film debut, having tagged along to the audition with Jackie Earle Haley, who played Freddy in the 2010 remake. A good fit if you want dread built on the need to sleep, and killings staged in a room turned by hand. Not for viewers who cannot forgive a last scene that breaks the film’s own rules.