On this day, in 1984, A Nightmare On Elm Street was unleashed upon an unsuspecting world.
I, for one, will never forget going to see this film, at the Tamalpais Theater in San Anselmo. Me and my high school buddy's, heading to see what we were sure would be some cheese-ball monster movie. Little did we know that we were about to witness the emergence of one of the great villains in horror history (not to mention the introduction of Johnny Depp). Little did we expect that our cynical, world weary, know-it-all 16 year old selves were about to get scared s#*tless. Two images from that movie will stay with me for the rest of my life, two things I had never seen before. The first was the tongue coming out of the phone. I don't often jump, but I jumped out of my seat on that one.
And then, the finger-knives being dragged across his chest revealing the green puss-like ooze.
It has been 25 years since that night at the theater and I still so vividly remember that experience. I remember walking out of the theater in shock, and the next school day spreading the word far and wide that this movie was like nothing that had come before it. Perhaps that was excessive (it was 11 months before I saw Re-Animator in the very same theater), but, I was 16. It did, without a doubt, tap into something, it that changed the face of the horror genre for years to come. There is something primal, still, 25 years later, about being attacked through your dreams?
In April of 2010, the remake of A Nightmare On Elm Street will be released. From the folks who brought you the remake of Cape Fear, Doom, Hitched, Pearl Harbor, The Transformers, and directed by a first time film director with a list of music videos longer than my arm...I do not expect this movie to change my attitude that 99% of remakes suck donkey balls. I expect this one, as well, despite Jackie Earl Haley, to suck donkey balls.
But, for some reason, it does not bother me. Perhaps, because the original has left such an impression on me, and was such an imaginative and new twist to the slasher film, there is no way they can ruin that.
Anyone out there looking forward to the remake? Or have a specific memory of the first time you saw the original? Love it? Hate it? Let us know, on this the 25th anniversary of it's release.
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