Horror Movie Month: A Nightmare on Elm Street

A Nightmare on Elm Street is a 1984 movie directed by Wes Craven and starring Robert Englund, Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, Johnny Depp, Ronee Blakley, Amanda Wyss, and Nick Corri. In Springfield, Ohio, teenagers are stalked in their dreams by Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund), a serial killer who has burns all over his face. His weapon of choice is a glove with razors attached to it, and if he kills someone in their dreams, they die in real life too.

I haven't seen many of the movies in this franchise (just this one, Wes Craven's New Nightmare, and Freddy vs. Jason), but I really liked the first movie in the series. The idea of someone being able to kill you in your dreams is a cool and scary concept, and the deaths were pretty creative (Johnny Depp in particular got an epic death scene in his film debut).

My rating: 8/10

Followed by:

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master
A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child
Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
Wes Craven's New Nightmare
Freddy vs. Jason
A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010 remake)

Horror Movie Month: Scream

Scream is a 2006 movie directed by Wes Craven, written by Kevin Williamson, and starring Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Jamie Kennedy, Drew Barrymore, Skeet Ulrich, Matthew Lillard, Rose McGowan, and Henry Winkler. A year after her mother's murder, high school student Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) must cope with the fact that she is being stalked by a murderer.

I saw Scream on TV a few years after it came out, and I loved it so much that I made a special trip to Kmart the next day to buy Scream and Scream 2 on video (and was traumatized later that afternoon by a Scream 2 death that made me throw my remote at the TV). I bought my first DVD player because The Ultimate Scream Collection was getting ready to come out, and I really needed to see the disc of bonus features. Scream is one of my favorite movies (I like all of the sequels and the MTV series too), and despite the brutal opening scene, the movie is full of humor, which is a major reason I like it so much. Most horror movies don't scare me, but the Scream movies do because they're more realistic than other horror movies...anyone could be under the Ghostface mask, and it just might be someone you know and trust. Another reason I love Scream is because it introduced me to one of my favorite movie characters: Randy Meeks (played by Jamie Kennedy). Randy is the resident horror movie expert who schools his classmates on the rules of horror movies: no sex, drugs, or alcohol, and never say you'll be right back because you definitely won't. Scream is an awesome movie, so if you haven't seen it, go watch it now! ; )

My rating: 10/10

Followed by:

Scream 2
Scream 3
Scream 4

R.I.P. Wes Craven

I discovered Scream when it aired on TV a few years after it was released; I loved it and made a special trip to Kmart the next day to buy Scream and Scream 2 on video the next day. Wes Craven is the reason I bought a DVD player in college...the Ultimate Scream Collection was getting ready to come out and had a whole disc of special features, and I had to have it. I've watched a ton of horror movies, and Scream is one of the best ones I've seen and one of the few I've watched multiple times. I'm sorry the world won't get to experience any new Wes Craven movies, but he left us with some great ones.