We've tackled almost all the films in this series, so why not take a look at the first one? By now Craven had been known for a few hits and a lot of TV flicks. How could he capture the public's attention this time?
Springwood is a nice, normal town. Quiet streets and even the bad kids aren't all that bad. Tina (Amanda Wyss), however, is plagued with some bad dreams. Not the usual "went to school without pants" dreams either. No, she's being stalked by a horribly burned man with knives for fingers. During one particularly intense dream, Tina wakes up just as the man slashes at her. What makes her panic, however, is the neat row of cuts made in her nightgown.
Tina confesses this to her best friend Nancy (Heather Langenkamp) who in turns tells her boyfriend Glen (Johnny Depp). It's decided that the teens will have a sleepover, officially to keep an eye on Tina, although Tina's boyfriend Rod (Nick Corri) sees it as a perfect opportunity for some of that sweet premarital sex.
That night, as Nancy and Glen sit down in the living room, Tina and Rod retire for the night. Everything seems fine, until Tina wakes up screaming. Rod tries to help, but when bloody wounds start appearing over her body, he's a bit out of his league. The screaming Tina wakes Nancy and Glen, but by the time they break into the bedroom, Rod's split and Tina's dead.
Rod gets picked up the next day despite his protests. Lt. Thompson (John Saxon), Nancy's dad, is convinced the case is closed. When Nancy dozes off in class, she finds herself being chased by the same burned man. Burning her arm in the dream wakes her up but also gets a very real burn on her arm. Another encounter after sleeping in the bath makes Nancy take Rod's pleas of innocence more seriously. It doesn't do Rod much good though, as he's soon found hanging in his cell.
After describing the burned man to her parents at Rod's funeral, her mother (Ronee Blakely) takes her to a sleep clinic. Nancy dreams of the man again, but this time when she wakes up she has proof- a singed fedora with the name 'Fred Kruger' on the inside.
Can Nancy save her friends? Who is this Kruger fella and how does he move in people's dreams?
After a slew of mediocre TV flicks, Craven hit it out of the park with this one. Hell, it might be his first work to recapture that nasty edge missing since the Hills Have Eyes. Kruger became a joke in later films, but here? No jokes or funny kills. Nope, here people die mean and they die hard.
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