A Nightmare On Elm Street
Wes Craven’s 1984 classic film, A Nightmare on Elm Street utilizes aspects
that are prevalent in horror films. I acknowledge these obvious characteristics as
those of the horror film genre because they invoke certain feelings and emotions
when I watch I view this particular scary movie. They are specific and apparent.
However, it’s the medley of all of these aspects that truly makes a horror movie fall
into it’s genre.
A good horror is simply a scary film that that has both an evil entity and a
protagonist. The protagonist from many of the nineteen-seventies slasher films is
known as the final girl. She or he is the person who understands the full extent of the
horror that is happening. A final girl is good at manipulating technological gadgets
and can fabricate or produce defense mechanisms. She’s the killer’s or “other’s”
object of desire. She is abject terror personified. (Clover 35) In the case of A
Nightmare on Elm Street, Fred Kruger stalks a final girl named Nancy within a dream
world that he seems to be able to supernaturally control while she’s asleep. This
happens repeatedly and establishes a self versus other dynamic that is commonly
found in horror films. The self is represented in the audience’s relationship to the
protagonist. The audience understands the final girl’s plight and wants her outsmart,
overcome or eradicate the other, which is represented by the killer. There are
additional characters that surround the two main that are important to plot
development. Most slasher films that came before A Nightmare of Elm Street were
full of teenagers that usually liked to engage in acts of deviant behavior. Some of the
reckless acts and behaviors that these teens could commonly be seen participating
in were sexual activities, parental defiance, alcohol consumption and/ or drug use
and a general disregard for responsibility. While the teenage party animals are
behaving loosely they are unaware of the...
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