A Nightmare on Elm Street
1984; written and directed by Wes Craven

John: When you die in your dreams, you die in real life. One of the best ideas in the history of film. Add to that a strong heroine who decides to take to care of business herself and the most interesting slasher villain ever in the scarred Freddy Kruger and you have a winner. Although some of the following films were quite good (Part 3, New Nightmare), the rest were mediocre or worse (including the recent remake).

Allen: What a perfect premise A Nightmare on Elm Street has, with a killer terrorizing his victims in their dreams. We all have to fall asleep sometime, we can not avoid it, it’s inevitable. For the kids in the film, they cannot simply run away from Freddy Krueger; whenever they close their eyes he will be there. Wes Craven, the director who has made such an impression on audiences with his horror films, crafted a story that is truly haunting, original, terrifying, and classic. The fact that the film is based off a true story Craven read about, and that the look of Freddy was influenced by a real person Craven ran in to, only compounds to the film’s massive appeal.

Team Rankings:
Mike – #5
Chad – #6
Allen – #7
Ben – #9
Spencer – #12
John – #16
Jeremy – #17