FM
Francesco Mirabelli
•Springwood: Some teenagers residing in Elm Street have the same strange dream, in which a man with a burned face and claws mounted on his fingers appears. One night, a young woman named Tina, after spending the night with her boyfriend, is found dead: on her corpse, deep wounds caused by razors. Nancy, friend of the victim and daughter of the local police chief, will discover the sinister link that connects Elm Street to the strange murders. Not believed, despite the decimation of her friends, she will have to face her fears where they originate: in her worst nightmares...
Fred Krueger, monstrous and ruthless killer with his terrifying clawed glove, has become the idol of horror cinema since the 80s thanks mainly to this film and some of its good sequels. The story unfolds like an Andersenian fairy tale, in this case very macabre, vertiginous and above all hallucinatory: a lot of "black", in short. Although it is not the first horror film to follow this scheme, "Nightmare" is surely one of the best results in its genre: the central idea around which the whole plot revolves, that is, that the dream can be incisive for death, is really disturbing.
Director Wes Craven inaugurated with this film the cinenovela of the nightmare, which has as its protagonist the demonic Fred Krueger, horrible nighttime pursuer of the teenagers of Springwood. His distinctive mark is obviously the glove, immortalized in the opening sequence, which reminds the four razors extended in the fingers of the right hand of the famous Marvel character "Wolverine". It is with these extremely sharp blades that Freddy torments his young victims, prisoners of the dreams of which he is master, often managing to tear them physically in delirious bloody conflagrations. The motive of the murders committed by the maniac is intuited during the film: the new citizens of Springwood joined their forces to eliminate Fred Krueger, serial killer pedophile who in life killed several children of the area by burning them in his boiler "Headquarters". With the signs of the flames still on his face, Krueger takes revenge on the children of those who killed him, inflicting nights of pure terror and forcing them to stay awake (one of the most popular phrases of the series is precisely "Don't sleep"). Nancy, the film's protagonist, will be the first to react to the monster intuiting a physicality that goes beyond the dream..
Professor Craven has directed a true "world cinematic masterpiece," bringing to life the remarkable and marked potential of his best character. Without immediately revealing the background, he instead offers the viewer a fragmented mosaic to reconstruct over the course of the long sequels, among which the third episode, the fourth, and the last of the series stand out: "Nightmare new nightmare," still directed by Wes Craven.
Excellent the performance of the cast, in particular the interpretations of Robert Englund in the role of the legendary "Freddy Krueger," Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, and Johnny Depp. The alluring and imperious music by Charles Bernstein, the good screenplay, and the splendid makeup effects enrich this timeless cult, elevating it to the title of "Terror topper." Horror fans must have it obligatorily in their personal video library: it is a moral duty!
