Friday, February 28, 2014
A NightMeh On Ugh Street
Despite having one of my favorite movie posters ever, A Nightmare On Elm Street has not aged well. As a kid I went on movie binges and would essentially rent out entire franchises and watch them over a weekend. Nightmare was one of these binges and as 12 year old I was pretty freaked out by Freddy and his weird jokes, but not so much anymore, now having a background in film and video production all I could do was laugh at how screwy the lighting was and the odd editing especially the whole booby trap montage. But there is something about Freddy that sets him apart from the other slashers, his methods and origins.
Nightmare is essentially a sins of the father (in this case mother) story. Freddy is a monster created by the parents of the Elm Street kids and like all parents in 80`s movies they half ass it and Freddy inexplicably manifests as some dream wraith. Nancy our protagonist and final girl is the only one in the movie capable of using her brain and through a combination of trial and error paired with the local library's selection of booby trap manuals ( fun for the whole family!) is able to cast Freddy back into hell or wherever he goes when he turns to sparkles. She embodies traits that I think we all wish we could have if in her situation. She has guts, brains and the ability to improvise. She takes the much more powerful Kreuger and uses his arrogance against him, Freddy knows he has the upper hand that's why he he's jokey and "haunts" his victims before killing them, he likes to play. This comes from his method of attack, he attacks from a victims subconcious mind a place where the dreamer is nearly helpless if they are not disciplined. Unlike, say Jason Voorhees who is a juggernaut. Voorhees generates fear through his ability to take nearly unlimited damage, even decapitation doesn't keep him dead for long. Freddy is fear, he manifests in the subconcious he uses all of his victims inner most fears against ( more so in later films however). That's why Freddy often times has very rapey sexual bent. He is the Freudian combination of Eros and Thanatos take for example this kill Nightmare 4 Waterbed Kill he exploits the teenagers sexuality as a lure.
Overall I don't have much to say about Nightmare other than what was discussed in class. I got so distracted with all the groan inducing moments in the film. Plus I think Freddy really under utilizes his powers, He has in theory the best advantage for a killer, no one believes he's there and he strikes completely in an asymmetric manner. Dreams are powerful and Freddy just resorts to a boiler room ?
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I was also a teen that enjoyed going on the eighties horror film "weekend binges." It was thrilling watching these films as a young teen, but I totally agree with you in that it does not feel the same watching them as an adult! I think we can all also agree that the Final Girl always has the best qualities out of any character in these films. In Nightmare on Elm, Nancy was the intelligent good girl compared to her best friend Tina. I envied her watching her take the time and energy to read the library books and set up the traps to catch Freddy. I liked that she was a "good girl", but had a little bit of a badass side to her. I also really like how you pointed out the psychological aspect of this film. I don't think many people realize the psychological significance while watching this film, which actually is what sets this series of films apart from other eighties horror films. The fact that Freddy is present in the character's subconscious definitely does make the film much more sex/"rapey" oriented. Even though I didn't feel as thrilled as I did watching it as a teen, I still enjoyed watching it!
ReplyDeleteSlasher/exploitation films generally all have the same plot to them. Like we discussed in class, if you've seen one, you've seen them all. I agree with Danielle also that's not the same as watching them when you're older. I didn't feel the same "thrill" either but I do think it's interesting the see the plot of the "Final Girl."
ReplyDeleteYou have a really, really good handle on the Freudian aspects of the story--that Freddy is essentially a product of the unconscious, and the whole 'sins of the fathers or in this case the mother' theme. My question is, whose unconscious--the parents, the teens, or somehow both? Taking that a step or so further (which you definitely could, with the setup you have here), is Freddy somehow the manifestation of Nancy's fear of turning out to be like her mother? That's an interesting angle, and complicates the gender cross-identification pattern Clover lays out in her analysis (which you probably should have incorporated more into this. You get it, but I'd really like to see you engage more directly in dialog with her, since you suggest some interesting dimensions about the nature of Freddy that dovetail with hers, but in a new direction). Also, what I keep wondering is not so much how vintage slasher plays out our freaky attitudes about sex as a culture, but rather, what is it about slashers that kids enjoy? What makes them fun?
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