One...Two...Freddy's Comin' For You

From the time we were little we always feared going to sleep. At some point all children wake up in the middle of the night and scream for their parents. They had a bad dream, so the parents come in and check under the bed and in the closet. Then the child goes back to sleep and they are fine. However from that point on they always have a slight fear when the lay down to go to sleep. As grown adults they ask themselves is someone under my bed, or is someone in my closet. Nightmare on Elm Street draws on this to create a terrifying experience.

Freddy Krueger is probably one of the most frightening characters even to grace the silver screen. One of the huge reasons for this is that Freddy is not tangible. This poses the questions how can you stop someone that only exists in your sleep. Right away the film grabs you. There is an old dingy basement and a man with razor blades for fingers. Then there is the shot during the opening credits in the boiler room the girl in the nightgown is running, but seems to be running in place. This is a brilliant shot its adds to the dreamlike nature of the opening sequence.

There are so many great shots and effects in the movie. The next cool effect is where Freddy is stalking Tina in the alley. He is walking towards her and is arms grow in length to probably twenty feet across right in front of the camera. This very dreamlike and creates a surreal camera shot. This next shot is ridiculous. Glenn (played by Johnny Depp) falls asleep and Freddy’s arm comes up though the bed and pulls him in. Then thousands of gallons of blood flow upward out of the bed, not like and eruption though. The blood flows straight up out of the bed and coats the ceiling. The blood flows as if gravity has been reversed. This is such a strange shot and it is unforgettable. Also this scene brings about a funny quote. One of the paramedics arriving at the scene says, “We don’t need a stretcher up there, we need a mop.” The next scene I love is, and you knew it was coming, is the bedroom scene. Tina looks as though she is having a seizure in her sleep, but she is not she is being attacked in her dream. All of a sudden her chest is sliced open by four long slashes and she is dragged across the ceiling, screaming and bleeding. This has to be one of the best horror scenes ever and definitely one of the most revolutionary. The ending scene is great, its starts out happy ending like most of the movies at that time. Then it turns bad as the red convertible gets some green stripes as the cars drives away there is some question is she still in the dream world or not. Then the question is answered as Nancy’s mother is yanked in through a small window by Freddy’s arm.

The whole tension of the entire movie really makes it what it is. Watching this movie is so scary it is almost uncomfortable to watch. After watching the movie you feel like you have just driven for two hours on a busy highways with your hands gripped tightly on the wheel.

We're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat

I am a self-proclaimed horror movie expert. My fascination with horror movies started at age 8. My mom and me used to stay up late and watch such movies like The People Under the Stairs and Nightmare on Elm Street. I see a lot of things in movies that the normal person does not notice. I like to think about what goes into making a specific shot work and how underlying themes in movies reflect society. I am a very tough critic, while most people are busy enjoying cheap thrills in movies I am busy picking out small flaws in the plot. Enough about me lets get to the good stuff my five favorite movies and what makes them my favorite.

5) The Descent-From the time the movie starts you are sitting on the edge of your seat. All people have an inherent fear of being buried alive and being trapped in a cave is the next worst thing. That fear of being confined combined with the fairly original cave creatures makes this movie uniquely scary.

4) Halloween-Carpenter truly created something special with this movie. I love how Carpenter manages to create a truly scary film without all the blood and gore. Another aspect that makes this film scary is trick or treating is something everybody has done and Halloween is a holiday everyone can relate to. Ability to Relate = Scary

3) Nightmare on Elm Street-Where to begin with this? I will start where most people would not the music. Charles Bernstein created a perfect soundtrack to accompany this movie. I remember watching this movie with my mom and staying up all night because I was scared Freddy was going to get me in my sleep, this was just a few days ago. It is similar to Halloween in that we all have to sleep and that is a major part of what makes this film scary. You feel like you are dreaming while you are watching the movie because of the amazing visual effects. Do not be mistaken the effects are revolutionary for their time.

2) 28 Days Later-The best zombie film I have ever seen, and I have seen a lot. I like a zombie that can chase down a person on foot or chase down a car on foot for that matter. These infected are very quick that is one thing that sets this movie off from regular zombie/infected movies. My favorite part has to be that by the end you do not know who are the real bad guys in the movie the infected, or the soldiers. I will go much deeper into this eventually

1) Jaws-We’re gonna need a bigger boat. There are so many things in this movie that make it my all time favorite, but I’ll limit it to a couple for now. One is that every person who has seen this movie thought twice before going into the water at the beach again. For a while after this movie came out mothers would not let there kids go swimming in the pool, let alone at the beach. The big reason I like this movie is all of the great shot techniques used. One specifically is where Brody is on the beach and the Kitner boy is killed. The camera does a close up of Brody, but the backround seems to move away. This is very Hitchcockesque.