This is the first time I have sat down to watch A Nightmare on Elm Street since, well since 1987ish. I never saw it in the theater, but knew about what people were telling me. I think maybe it was a year later that I finally saw it for the first time on HBO. After that intial screening I saw it once or twice more and I'm pretty sure the last time I saw it was in 1987. So, for the most part watching this was like seeing it for the first time. Well, most of it anyway. There are such iconic scenes that you just can't forget. Scenes like Johnny Depp getting sucked and they spit out of the bed, or Freddy's Razor Glove popping up in the bath tub between Heather Langenkamp's legs or the final shot when Freddy grabs her mother through the door window.

So, how does the movie hold up, 25 years later since the last time I watched this? I don't remember the film print ever looking this good. This was pristine. Not sure if they did a restoration of the print, but it looks sharp (pun not intended). The concept of the film is a clever one, having the boogeyman in people's dreams wreaking havoc and terrorizing people. As clever as that is, I think that's why it never scared me back in the day and certainly not now. It's not grounded in any sort of reality to ever be believable. Watching it now, it came off as a lite at times. The story was good, but the execution (pun still not intended) comes off as hammy.  Heather's yelping and screaming doesn't really help matters here. I know this was one of her very first movies and she was still a bit raw in the acting department, so I do cut (pun definitely intended) her some slack here. Also, it was a trip to see a babyface Johnny Depp in his first movie.

Overall, the movie does hold up well and I definitely recommend this as a Rental for sure. It's a fun movie to watch, more for the camp factor rather than actual 'scare' moments. The most eye opening thing about the Elm Street is how subdued Freddy Kruger is. We all know his snappy one-liners and wisecracking from the sequels that follow. But in this one he really doesn't say a whole lot and it's certainly not the "stand up comedian" his character would evolved into over the years.

So this actually scared you the first time you saw it? For me, since I didn't initially see it in the theater, hearing about the movie from friends and the way they described it scared me more than the actual movie. They didn't go into any kind of detail other than the plot about this 'Boogeyman' that kills people in their sleep. Even back then I was a stickler for spoilers so I didn't know much so that when I eventually saw it, I was still in the dark.