Nightmare on Elm Street, A (1984) (4K UHD Review)

• Reviewed by: Tim Salmons
• Review Date: Oct 31, 2024
• Format: 4K Ultra HD
• 

Director

Wes Craven

Release Date(s)

1984 (October 15, 2024)

Studio(s)

New Line Cinema (Warner Home Video)

• Film/Program Grade: A+
• Video Grade: B+
• Audio Grade: B+
• Extras Grade: B-

Review

Though the series has lapsed in the wake of the 2010 remake, A Nightmare on Elm Street was one of the most popular horror franchises of its day, spawning multiple sequels, a TV series, books, comics, and an endless supply of various forms of merchandise the world over. The original 1984 film continues to stand today as one of the most original horror films ever mounted, untainted by everything that came in its wake.

Fresh off of the mildly successful Swamp Thing, Wes Craven had already established himself with the horror classics The Last House on the Left and The Hills Have Eyes when A Nightmare on Elm Street finally came to fruition. He based his screenplay on a series of non-correlated articles in the L.A. Times about individuals whom had died due to Brugada Syndrome, otherwise known as Sudden Unexplained Death Syndrome. In one particular case, a young man had convinced himself that something in his dreams was coming to kill him, refusing to take his prescribed sleeping medication and hiding a pot of coffee in his closet to stay awake. He eventually succumbed to sleep and died soon thereafter, with no immediate explanation as to why.

Bafflingly, no Hollywood studio was interested in the idea. Even his closest colleague Sean Cunningham, director of the original Friday the 13th and producer of The Last House on the Left, insisted that the idea wasn’t scary enough. Undaunted, Wes continued to pursue smaller producing entities, happening upon Robert Shaye, an independent film distributor who immediately recognized the project’s possibilities. At the time, Shaye was looking for potentially successful films for his fledgling distribution company, New Line Cinema.

After much toil on Shaye’s part to raise the funds necessarily, production was soon underway. Wes had originally envisioned Freddy to be older, but found that the energy needed to portray him could only be found in younger men. Enter Robert Englund, a classically-trained actor who was fresh off the hit miniseries V, and no stranger to low budget filmmaking himself. He brought a swagger, a stance, and a personality to Freddy while reaching into his own dark recesses to make the character more sinister and nastier than even Wes had envisioned. A great protagonist was also found in Heather Langenkamp as Nancy, whose beauty and inner strength gave Freddy a worthy opponent. Joining also was newcomer Johnny Depp, Amanda Wyss, Nick Corri aka Jsu Garcia, and seasoned veterans John Saxon and Ronnee Blakley, the latter of whom had been nominated and won awards for her performance in Robert Altman’s Nashville several years prior.

Shot in less than four weeks at break-neck speed, Wes and his team made something that was truly different. Even with a meager budget, Nightmare manages to pull off arresting visuals and fantastic mechanical special effects, Tina’s death scene chief among them. It also cleverly blurs the line between dreams and reality, leaving viewers unsure if characters are awake or asleep. Freddy himself is left in the shadows and often obstructed from view so that the audience never really gets a good look at him, allowing their imaginations to work harder at filling in the holes.

Although the cast and crew got along during filming, Wes Craven and Robert Shaye often had heated disagreements over budget and story content. Shaye felt that the original ending was too cheerful, insisting that a jump scare be implemented to give the audience a high to go out on. It’s a decision that forever affected the franchise, despite there being no thought of one at that point. Wes compromised, despite feeling that it was demeaning to the rest of the film. Though the matter was settled, his relationship with Shaye was strained thereafter, and he wouldn’t return to the director’s chair until much later in the series, moving on to other projects.

In November of 1984, A Nightmare on Elm Street was released, turning a profit almost immediately with an effective ad campaign and good word of mouth. This signaled to Robert Shaye that there could be more to this, and a sequel was soon rushed into production.

A Nightmare on Elm Street was shot by cinematographer Jacques Haitkin on 35mm film using Arriflex 35 BL2 and 35 III cameras with spherical lenses, finished photochemically, and presented in the aspect ratio of 1.85:1. Warner Home Video brings the film to 4K Ultra HD for the first time with the theatrical and (for the first time in the US) uncut versions of the film, both graded for High Dynamic Range in HDR10, and presented on a dual-layered 66GB disc. For most of us, seeing this film on home video has always involved dark and murky presentations, especially on VHS. Jacques Haitkin’s dark and shadowy cinematography for the film was intentional, but difficult to translate outside of a movie theater. Though Warner Bros.’ UHD offering manages to pull out much of the detail in the darkness thanks to the HDR10 grade (Dolby Vision would do even more wonders for this film), it doesn’t quite make the grade elsewhere. It appears far too clean with grain apparently scrubbed away during the restoration process, hampering the film’s textured appearance. It’s almost as if they were trying to make it seem like a more modern film visually, but it loses some of its grit in the process. It’s not the worst we’ve ever seen, but it’s noticeable. On top of that, bitrates can be somewhat erratic, many times sitting in the lower depths, and at others in the 50 to 70Mbps range. Colors are a tad uneven, especially skin tones, but for the part they seem accurate. Blacks are super deep, never appearing crushed, but natural to the presentation. The image is clean with good contrast and stability, as well. With a slightly compromised presentation, an uneven bitrate, and a dual-layered disc that’s packed with bonus materials (leaving occasional artifacts in its wake), Nightmare’s UHD debut is anything but perfect. It’s quite watchable, but a more careful hand at the wheel, particularly one that understands the intended look of the film, is needed.

Audio for both versions is included in English Dolby Atmos and 2.0 mono DTS-HD Master Audio with optional subtitles in English SDH. For years, the film has mostly been available with an altered soundtrack, but both of the tracks included here restore the original sound effects and music cues, the latter more akin to the original theatrical audio. The Atmos track certainly opens things up in the surrounding speakers, giving Charles Bernstein’s iconic score more room to breathe in, primarily anchoring dialogue to the front. Occasionally, sound effects and music cues can be buried in the mix, the prime example being Rod tackling Glen from behind in the beginning. That moment is stifled on the Atmos track, but it’s all there in the mix. Including the original mono soundtrack more than makes up for any flaws the Atmos track has. The only real flaw is in the several extra seconds of uncut footage, which sounds more like a scratch track than a final mix. Keen ears can flip compare the uncut footage seen in presentations from Japan and Germany to this and hear the difference. It’s not a major blight of any sort, but it slightly mars what is the US home video debut of the uncut version of the film.

Additional audio options for the theatrical version include French, German, Italian, Spanish (Castilian), and Spanish (Latin) mono Dolby Digital. Additional subtitle options include Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German SDH, Italian SDH, Norwegian, Spanish (Castilian), and Spanish (Latin), and Swedish.

The 4K Ultra HD of A Nightmare on Elm Street sits in a black Amaray case with a paper insert featuring a Digital Code. The artwork for the insert and slipcover both feature the same DVD-era artwork that continues to plague the film on home video, which erroneously includes stills from the sequels Dream Warriors and The Dream Master. The iconic original theatrical poster artwork is nowhere to be seen. Also available is a Steelbook option, which repurposes the Infinifilm DVD and Blu-ray artwork for a faux VHS aesthetic. Honestly, neither option is all that appealing. The following extras are included, all in full HD and 1080i:

• Commentaries (Theatrical Only):
  • Audio Commentary with Wes Craven, Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, and Jacques Haitkin
  • Audio Commentary with Wes Craven, Robert Shaye, Sara Risher, Robert Englund, Heather Langenkamp, Amanda Wyss, Ronee Blakley, Jacques Haitkin, John Burrows, Charles Bernstein, Rick Shaine, Patrick McMahon, Jim Doyle, David B. Miller, and David Del Valle
• Focus Points (18:13):
  • Alt Take Glove Construction (1:07)
  • Alt Take Freddy Chases Tina (:33)
  • Alt Take of Rubber Ceiling (:55)
  • Tina and Worms (:21)
  • Alt Take of Freddy in Alley (:47)
  • Wes on Glove Sparks (:49)
  • Alt Take of Freddy in Alley 2 (:41)
  • Alt Take of Freddy Cuts Fingers (:35)
  • Alt Take of Freddy Face Peel (:33)
  • Dave Miller on Tina’s Chest Ripping (:27)
  • Alt Take of Freddy in Tina’s Death Scene (:27)
  • Alt Take of Stunt Double Falls (:37)
  • Alt Take of Tina’s Death (:57)
  • Miller on Maggots (:23)
  • Alt Takes of Freddy Chases Nancy (:37)
  • Alt Take of Bathtub Scene (:33)
  • Alt Take of Bathtub Scene 2 (:38)
  • Freddy and Feathers (:28)
  • Sleep Clinic (:41)
  • Marge Discusses Freddy (:24)
  • Nancy and Unused Phone Line (:27)
  • Alt Take of Phone Scene (:24)
  • Alt Take of Blood Pours from Bed (1:02)
  • Robert on Freddy’s Voice (:37)
  • Ronee Talks About Her Dummy (:50)
  • Alt Take of Dummy in Bed (:29)
  • Haitkin Talks About Camera Effects (:46)
  • Alt Take of Freddy Comes Out of Bed (:35)
  • Alt Take of Nancy and Freddy (:28)
• Alternate Endings (4:58):
  • Scary Ending (1:39)
  • Happy Ending (1:32)
  • Freddy Ending (1:46)
• The House that Freddy Built (21:52)
• Never Sleep Again: The Making of A Nightmare on Elm Street (49:54)
• Night Terrors (15:33)

The 1996 and 2006 commentaries are invaluable, though one does tire of the latter at times when being forced to hear every participant identified before they speak (a subtitle track would’ve been a better option). The Focus Points are a collection of outtakes and deleted scenes, though mostly fragments. There’s some fascinating material here though, including more footage of Freddy in various scenes that was deleted altogether. Interspersed are interview outtakes with Wes Craven, Robert Englund, Ronnee Blakley, Dave Miller, and Jacques Haitkin. The Alternate Endings show us that the eventual theatrical ending was a combination of the three presented here. The studio-produced documentaries are pretty good, and contain some of the same interviews later used in the definitive Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy documentary.

Like many releases of this film on optical disc, this release includes many excellent extras, but totally bypasses many that have been left behind or were never accessed in the first place. Most of the extras from the Infinifilm DVD and Blu-ray releases are carried over, although the picture-in-picture option for the Focus Points isn’t present, nor is the Fact Track subtitle commentary, the theatrical trailer, the Freddy’s Coming for You Trivia Challenge interactive game, and the DVD-ROM materials which include a Script to Screen module. Missing also is the Welcome to Prime Time and Fear Himself: The Life and Crimes of Freddy Krueger documentaries, as well as the It’s a Miserable Life and Killer Instinct episodes of Freddy’s Nightmares, all from the Blu-ray boxed set release. The biggest omissions of all are the treasure trove of workprint deleted scenes, still galleries, and TV spots from the Elite Entertainment Special Collector’s Edition LaserDisc from 1996, not to mention other marketing materials like radio spots which have never seen the light of day. The Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy documentary is fully available elsewhere, but perhaps that should be saved for a potential boxed set of all the films.

While A Nightmare on Elm Street’s debut on 4K Ultra HD is not quite the home run fans were expecting, it’s more of a base hit. Hopefully somebody will come along down the road and provide a more definitive R.B.I. and bring it home (pardon all the baseball lingo). It’s a fine disc, but it needs work, and in light of many horror films large and small receiving only the best of treatment on BD and UHD these days, one of the biggest of all time certainly deserves its due, as well.

- Tim Salmons

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