A Nightmare on Elm Street 7-Film Collection: A Phenomenal Set of the Original Freddy Films (4K)

The Films:

Back in 1984, beloved master of horror Wes Craven created a monster, or more specifically, a notorious killer known as Freddy Krueger who could attack his victims in their dreams. His original "A Nightmare on Elm Street" was a game changer, one that showed that creativity & imagination in horror films was far from dead, and with its grand success, which saw it bring in about $57 million on a budget of about $1 million, it's hardly a surprise that it spawned multiple sequels that would go on for a decade. To celebrate this long-cherished series, Warner Bros. is bringing together the original seven films, giving them a marvelous 4K upgrade, and packing it with tons of special features, so now it's time to go back and revisit the beloved franchise to see what has made them stand out for so long for horror fans around the world.

Starting off with the original classic, the film begins with Tina (Amanda Wyss) awakening from a nightmare in which she was being chased in a boiler room by a burned man with knives on his fingers, a nightmare made even more terrifying by the fact that there are mysterious slashes in her nightgown when she awakens. She soon finds out that her friends Nancy (Heather Langenkamp) and Glen (Johnny Depp) have been having dreams about the same man. That night, the three of them get together for a sleepover at Tina's house, with her boyfriend Rod (Nick Corri) showing up as well.

When Tina falls asleep, she has another nightmare, but this time she is killed by the knife-fingered man, with Rod watching while awake and eventually taking the blame for her murder. Soon after, Nancy's nightmares become more intense, eventually leading her to discover that her attacker is a man named Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) and that her mother, and many other parents of Elm Street, just might be responsible for what's happening to her and her friends.

This is one of those times where you truly have to ask yourself, what else can one say about Wes Craven's horror masterpiece that hasn't already been said in the last 40+ years? A killer that can invade someone's dreams to take revenge was a brilliant concept at the time, one that Craven had pulled from articles regarding people who had died in their sleep after having disturbing nightmares. It's a film that cleverly plays with the perception of dream vs. reality, asking the audience to distinguish between the two as our heroine does battle against Freddy Krueger, a horror icon known the world over.

On top of its rather clever & innovative basis, it simply offers up a good amount of scares with the very concept of being completely defenseless in the usually-peaceful state of sleep. Even after more than four decades, horror fans still go back to it over and over for its thrills, ingenuity, and just for the fact that it remains so incredibly entertaining. "A Nightmare on Elm Street" was certainly ahead of its time in 1984, but remains just as powerful now as it was then. In the end, Craven's classic just goes to show that horror can indeed be just as high concept as any other genre in cinema.

Moving on to "A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge," we follow Jesse (Mark Patton), whose family has moved into the house that Nancy used to live in. He begins to have nightmares about Freddy and finds Nancy's old diary in his room in which she describes her own similar dreams about Krueger. As Jesse's dreams get worse and worse, he soon discovers that Freddy actually wants him to kill for him, eventually leading to a situation in which he appears to have murdered his high school coach. With his transformation into Freddy becoming harder to resist, he and his friend Lisa (Kim Myers) must find a way to put a stop to it before it's too late.

When it comes to the first "Nightmare" sequel, it's one that's always been met with a rather mixed reception from both fans & critics alike. Some find that it has some compelling subtext to it, while others just find it flat-out silly. Personally, I've never had too much of a problem with it. It has the start of an intriguing idea in which we see Krueger trying to find his way into the real world through this young man, a concept that could be seen as an early iteration of the seventh & final film of the original series of sequels, "Wes Craven's New Nightmare," but it's executed in a somewhat bland & repetitive fashion, one that culminates in a climax that is indeed a bit silly. Even so, it does have a few interesting elements to it, and while it obviously doesn't even come close to measuring up to the original classic, it doesn't really deserve a lot of the hate that some like to spew at it either. It's a flawed sequel for sure, one that had some rather high expectations to live up to, but overall the result simply turned out to be middling at best.

Up next is "A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors," which centers on a group of teenagers at a psychiatric hospital under the care of Dr. Neil Gordon (Craig Wasson), with the assistance of intern therapist Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp). The patients, including Kristen (Patricia Arquette), Joey (Rodney Eastman), Will (Ira Heiden), Taryn (Jennifer Rubin), and others, have been having nightmares about Freddy Krueger, but their doctors don't believe it to be anything serious. Nancy, on the other hand, knows exactly what they're going through, having been through it before herself. After Freddy murders two of the teenagers, Dr. Gordon starts to believe her and eventually discovers a potential way to stop Krueger once and for all, though it will require Nancy to reconnect with someone she hasn't spoken to in a long time. Will their desperate measure to defeat Freddy work, and will the teenagers be able to survive long enough for it to be carried out?

This third entry in the franchise has always felt more like what a sequel to the original should've been in the first place, and is commonly cited as one of the better follow-ups, with many declaring it the best one of all. The scenario certainly feels more focused and on point, concentrating on a group of kids who have to band together to fight the dream demon with the help of the original final girl herself, Nancy Thompson.

This is also where the series started using a lot more special effects and utilizing more dream-like landscapes that allowed the creativity of the franchise to expand even more, giving it an even greater captivating appeal for horror fans, especially those who found the original concept of dream invasion rather fascinating to begin with. Again, the first sequel is hardly a bad follow-up to the original, but it is rather fair to say that "Dream Warriors" had a little more thought put into it, which ultimately made it a more engaging and more entertaining entry that was a little closer to what fans wanted from a sequel to the original classic.

"A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master" picks up shortly after the previous film with the survivors trying to get on with their lives. However, Kristen (Tuesday Knight) starts having bad dreams again, leading her to pull Joey (Rodney Eastman) & Kincaid (Ken Sagoes) into one and warn them that she thinks Freddy is back. They don't believe her, but Kincaid soon witnesses Krueger's resurrection himself, and soon after, all three of them are killed in their dreams, but not before Kristin is able to hand her power off to Alice (Lisa Wilcox), the sister of Kristin's boyfriend, Rick (Andras Jones). With her new ability, Freddy starts to use her to get to others, putting them in a fight for their lives against the dream demon himself.

"The Dream Master" is generally one of the more forgotten sequels of the franchise, but it's really not that hard to see why. Unfortunately it's a rather lazy, repetitive entry that basically feels like it's going through the motions of one of these films, starting with the execution of the survivors of the previous film and then moving on to the new characters. Even when it comes to the killings themselves, they're oddly uninspired, and in at least one case, strangely random, giving the film a pretty bland feeling overall, especially with its equally-random & rushed climax.

The particularly interesting part is that it was co-written by future Oscar winner Brian Helgeland, who would go on to give us such highly-regarded films as "L.A. Confidential," which earned him that Oscar, and "Mystic River," which got him another nomination. However, it was merely his first film, and is pretty much what got his career going, so while it's easily labeled as one of the weakest sequels in the series, at least it served a purpose, though it was still unfortunate to see the franchise take such a big step down after a pretty strong third entry.

"A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child" again takes place shortly after the previous entry, with Alice (Lisa Wilcox) now dating Dan (Danny Hassel). Alice starts having dreams where she's in a mental asylum, first witnessing a nun named Amanda Krueger (Beatrice Boepple) getting attacked by the patients, then seeing her give birth to a deformed baby, who then finds Freddy's remains and grows into his adult form. She tries to warn Dan of his return, but he falls asleep on his way to her and is killed by Krueger. Shortly after hearing the news of Dan's death, she learns that she's pregnant with his child, a child that Freddy can somehow use to get to her friends. Will they be able to stop him before he takes total possession of the child?

"The Dream Child" is another entry that's on the weaker side of the spectrum for the franchise. It utilizes a more intriguing scenario that has Krueger using a child to get at his victims, but it's still executed in a somewhat bland & repetitive manner. However, it does at least try to be a little more creative when it comes to the kills this time around, with deaths that include motorcycle possession and another that's comic book-inspired.

That said, the plot still leaves quite a lot to be desired, what with its nonsensical resurrection of Freddy near its start (though it doesn't come close to the silliness of being revived by flaming dog urine in the previous film) and his lazily-written "defeat" at the end. In the end, it's fair to say that it's a tiny step up from "The Dream Master" in terms of giving the audience a more interesting set-up and better nightmares, but it ultimately still finds itself down near the bottom of the stack when it comes to ranking these films overall.

"Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare" starts fresh about ten years later, when all but one of the children of Springwood, Ohio have been killed by Freddy. The survivor, John Doe (Shon Greenblatt) tries to escape, but ends up facing Freddy in a dream, after which he ends up outside of Springwood with no memory of who he is. He is picked up by police and taken to a shelter for troubled youth where he meets Dr. Maggie Burroughs (Lisa Zane) and three residents, Carlos (Ricky Dean Logan), Spencer (Breckin Meyer), and Tracy (Lezlie Deane), who are planning to run away to California together.

After Maggie notices a newspaper clipping about Springwood in John's possession, she decides to take him there in an attempt to overcome his amnesia, with the other three teens secretly stowing away with them as well. She tries to send them home, but they soon find themselves trapped in Springwood. Meanwhile, as Maggie & John delve deeper into the town's mystery, they discover that there is more to Freddy's legacy than original thought. Will they be able to put all the pieces together and finally defeat the dream demon once and for all?

As you can tell from the title, this was the studio's attempt to put the final nail in Freddy's coffin and end the franchise for good, a prospect that was not altogether surprising given the somewhat poor box office performance of the previous film. With that notion in mind, instead of plowing ahead and just lining up more victims for Freddy to kill before trying to finish him off, they made the intriguing decision to dive backwards into a bit of his backstory as well. Granted, they don't get very far with it, but giving Freddy a kid and at least trying to explain where his dream powers came from was an interesting touch.

That said, it's always felt a little rushed & half-baked when it comes to trying to develop this aforementioned backstory. These films are pretty short, so there's not a lot of time to explain any of it, meaning that the audience basically has to take it as given (i.e. there are these random dream demons that gave him his power, and that's how he's been doing this all along). Still, it is more engaging that the previous two entries, showing that the franchise at least went up a couple of notches before it was meant to end originally. After all, this is where they meant to truly kill off their beloved horror icon for good, which even comes with a nice nod to the original film. With Freddy's total destruction, surely there was no way they could possibly bring him back after that, right? Little did fans know that New Line and Freddy's original creator had something up their sleeves that would keep things rolling in a rather unexpected way.

Finally, we come to "Wes Craven's New Nightmare," where we follow actress Heather Langenkamp (as herself), her husband Chase (David Newsom), and their son Dylan (Miko Hughes). Heather has a nightmare in which she sees her family get attacked on the set of a new "Nightmare" film, only to wake up to an earthquake, many of which have been happening recently. After doing an interview with Robert Englund (as himself) for the original film's tenth anniversary, she is asked to stop by the studio and meet with producer Robert Shaye (as himself), who asks her about reprising her role as Nancy for a new film that Wes Craven (as himself) is working on.

Meanwhile, Dylan starts having sleep problems that have him sleepwalking and needing protection from Freddy, problems that are only made worse when Chase becomes a victim of the dream demon. Nancy decides to visit Wes, who has been having nightmares too. He also explains how the "Nightmare" films had been keeping Freddy trapped, but now that they've ended, he's been set free and allowed to focus on his main adversary, Heather. In order to stop him, she must take on the role of Nancy once again, but will it be enough to save her son?

In 1994, original "Nightmare" creator Wes Craven returned to give us not only a rebirth of his creation, but one that did it in a rather unique & surprising way. Instead of giving us another nonsensical resurrection of Freddy, he takes a fully-meta route and sets his story in the real world, where the "Nightmare" films are just that and nothing more... but what if they're not? What if Freddy is something very real that has only been contained up until now because of the incredibly popular franchise?

It's quite an intriguing concept that Craven uses to build his story around, having Heather and others (Englund, Shaye, John Saxon, and himself) play themselves as though one of these films is happening in real life. It was a brilliant spark of creativity that allowed them not only to bring back the beloved horror icon for one more film, but also inject it with a fair amount of freshness that gave Freddy a little more to do than just killing teens that are conveniently lined up for him. Because of that, the series was able to go out on quite a high note, delivering what is arguably the best sequel of the lot, one that even critics ultimately couldn't deny was a high mark for the beloved franchise.

Video/Audio:

All seven "Nightmare" films in this set come to 4K in 1.85:1, 2160p Ultra High Definition transfers of outstanding quality. The entire series has been cleaned up beautifully, perfectly highlighting its nightmarish imagery & gruesome kills. As with a lot of horror flicks, there are a multitude of dark scenes throughout the franchise, but the picture always remains perfectly sharp & clear throughout the duration of each film. Likewise, the Dolby Atmos-TrueHD audio tracks are fantastic, giving you all of the dialogue, sound effects, and music in excellent quality. Overall, Warner Bros. has done a marvelous job in both areas for this incredible set.

Special Features:

A Nightmare on Elm Street

Commentary with Wes Craven, Robert Englund, Heather Langenkamp, Ronee Blakley, Robert Shaye, and Sara Risher

Commentary with Wes Craven, Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, and Jacques Haitkin

Ready Freddy Focus Points (18 Minutes)

Alternate Endings – Scary Ending, Happy Ending, Freddy Ending (5 Minutes)

The House that Freddy Built: The Legacy of New Line Horror (22 Minutes)

Never Sleep Again: The Making of A Nightmare on Elm Street (50 Minutes)

Night Terrors: The Origins of Wes Craven’s Nightmares (16 Minutes)

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge

Freddy on 8th Street (6 Minutes)

Heroes and Villains (6 Minutes)

The Male Witch (3 Minutes)

Psychosexual Circus (4 Minutes)

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors

Behind the Story: Burn Out (4 Minutes)

Behind the Story: Fan Mail (1 Minute)

Behind the Story: The House that Freddy Built (1 Minute)

Behind the Story: Onward Christian Soldiers (9 Minutes)

Behind the Story: Snakes and Ladders (6 Minutes)

Behind the Story: That’s Showbiz (2 Minutes)

Behind the Story: Trading 8’s (4 Minutes)

Dokken Dream Warriors Music Video (5 Minutes)

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master

The Finnish Line (2 Minutes)

Krueger, Freddy Krueger (8 Minutes)

Hopeless Chest (4 Minutes)

Let’s Makeup (2 Minutes)

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child

Behind the Story: Womb Raiders (6 Minutes)

Behind the Story: The Sticky Floor (6 Minutes)

Behind the Story: Take the Stairs (1 Minute)

Behind the Story: Hopkins Directs (1 Minute)

Behind the Story: A Slight Miscalculation (1 Minute)

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

86’D (2 Minutes)

Hellraiser (1 Minute)

Rachel’s Dream (3 Minutes)

3D Demise (2 Minutes)

Wes Craven's New Nightmare

Commentary with Wes Craven

Boiler Room Confessional (8 Minutes) (New)

Freddy’s Footnotes (8 Minutes) (New)

Becoming a Filmmaker (8 Minutes)

Filmmaker (5 Minutes)

An Insane Troupe (1 Minute)

The Problem with Sequels (2 Minutes)

Two Worlds (2 Minutes)

Welcome to Prime Time: It Really Happened (3 Minutes)

Welcome to Prime Time: A Childhood Memory (3 Minutes)

Welcome to Prime Time: Sometime in the Early 80s (26 Seconds)

Welcome to Prime Time: So It Began (5 Minutes)

Welcome to Prime Time: Beauty and the Beast (9 Minutes)

Welcome to Prime Time: Making the Glove (1 Minute)

Welcome to Prime Time: Shapeshifter (10 Minutes)

Welcome to Prime Time: The Shoot (7 Minutes)

Welcome to Prime Time: The Revolving Room (2 Minutes)

Welcome to Prime Time: All’s Well that Ends Well (4 Minutes)

Welcome to Prime Time: Talalay’s Tally (2 Minutes)

Welcome to Prime Time: It Couldn’t Have Happened (2 Minutes)

Welcome to Prime Time: Alternate Ending Version (2 Minutes)

Conclusion: Where Gothic Plots Come From (2 Minutes)

Conclusion: Why We Like Gothic (2 Minutes)

Conclusion: Sadomasochism (1 Minute)

Conclusion: Freddy vs. Pinhead (3 Minutes)

Conclusion: Freddy’s Manic Energy (2 Minutes)

Conclusion: Creating Lasting Characters in Horror (2 Minutes)

Conclusion: No More Magic Tricks (2 Minutes)

Conclusion: Monster with Personality (1 Minute)

Conclusion: Freddy as Sex Machine (2 Minutes)

Conclusion: Campfire Stories (2 Minutes)

As you can see, the set comes with a plethora of extras, primarily consisting of interviews with the cast & crew, as well as behind the scenes looks at the making of the films. Some of them have a lot more than others, with the bulk unsurprisingly being on 1, 3, and 7, but taken altogether, it's a fantastic collection of material that is certain to please any fan of the franchise.

Conclusion:

The "A Nightmare on Elm Street 7-Film Collection" may contain a mix of entries that range across the board, with three being quite good, two being somewhat middling, and two on the lower end, but it remains an absolutely marvelous set that features each film in stunning 4K quality, with plenty of behind the scenes special features to satisfy even the most die-hard fan, ultimately making this one that they, and all other horror-lovers out there, should most definitely add to their personal collection.

Score: 4/5

Now available on 4K.

Follow me on Twitter @BeckFilmCritic.