A Nightmare on Elm Street: Infinifilm Edition
Directed By: Wes Craven
Studio: New Line
Year: 2006
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 (Anamorphic)
Running Time: 1 Hr. 32 Mins.
Rating: R
Audio: 6.1 DTS ES Discrete (English), 5.1 Dolby Digital EX (English), 2.0 Dolby Digital (English)
Subtitles: English
MSRP: $26.99
Street Date: 26 September, 2006
Review Date: 19 September, 2006
(Ratings are out of five stars)
Summary
It’s hard to review this film and stay unbiased. I’m a big Craven fan, and more specifically a big Nightmare on Elm Street fan. Of the big 70s/80s franchises, it ranks second behind the monolith that is John Carpenter’s Halloween. Wes Craven started out with early 70s exploitation films Last House on the Left and The Hills Have Eyes. Eyes represented a large growth in Craven’s filmmaking prowess, but both were still extremely raw and independently made. Craven made a few small films after Hills, but Nightmare was his big breakthrough and entry into the studio system.
What Craven brought that many other horror films at the time shied away from was a fantasy element. Watching the movie in a new historical context, I can see a lot of modern Japanese horror in Craven’s film. Craven refuses to over-rely on coherent plot instead focusing on tone and atmosphere. While other slashers tended to plant their feet firmly in reality (camp settings, escape murderers, etc), Nightmare just went straight for the classic ghost story. In that way it’s also a strong precursor of Clive Barker’s Hellraiser. Aside from the J-Horror flicks, you still don’t see too many horror movies today that go for the fantasy slant.
Craven’s directorial style grew immensely between Last House/Hills and Nightmare. On one hand, Nightmare lacks the documentary style of his earlier films, but as a result it appears much more professionally made. Lighting and cinematography are both excellent, especially during the dream sequences. The style necessary to pull off the fantasy is infinitely more demanding than in Craven’s earlier films, and Craven really pulls it off effectively. Heather Langenkamp plays the female survivor as well as anyone (well, aside from her majesty, Jamie Lee Curtis) and the young Johnny Depp shines as Heather’s boyfriend. The supporting cast is solid (especially the underrated John Saxon). I won’t bore you with any more details. If you’re reading this review, you already know that this is one of the elite modern horror films.
Film Rating:
Video
On to the big questions, how much better does this DVD look than the first? It definitely looks better. How much is really in the eye of the beholder, but the new transfer is visibly cleaner than the old one. Colors appeared a little more saturated overall (though I did notices some scenes that looked a little darker) and noise was reduced. Shadow detail is very good with accurate blue lighting (almost reminiscent of Halloween). I’m not sure if the transfer makes this DVD worth the upgrade, but it’s definitely an improvement over an already good transfer. Fans will be happy with this edition.
Video Rating:
Audio
The audio is more negligible. The new DVD features all new 5.1 and 6.1 mixes, but neither track is that much of an improvement over the original remix. Dialog is pretty clear with a good deal of noise coming out of the rear and LFE channels. It still sounds like a film made in 1984 though. I’m not too much of a purist, but the DVD does feature the original mono track for those of you who are. I’m pretty sure that was on the original release as well.
Audio Rating:
Extras
Commentaries - The original commentary from first DVD (which, I believe was ported from the Elite laserdisc) is also featured on the new DVD. It’s another solid track worth a listen if you have the time. In addition to the original commentary, there’s a new commentary with Craven and other members of the cast/crew. Craven is always a very interesting guy, and isn’t too redundant with his previous commentary. He goes into a little more detail on the writing of the film (character analysis, etc) on this track. This is another great commentary.
The House That Freddy Built: The Legacy of New Line Horror (22:47) – As the title tells it, this short documentary focuses on the rise of New Line Studios and the role that Nightmare played in it. I’m a big New Line fan, so this was a pretty interesting documentary.
Night Terrors: The Origins of Wes Craven’s Nightmares (15:55) – This interesting extra focuses on the nature of dreams. It features a good deal of interviews with people both in and out of the film industry. A good addition to the new DVD.
Alternate Endings – This DVD features three different endings and the ability to watch them separately or all at once with the Play All feature. They’re all pretty short, and pretty boring. Nothing very interesting, but I’m glad they were included.
Never Sleep Again: The Making of A Nightmare on Elm Street (49:52) – This documentary is broken up into seven separate sections, but you can watch them all together via the Play All feature. This is the meatiest section of the new extras. It’s a pretty standard behind the scenes doc, with many interviews and details on the making of the film. Unless I’m mis-remembering, I can’t think of any major documentaries on Nightmare, so this is definitely worth a watch.
Freddy’s Coming For You Trivial Challenge – Pretty self-explanitory, you answer the questions before the time runs out…or Freddy kills you
The DVD also features the original Theatrical Trailer for A Nightmare on Elm Street.
Extras Rating:
In Closing…
I wouldn’t have ever said that A Nightmare on Elm Street was crying out for a re-release, but New Line has done a great job providing us with enough new material to justify a double-dip. The transfer is noticeably cleaned up, and the extras are substantially better than the previous release. I’m still trying to hunt down the old Elite Laserdisc for my personal collection, but this is as definitive as we can get for now. I’m still not sure I like the organization of things on New Line’s Infinifilm releases, but apart from that, this is a great DVD. Horror fans and film fans alike should definitely pick this one up.
Overall Rating:
Matt Stone
26 September, 2006
