A Nightmare On Elm Street
New York Daily News (November 9, 1984)
The movie that kicked off one of the most iconic franchise in horror film history premiered in theaters forty years ago today. It was initially given a limited release to theaters mostly in New York, New Jersey, and California before rolling out nationwide one week later.
I was four years old when A Nightmare On Elm Street was released, so I didn't have a chance to see this at the cinema during its initial run, however I was able to see it projected from 35mm on the big screen in 2021 and 2022 thanks to the Mahoning Drive-In Theater.
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| The Star Ledger - Newark, NJ (November 9, 1984) |
Here are a couple of newspaper reviews from the day that it was released. William Wolf's review is about as predictable and cliched as they come from a time when critics didn't have the faintest understanding of the horror genre and whose opinions are about as far from the audience as you can get without deliberately trying to be contrary. Richard Freedman is far more fair to the film, but you have to chuckle at his closing line that the collective nightmare subgenre has "breathed its last". Keep dreaming bud.
