A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET at the ‘Reel Late at the Tivoli’ Midnight Series this Weekend

Of all the ’80s slasher films, a group  crowded with all sorts of efforts, Wes Craven’s A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET still reigns supreme as one of the more imaginative of the entire bunch. Nightmares have been fodder for many horror films over the decade, but here they’re particularly insidious and memorable. The film basically turned its producing studio, New Line Cinema, into a major player, gave a fresh breath of life into a genre that had grown stale, boosted the career of Craven, turned its scarred bogeyman Freddy Krueger into a pop culture icon (hat, red & green striped sweater, designer glove and all), made Robert Englund (as Krueger) a bona fide genre star, and provided a key early role for Johnny Depp. The impact A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET has made in about 29 years is undeniable. The story, for those out there who have lived under a rock all this time, deals with Krueger, a depraved murderer of children executed by a vengeful vigilante mob who lives on in the nightmares of the mob members’ children. Resourceful, feisty young Nancy (appealing Heather Langenkamp) realizes it’s up to her to combat Freddy – on his own terms – before he can continue to claim victims, while her peers and the adults around her think she’s simply going insane. Many ingenious ideas here when it comes to the world of nightmares, and as this thing plays out it’s not always clear where the nightmare ends and reality begins. The boiler room is one hell of a wonderful, atmospheric, and sinister location, and that glove, with knives attached to the fingers, really is a thing of macabre beauty. The movie is fantastically gory, yet other special effects are often just as impressive; there is an undeniable appeal in seeing effects done when the digital revolution was still years away and things were accomplished practically. The cast runs a little hot and cold as some of the performances aren’t all that hot, but it’s still a decent assemblage of talent, from veterans John Saxon and Ronee Blakley, to Langenkamp, Amanda Wyss, Jsu Garcia, and Depp (in his feature debut) as the imperiled kids to character players like Charles Fleischer, Lin Shaye, and Joe Unger. Langenkamps’ Nancy is a heroine for whom you do want to root, and Englund, although it hardly needs to be said, delivers a deliciously evil performance; given how silly a character Freddy eventually became, it’s nice to see him in the days when he was still plenty scary. All in all, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET is one of the quintessential films of its genre that fans should check out at some point.

And this weekend at the Tivoli, you’ll have a chance to see A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET in all its big-screen glory when it plays midnight at the Tivoli in St. Louis as part of their Reel Late Midnight series this weekend (May 31st and June 1st)

I will be there with Freddy Kruger trivia and prizes both nights so bone up on your NOES knowledge!
Admission is only EIGHT BUCKS!

The Tivoli is located at 6350 Delmar in The Loop. Visit Landmark’s The Tivoli’s website HERE
http://www.landmarktheatres.com/market/st.louis/tivolitheatre.htm

Here’s the rest of the Reel Late at the Tivoli Midnight schedule:
June 7-8 BRAZIL (European Cut)
June 14-15 CASABLANCA
June 21-22 BATMAN (1989)