The 1980s were a great decade for fedoras. Just three years after Indiana Jones’ brought them back into style, Freddy Krueger paired his with a stripey jumper and pointy gloves, as Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street reinvigorated the slasher genre.
This 1984 classic follows the young residents of Springwood, Ohio, who are tormented in their dreams by the spirit of Krueger (Robert Englund), a child killer who was burned alive. This wouldn’t be Freddy’s first and only murder spree, as over the next decade, he starred in six slashtastic sequels.
All seven original Elm Street movies (let’s not talk about the remake) are now available on 4K UHD in a new box set. It’s a great opportunity to be reminded why the original was so great, and to revisit, or experience for the first time, the various follow-ups. While there are some inevitable diminishing returns – with films five and six being the series’ low points – there is something to appreciate in each movie, and the run ends on a high as the original writer-director returns for the marvellously meta Wes Craven’s New Nightmare.
There are two versions of the box set available – a limited-edition steelbook set, which includes both 4K UHD and Blu-ray discs, and a standard-edition version which just includes the 4Ks. The films look excellent in these new restorations; the details are sharp and the colours are vivid, and mercifully they haven’t gone over the top with grain reduction. There’s even a pair of retro-style blue and red anaglyph glasses included for the 3D bit in Freddy’s Dead!
The discs include all the extras from the previous Blu-ray editions, and two new featurettes of eight minutes each. These include new interviews with Robert Englund, as well as director Jack Sholder, writer/director Chuck Russell, and cinematographer Mark Irwin. It’s a small amount of new material for what’s otherwise an impressive set, but they do offer some interesting insights.
