A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) is a horror classic. A very good movie, but the ending always hurt it in my opinion.

Submitted by Any-Satisfaction-770 t3_yhi66r in movies

Crave had A Nightmare on Elm Street on the streaming service so I decided to give it a watch since I hadn't seen it in a few years. The film has an eerie tone and is paced very well. I like basically everything about the film until the ending. The "it was all a dream" trope was tired back then and throwing this clusterfuck conclusion kind of hurt what was already a genuinely good movie.

Regardless it's a horror classic and watching it this close to Halloween just felt right. Most horror films are left to the dustbin of history from that era, but this one stands out.

Happy Halloween. Sleep tight.

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MovieMike007 t1_iudvmsd wrote

Wes Craven hated this ending, in which Nancy's mother is pulled back into the house and he has always maintained that the film should have had the happy ending he originally wrote.

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habrasangre t1_iudym6g wrote

This is the ending where it looks like a blowup doll being pulled through the window? haha, yeah not the best

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Island_Maximum t1_iue7rdo wrote

I don't know lol, I kind of love this scene.

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Trainwreck1000 t1_iueyg3n wrote

Yeah, I agree. It’s just freaky as hell seeing her sucked through the door like that.

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Island_Maximum t1_iufbrdb wrote

The fakeness of it actually adds to the surrealism.

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habrasangre t1_iufwqhs wrote

That's a good point, an uncanny valley sort of thing. Dreamlike

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JGT3000 t1_iue20ht wrote

I literally don't understand how you're supposed to understand the ending. She's still dreaming? Was it the mother's dream at the end, shared dreamworld?

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JackTheSpaceBoy t1_iuf10ez wrote

That's the whole point. It doesn't make sense, like a dream.

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JGT3000 t1_iuk7k38 wrote

I do get that. Until this rewatch I had always thought was the case. But to me the heart of the movie is the reveal of just who Freddie Krueger is and what happened to him.

But now on rewatch, is that even the case? All that was in the dream too. Are all his victims and murderers stuck in his world now where he endlessly tortures them?

Idk, with the added burden of the ambiguity of the end, a lot of what I thought worked well on my initial watch didn't hold up

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LeeF1179 t1_iudxsy6 wrote

But it didn't end with it was all a dream. It ended with Nancy, Tina, et al all being locked in Glenn's car. I liked the open ending.

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SouthTippBass t1_iuewrh5 wrote

I wouldn't change a frame. That said, that whole scene was shot just as a hook for the sequel, a sequel that Craven never intended. If it feels out of place, it's because it is.

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monster_syndrome t1_iuf0c53 wrote

I've always found the "you don't have any power over me" portion of the ending to be a little lackluster. That's always been the appeal of Freddy as a monster, dreams are uncontrollable and you're just along for the ride. Your mind can terrify you while you sleep for no apparent reason, and all you can do is wake up in the morning and shake it off. The Nietzsche quote at the start should be the ending tone for flavor continuity, and that's something I like about the car and kids - the ground falls away.

The ending might be a little heavy handed, but something leading us to believe Freddy is still lurking on Elm Street would have been a sweet spot.

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cheetofacesucks t1_iug3rjx wrote

Most horror movies end in a disappointment. The “hero” kills the bad guy at the end of the movie only for something to happen at the very end to show that the bad guy is still alive. Basically meaning the last 2 hours was a waste of time.

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drawkbox t1_iuht4z9 wrote

On "The Movies That Made Us" A Nightmare On Elm Street episode, they talk about how the producer put in scenes that Wes Craven didn't want. A few are the blowup doll/mom being ripped through the window, the gooey stairs and the bed scene at the end I think.

The documentary is amazing and shows just how random and amazing that the movie even got made.

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grjjr91 t1_iufwpqy wrote

I didnt like the ending either. It was too sequel bait heavy.

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BigMartinJol t1_iue22ff wrote

I've seen the first one about five or six times, and somehow I always manage to forget the ending. Every time I watch it I'm surprised by a) the sheer shock of what happens and b) how ropey the effects look when the mum gets pulled through the door.

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Explosean9 t1_iuhdhap wrote

I never had too much of a problem with the ending until I was older. Then started to like it less because of how dumb/ridiculous/nonsensical it is. But now I just think of it in the same regards as the endings to the first couple of Friday The 13th movies. That the endings are supposed to be exactly that haha, and just for one last scare/freakout.

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mindpieces t1_iudvxv0 wrote

I think if it was the only NOES movie it would be an underwhelming ending, but it works for me since we get to see Freddy killed in much cooler ways later in the franchise (parts 3-5 especially).

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dinkelidunkelidoja t1_iuid7va wrote

Aside from the poor execution of the ending, with the doll, I think the ambiguity of it was pretty good.

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Fishtank-Brain t1_iuesrlk wrote

what pisses me off about the series is how it never explores how marijuana prevents people from dreaming. that’s scientific. marijuana reduces rem sleep in favor of deep sleep

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FantasticAnalysis163 t1_iugn5o3 wrote

A Nightmare on Cheech and Chong Street

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Fishtank-Brain t1_iugvful wrote

i mean they had a stoner in freddy vs jason but no mention of weed preventing dreams.

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mcdrunkin t1_iugz1y4 wrote

As a long-term user it doesn't prevent dreams. It suppresses them. I still dream every night but not vivid or often even memorable.

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Fishtank-Brain t1_iugzps2 wrote

marijuana definitely helps you skip rem sleep for deep sleep. i dream occasionally but not often

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