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.

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).

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.

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

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?

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.

I thought that ending was epic (minus the bad dummy)

Or was it Freddy’s car??

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

Yeah it is haha. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4AhTjaaDJE&ab_channel=Where%27sTheJump%3F

at 1:20 I love it too. I was born in 81 and for some reason my dad let me see all these. I loved them for some reason. Classic

I like the bad dummy.

Yes, it had Freddy's red and grey-green stripe pattern on the roof.

it wasn't Freddy's car, the car was Freddy

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

Touché…!

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.

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

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.

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

The fakeness of it actually adds to the surrealism.

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

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

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.

A Nightmare on Cheech and Chong Street

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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