A Nightmare on Elm Street Collection

This boxed set presents all seven original A Nightmare on Elm Street films on Blu-ray (previously only the first three were available in high-def). In the 1984 contemporary classic opener A Nightmare on Elm Street, written and directed by Wes Craven, Robert Englund (under layers of latex sculpted to resemble burned flesh) dominates the film as Freddy Krueger, the deceased child-killer who returns from the dead as a demon and delivers one-liners while he murders teens in their dreams. Englund was the only member of the first Nightmare to appear in the others, all of which took the same idea in different and often interesting directions, thanks to an array of talented directors (including Renny Harlin, Chuck Russell, and Stephen Hopkins) and screenwriters (including Brian Helgeland and Bruce Wagner), pushing the concept into a realm between the surreal and cyberpunk in the second through sixth films, subtitled Freddy's Revenge (1985), Dream Warriors (1987), The Dream Master (1988), The Dream Child (1989), and Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991). Creator Craven then returned to write and direct Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994), which re-imagines the entire series as a meta-movie years before Scream. Taken as a whole, this is the most creative and adventurous horror franchise of the slasher-movie era, one that also turned Freddy Krueger into the most perverse screen icon of his day. Along with the audio commentaries and behind-the-scenes featurettes from previous releases, this set presents a new retrospective documentary and two episodes from the Freddy's Nightmares 1988-90 TV spin-off series. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)