A Nightmare On Elm Street 4K 7-Film Collection (1984 - 1994/New Line/Warner 4K Blu-ray Set)

Picture: A- Sound: B Extras: B Films: B+/C/B/C+/C/C/B

Freddy Krueger is undeniably one of the most famous faces in horror cinema and now all seven of the original Nightmare on Elm Street films, which means no Freddy vs. Jason or the remake (that most of us would like to forget about,) are now on 4K UHD disc in a collectible set.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Wes Craven's classic A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) is a hugely important film in horror film history (and '80s pop culture) that spawned a hugely successful franchise that's beloved and still highly relevant today.

The only disappointing aspect of this release is that there's nothing new in terms of extras, with the only incentive aside from the 4K presentation being eight seconds of uncut gore not available in previous releases. It's certainly curious why these deleted elements are finally being made available now after the countless times this film has been on home video the past four decades, but the novice fan will barely notice them.

The classic film stars Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Amanda Wyss, Jsu Garcia, and Johnny Depp in his first feature length film role.

Teenager Nancy Thompson (Langenkamp) witnesses the brutal murder of her close friend at an overnight sleepover and at first it seems that her boyfriend is to blame, but Nancy soon discovers the culprit is a terrifying demonic madman named Freddy Krueger, who kills teenagers in their nightmares and has an unusual connection to the parents of the kids of Elm Street. As her friends start to drop off under the iron fingered claws of the mind bending madman, Nancy will stop at nothing to defeat Freddy before she herself becomes his next victim.

If you are a fan of the Insidious franchise then you can will notice a young Lin Shaye as the teacher in Nancy's classroom. (Of course her brother was the head of New Line Cinema so her cameo here makes sense.) Star Heather Langenkamp remains perfect as Nancy and fans will take note that she returned to franchise twice, as Nancy again in the third installment, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987), and as herself in Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994). Johnny Depp also humorously returned for a quick cameo in Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991) in which you see him in a drug awareness commercial on TV.

If you're new to the Elm Street series, this original film sets everything in motion and features a scarier version of Freddy than subsequent sequels. By the time you get to the sixth film in the original series franchise, Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, you see the character become a lot more humorous and cartoon-like in comparison. That matches the title, which is also that of the big hit song by Curtis Mayfield for the blaxploitation classic Superfly (another Warner Bros. film, reviewed elsewhere on this site.) This original film represents both Craven's dark independent vibe mixed with his more main stream sensibilities in what is arguably his most commercial film before Scream (1996).

Of course, Freddy went back to his evil roots with the underrated Wes Craven's New Nightmare, and of course finally went up against Jason Voorhees in Freddy Vs. Jason (2003) in much later years, but Freddy remains an important horror icon 40 years later and that's saying something due to the over saturation of the horror film market. Only one time did the studio try to recast Freddy in the disastrous 2010 film (see our review at the end of this one) with Jackie Earle Hayley in the role, and that was met with nothing but hatred from fans. As of this writing, it's unknown what the future holds for the horror icon, but if he's put to sleep with what has been accomplished thus far then we still have this original classic film and the third entry, Dream Warriors (1987), to highlight him at his best.

So what was cut out of this film anyway? (SPOILERS) The sequence where Tina (Amanda Wyss) is talking to Nancy in the school hallway, you see the cutaway of snakes slithering from her dress. Also Glen's death scene in the bed is a tad longer than in the original version with a longer fountain of blood spewing from the bed. That's it. I suppose these added few minutes of gore were a bit much for the censors at the time.

A Nightmare on Elm Street has been remastered in 4K from original source materials for this new release with the best looking scan of any previous version of the film. Having owned this film on every format going back to VHS, I immediately saw a huge difference in the image with this release, with much sharper looks at all of the characters and more texture and detail than in the previous cuts in lesser definition. S ome of the night sequences have been color-timed a bit darker, which help sells some of the aging visual effects at certain moments. Overall, it's incredible how much more detail there is on characters and you can see more grisly detail in Freddy's make-up here especially which adds to the experience.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985)

Freddy breaks into reality from the dream realm through the body of a teenage boy (Mark Patton) in the second installment in the franchise. From Jack Sholder (Wishmaster 2), the film features the most gruesome looking Freddy and several memorable kills and iconic moments. Famously, there are a few homosexual undertones which are addressed in an unofficial documentary (not included on this release) entitled Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street (2019) which was no doubt a controversial decision at the time. This sequel also chose not to include any characters from the first film, but instead have a new family move into Freddy's house. The end result is an interesting sequel that spins the narrative of the original in an interesting way that makes it stand out from the rest of the Freddy sequels.

The film stars Robert Englund as Freddy, Mark Patton, Kim Myers, Robert Rusler, and Hope Lange.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)

The strongest sequel of the bunch and a lot of star power before and behind the camera, Chuck Russell's Dream Warriors is a perfect '80s horror movie in my opinion. The special effects are top notch, the script (with Wes Craven and Frank Darabont as co-writers) is killer, and Freddy is at its most creative and sinister. Bringing back Heather Langenkamp and John Saxon from the first film no doubt helped shape the film as well as future stars Patricia Arquette and Lawrence Fishburne.

I can't give this film enough praise as it is one of my absolute favorites and has no many awesome special effects moments. The infamous TV kill, the Freddy worm, Freddy's puppeteering a boy to this death, and of course the stop motion animated skeleton of Freddy in the film’s final act. Bonus points of course for Dokken's Dream Warriors song.

The film stars Robert Englund as Freddy, Patricia Arquette, Rodney Eastman, Laurence Fishburne, Craig Wasson, Ken Sagoes, Jennifer Rubin, Ira Heiden, and John Saxon to name a few.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)

Directed by Renny Harlin, The Dream Master had to recast its main character due to Patricia Arquette rising in fame, which honestly does hurt the film a little. Not to say that Tuesday Knight isn't a fine actress in her own right that maybe didn't get the break she needed to advance in Hollywood, but since every other character in the film brought back its original cast members it does hurt continuity a little bit in hindsight. Still The Dream Master is a fine entry in the Elm Street saga that continues the storyline that started in Dream Warriors and introduces the character of Alice (Lisa Wilcox) who becomes the final girl. The film has many memorable special effects moments including one teen getting turned into a bug, the hilarious pizza parlor scene, and the sinister death of the character of Cincaid (Ken Sagoes) in a scrapyard.

The film stars Robert Englund as Freddy, Rodney Eastman, Lisa Wilcox, Tuesday Knight, and Danny Hassel to name a few.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: Dream Child (1989)

Dream Child is presented on 4K UHD in both its uncut and theatrical versions

In Dream Child, survivors of the previous film including the heroine Alice (Lisa Wilcox) must face Freddy again when he returns with a sinister plan to impregnate Alice. Featuring some innovate special effects for the time including a brutal feeding scene and a scene where a boy fuses with a motorcycle, the film doesn't shy away from the violence even if it has a slightly more comedic touch. Director Stephen Hopkins went on to make films like Predator 2 and 1998's Lost in Space, but made his mark with this picture. The film doesn't shy away from hellish visuals including the rape of Freddy's mother, but it also makes Freddy a bit more of a sinister jokester than in prior installments.

The uncut version, previously only available on VHS, does show more carnage particularly in the two sequences listed above.

The film stars Robert Englund as Freddy, Lisa Wilcox, Danny Hassel, Joe Seely, Kelly Jo Minter, and Beatrice Boepple to name a few.

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare is the silliest of the bunch where at this point Freddy is basically a demonic cartoon character. There are some high points in this entry, however, a kill that takes place inside a comic book, an Alice Cooper cameo, and a fun 3D sequence (older-type 3D glasses are included with this release). The 3D sequence has been available on home video since the first DVD release and looks better here with more picture clarity.

The film stars Robert Englund as Freddy, Lisa Zane, Lezlie Deane, Shon Greenblatt, Yaphet Kotto, and a cameo by Johnny Depp.

Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)

A return to form for the franchise is Wes Craven's New Nightmare which makes the series scary again. Wes Craven made himself a character as well as Heather Langenkamp and Robert Englund as Freddy jumps off the screen and into real life and threatens his creators and co-stars. New Nightmare definitely takes a more serious path with the Freddy character as opposed to the prior three entries. New Nightmare is a satisfying conclusion to the Elm Street saga that showcases Wes Craven's creativity and that of the talented artists involved behind the scenes.

The film stars Robert Englund as Freddy and as himself, Wes Craven, Heather Langenkamp, Miko Hughes, Tracy Middendorf, and John Saxon.

Now for playback performance. A Nightmare on Elm Street 4K and its sequels are presented in 2160p on 4K UHD disc with HDR10, an HEVC / H.265 codec, a widescreen aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and remastered audio tracks in a lossless English Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mixdown for older systems) 48kHz, 24-bit upgrade for this new release and original theatrical monophonic sound in an English DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mix. The studio didn't skimp out when it came to showcasing the film at its best here with three solid sound mixes to choose from that revamp the classic audio mix and make it anew. Overall, the films seem to be colored a lot darker than previous releases which helps give it a more updated and contrast heavy look.

Special Features for the first Nightmare on Elm Street film include:

R-rated and Unrated cuts of Parts 1 and 5

Archival Ready Freddy Focus Points

Archival Commentaries

Alternate endings

Archival The House that Freddy Built: The Legacy of New Line Horror

Archival Never Sleep Again: A Nightmare on Elm Street

and Archival Night Terrors: The Origins of Wes Craven's Nightmares.

All of the other films in the franchise have the same extras as prior releases

3D glasses for Freddy's Dead ending sequence

Dokken ''Dream Warriors'' music video on Nightmare 3 (which has NOT been restored in 4K)

PLUS a Steelbook version (available in certain markets).

For another look at the poor remake, go to this link:

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10597/A+Nightmare+on+Elm+Street+(2010/New+Line+B

Freddy will never die thanks to this new 4K UHD edition. It is a shame that they couldn't have given us Freddy vs Jason on 4K UHD too and maybe put a little more effort into the standard edition packaging, but the discs themselves look great. Nothing new in terms of extras from previous releases.

In my opinion the ultimate Freddy collection should have included Freddy vs Jason and even the dismal remake on 4K in this set as well just for completion purposes. They should have also included Never Sleep Again, an incredible independently produced documentary and the Scream Queen! Documentary listed above. And what about the short lived Nightmare on Elm Street television series? I suggest you seek these out if you haven't seen them if you want to explore Elm Street a little more.

I remember back in the 1990s when the studios cared more about the Elm Street films and had various packaging that was really innovative for its time for the VHS and DVD releases. I remember that each side of the case came together to feature a chilling image of Freddy and a booklet came included as well. Well, that's not the case anymore sadly.

If Hollywood (particularly studios because boutique labels have no problem doing this) only took some notes from the UK markets on how to properly release physical media for collectors to clamor over, with more effort than just an impossible to find or ultra expensive steel book release, then fans would feel more inclined to buy the same movies over again on a new format.

- James Lockhart

https://letterboxd.com/jhl5films/