BSA 204 W9 : A Nightmare on Elm Street, Lucid Dreaming and Sleep Paralysis

I watched the movie A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) written and directed by Wes Craven.

This is a classic that I have never seen and when I saw some pretty ridiculous clips from some of the sequels I decided it was time to give the films a gander. What attracted me was the crazy dream stuff and creative special effects, but that isn't all too present in the first film. Where the others seem to get crazy the initial installment's virtues lie in its writing and concept.


What a great poster. What a great tagline.

What a great idea. The best thing about this film is it's log-line, collectively a group of teenagers start having nightmares where they are chased by a demented psychopath, only problem is once they die in the dream they die in real life.

I don't think I went into this movie with the exact mindset I'm supposed to. I wanted a fun, gory and ridiculous horror movie, I got a much tamer and tightly written film with a few too many unexplained plot points.

I considered saying "tamer and tightly written thriller" there for a moment, but I think in a thriller the audience knows the stakes, what the hero must do and what time limit the heroes have to accomplish that goal. A thriller is all about tension, a horror film is all about disturbing the audience. Elm Street is definitely in that second category, but I feel like it could have benefited a lot from borrowing a few more elements from the first.

The best things about Elm Street are the some of the horror scenes, especially when the dreams start affecting reality. Top scene in my book was the first kill, where we see the screaming girl being mutilated and thrown around the room by an invisible assailant. This type of supernatural horror is visually wonderful and just straight up creepy.

In general the film does great with its visuals, even if they are oftentimes cheap and fake looking. The film takes the dream aspect to some very interesting places and the monster has very cool ways of twisting and transforming. This is the type of horror that IT (2018) recently revived and it's clear why it was popular in the first place.

That classic shot

The movie is also very efficient, it works amazingly well as a feature and plays its cards neatly. A horror that directly affects the heroes everyday life is also a great idea, not being able to sleep is almost as terrifying of a thought as the nightmares. It's a very compelling set-up.

The problems I have with the movie are more concerned with how elements of the plot are never really explored or explained. How does Freddy and the dreams work exactly? We never really find out, and while this could potentially add to the horror he does eventually get tricked into the real world and it would have been nice to know how or why. It would have benefited from more securely thought out rules as those seen in something like Inception. There is a lot of research into dreams, lucid dreaming and sleep paralysis on the web and the way we work in the subconscious state is infinitely interesting, would have been nice to see some of these things incorporated.

The characters at points also needed more concrete goals, watching the film and seeing dream after dream unfold left me cold and disengaged at points. I felt that if the characters were working harder to combat the evil or to figure out how to escape these nightmares then it would have been more engaging.

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I did have an idea while watching the film though, and I think its an idea that rolls a lot of what I've recently experienced, seen and thought about into one:

A man suffering from sleep-paralysis induced insomnia is tutored by a woman self-practiced in lucid dreaming, things only get worse when he starts traversing his night terrors.

I feel that this might be another idea with a few too many layers to explain, but to me it makes perfect and instant sense, so just hope its more universal than I Saw Hell.

This sleeping is the door to horror type set-up is something I am very fond of and would love to explore, incorporating sleep-paralysis, lucid dreaming and rules of the subconscious is very enticing for me. The story would see the man start being able to control himself during his sleep-paralysis sessions, where figures dressed in shadow often crowd around his bed and observe him. Almost like something like Insidious the subconscious in this story will be the gateway to another dimension, a way to step out of ones' body.

Sleep paralysis is one of those unexplained and just terrifying things to me and I would love to see it properly explored in a movie or show. The idea of being able to actually walk around while these shadow entities are present is both a great mystery and a great fear. This and the incorporation of dream state rules are the two sides of horror and thriller that I would like to see executed in equal measure.

The two characters are also immediately different and there is lots of space for chemistry and conflict.