Transcript

Intro Clip

Glenn, answer the phone.

Intro Clip

Hello?

Intro Clip

Just a minute. It's her. She wants to talk to Glenn. About what? What's this about, Nancy?

Intro Clip

Just a minute. She says it's private. Very private and very important. Give me that. Glenn's asleep.

Intro Clip

You'll have to talk to him tomorrow. You've just got to be firm with. These kids, that's all. Let's go. As a matter of fact, Glenn, don't fall asleep.

Intro Clip

Sleep.

Intro Clip

Oh, brilliant.

Intro Clip

What if Ben tries to call?

Steve

It's 2Dad's 1 movie Shocktoberfest. A celebration of the spookiest movies of the 80s and 90s. Now here are your hosts. Scary Steve Paulo and Nightmare Nic. Briana.

Steve

Hello, everybody. It's another episode of 2Dads. One movie. I'm Steve.

Nic

And I'm Nic.

Steve

And today we are talking about the slasher horror classic A Nightmare on Elm street from 1984.

Nic

Spooky.

Steve

This is the debut episode of our Shocktoberfest experience. We're doing a theme month all October. We're gonna do scary horror theme thriller, nightmarish type movies.

Steve

And. And this is the first one. A Nightmare on Elm Street. A literal nightmare.

Nic

And this is.

Nic

This is a great way to kick it off. This is a really fun one. Well, Steve. Yeah? Why'd you.

Nic

Why'd you pick this one?

Steve

So I did not. So obviously this came out when I. We were four years old. I didn't see this movie for quite a while until, you know, it had been out for a long time.

Nic

Your parents would be in jail.

Steve

Yeah, this was. This was pretty brutal. When we talk about hard R, any of the slashers of the era would definitely earned their R ratings. This is no different.

Steve

But this was a movie I probably originally saw in high school. I was into horror as a kid. Like, I mean, my. My mom took me to see Gremlins because I begged her when I was 4. Actually, I think it was the same year this came out, actually.

Steve

I went and saw Gremlins and was terrified, but still, you know, ended up being a formative type memory. I remember watching movies like Poltergeist from a young age and, you know, the Gate and things like that. And then at some point in middle school, I think I borrowed the Amityville Horror, the book from the library and kept myself up for, like, three weeks. Couldn't sleep almost at all. And that was pretty much it at that point.

Steve

I loved horror. And so by. Yeah, by 14 or 15, I think I was like, you know, trying to go back and watch all the classic horror movies at that Point either friends houses or, you know, renting a couple of things and hiding it underneath the pile and hoping my folks don't notice or whatever. So, you know, I went back and watched a bunch of the Friday the 13th movies and Halloween and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and this and yeah, 14, 15 might have been a little young to watch A Nightmare on Elm street maybe, but that, you know, it's. I'm just.

Steve

I'm a huge horror fan now. I don't have nightmares that have anything to do with movies anymore. That was, you know, something. Nowadays my nightmares are all, you know, something horrible happens to my kids or.

Nic

Right.

Steve

You know, whenever I lose my job or some shit.

Nic

That's.

Steve

That's nightmares today. Yeah. So.

Steve

So now I can watch horror movies and be just fine. But, yeah, like, I've just, you know, there's something even more than like, the movie itself. I think any discussion of 80s 90s horror scary movies, this whole Shocktoberfest thing, this just made perfect sense to me as like, the first movie to do in this theme. Freddy Krueger is such an iconic movie monster. And these movies, obviously, you know, this spawned so many sequels and crossovers with Friday the 13th and all kinds of stuff.

Steve

And it's, you know, one of the major elements that made Wes Craven recognized as the master of horror, that he is right alongside folks like John Carpenter, you know, and others of the era. So, yeah, just real excited to chat about it because it's just one of the classics.

Nic

Yeah. And like, when I was a kid, I mean, really my whole life, I was never like a horror person for. For a long time.

Nic

So I didn't get into a lot of these until much later, I think. When I was about 10, we had rented My Aunt Let my brother and I rent Pet Cemetery, which absolutely horrified me.

Steve

That's terrifying for life.

Nic

So I was kind of like, not touching a lot of it. And then later in my teens, though, I started reading a lot of like, the Stephen King books and stuff and got into his stuff and his movies.

Nic

But when it came to like, the slasher type stuff, I kind of stayed away from that for a while. So I didn't probably see this one until college and I had seen probably scattered bits of like, the other sequels, you know, So I might have seen half a Part eight at a sleepover or whatever. But, yeah, I mean, this is just a character that you knew, you know, the imagery. It's a very common, like, Halloween costume. Everyone knows what Freddy Krueger looks like.

Nic

They know about the. The look, with the hat and the sweater and the blades on the fingers. But you don't necessarily know the backstory of, like, how he became that, what he does, which just gets so much darker. So I'm glad we got into this and like, kind of getting into the origins of this character that's been, you know, horrible and. And has haunted dreams, but also has said trick or treat in front of my house many times.

Steve

I know, right? That's the funny part is like, I think, you know, we'll get into it, obviously, but like the Freddy counting jump rope song, like, I knew that before I ever saw this movie. Obviously, kids had Freddy Krueger masks and gloves for Halloween costumes back when, you know, when we were kids. I think I even owned, you know, one of the plastic bladed sort of gloves, you know, when I was like nine. Like, you know, like, whatever.

Steve

It's like it becomes. The character becomes so much more than the movie. Yes, right. It becomes this thing that's synonymous with horror and with Halloween and with darkness and all that stuff, which is wonderful and fun. You know, not this movie is fun, per se, but it's, you know, it's definitely.

Steve

It wants to scare you. It wants to make you afraid to go to sleep at night. And I think that it certainly, at a certain age, it absolutely does that.

Nic

Yeah, sure.

Steve

Tasks, right?

Steve

Let's jump into the facts on A Nightmare on Elm Street. The movie came out on November 9, 1984, with a well earned R rating. Its running time is 91 minutes. Written and directed by the master of horror, Wes Craven, starring Heather Langenkamp, Johnny Depp in his acting debut, as far as I can tell, literally no, no credits prior to this one. And Robert England as the wonderful Freddy Krueger on rotten tomatoes, 94% fresh.

Steve

The critics loved this movie, which is not particularly surprising to me. Again, we take for granted this concept of the monster in your dreams that can actually kill you. It's been used or things like it have been done in lots of other movies. There have been. So even like Inception in those kinds of movies has root in this.

Steve

Right. This concept. But at the time, it was wildly inventive and incredibly creative and new.

Nic

And we were probably on parts like at least two or three for like, Halloween and Friday the 13th. So it's like we're getting tired of the same horror stuff, like for something refreshing to come along.

Nic

That's like an original idea. Really pump those ratings, I bet.

Steve

And when you. Yeah, absolutely. When you look at the movie monsters of the most recent past at this point you're looking at Leatherface.

Steve

There have been maybe two Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies at this point. You've got, you know, Jason, who wasn't in the original Friday the but is starting in Part two. And I think by the time this movie came out there have been, yeah, maybe four even of the Friday the 13th movies. Michael Myers has had I think two Halloweens because Halloween three, which we'll get into this month is a little different and the return of Michael Myers wouldn't come until a few years later. But you know, we've definitely had those killers, those monsters in several movies before this comes out.

Steve

So Freddy Krueger was just a breath of fresh air. IMDb right around that, that we talk a lot about the good movie ranking within IMDb at a 7.4 rating. It won seven awards total. I think about six of around the time of its creation. All kind of sci fi and horror, very specific niche type award shows.

Steve

But I did want to mention that in 2021 it was added to the National Film Registry, which is an official record of sort of quote, the most important movies made by Americans basically. And so that, that the movie does appear there on a shockingly low budget of $1.8 million. I don't know how, even in 1984, I don't know how you make any movie, let alone this movie for $1.8 million. It earned 57 million at the box office. That is 31.7 times what it costs, which is like for us it's astronomically higher multiplier than any movie we've talked about for sure.

Nic

And really I. Unless we do like Blair Witch Project, like I don't know what can approach this. Like this is an incredible, an incredible amount.

Steve

Yeah. Which we actually probably will do.

Steve

Blair, which at some point. But yeah, it's just a ridiculous number. Both numbers are ridiculous. One, when you think about the effects in this movie, the makeup effects, the special effects, all the practical stuff, the, the way that you know how exactly they did some of the effects even there's lots of ways to do some of these things, but very creative, whatever. And to have that come out to just 1.8 million.

Steve

Now I don't think any of the actors here got anything over scale. Right. This is. There's John Saxon has been in a few things and is in this. But like most of these actors are like brand new to the world of active of Hollywood.

Steve

So they probably all got paid scale. That's great. You know, I don't think Craven earned a ton of Money on the front end on this. So. Okay.

Steve

But still, like, you got to pay the effects people and all this. I mean, it's really impressive. So to do that and then to have a movie that is this brutal and this really rated R even at that time, which, you know, horror was a very popular genre in the, in the early to mid-80s. But to earn over 50 million at the box office strictly from our R rated going audiences is really impressive. Probably didn't hurt that it came out basically right after Halloween.

Steve

It was that sort of, you know, that time of the year, you know, like before the Christmas season and everything. So people were still in the spooky season mood when the movie came out. But yeah, just real impressive, obviously at the box office. And, you know, it's a phenomenon. And, you know, we all know that Nightmare on Elm street became one of the big phenomenons of the 80s.

Nic

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Steve

So let's dive in.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

We start off with this sort of very ominous, very menacing close ups of things happening. There's a man grabbing glove and like the knives, basically it's Freddy creating his glove.

Steve

He's breathing very heavy. Everything's very labored. He's in this like boiler room maintenance area. Right. We don't know exactly where, but it's like definitely like an industrial, you know, typ place.

Steve

Very dark, very, very. There's like a lot of fire.

Nic

There's like this kind of steamy, it's drippy.

Steve

Seems very hell on earth, like. Right.

Steve

And so. And he is creating this glove and. And we get this, you know, this menacing sort of silhouette of him. We don't see Freddy real clearly very much in this movie. We see him drenched in shadow most often.

Steve

And I think that's partly maybe because the makeup, you know, could only be so good and so many times, whatever, I don't know. But like, we definitely get just a lot of very menacing shadow figure Freddy in this. And then almost immediately, we see a girl kind of running through the hallways of what looks like a school initially or something. Something like that. This is Tina.

Steve

Tina's one of the sort of four main teenage characters in the movie. And she's running around and she is, you know, basically attacked by Freddy. And we realize then she is in a dream.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

And she is able to wake up from her dream and not get actually hurt.

Steve

But her mom kind of comes in. It's like, oh, you know, Tina, you were dreaming. You're having a nightmare. And by the looks of it, you know, it was pretty bad. And she's got Slash in her nightgown, so it didn't get her, but he absolutely was able to like, actually affect the real world.

Steve

I mean, within the first two minutes of this movie. We've been made clear here that this is a thing that a nightmare is being had about that is making effects in the real world.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

And it's like such a clean introduction to that.

Nic

Yeah.

Nic

Really, really important to do that. Right. And then the. The main struggle in this movie is kind of the characters trying to convince other people that this is real.

Steve

Mostly the adults.

Steve

These are high school students. And none of the adults, like, believe them. Even as we find out as we go on like that they know some things that they probably should have been a little more open about. The adults in this town, you know, they just don't believe this is possible. And so, you know, they're just like, yeah, no, you're just.

Steve

You just need some sleep. Right? That's all these kids here through the whole movie is like, just get some.

Nic

Sleep, go to sleep. I know these, these parents are not very engaged, so.

Nic

And then now we get kind of a taste of like the. The low level scale actors that we're getting here because. Because we're not Johnny Depp. He's fine in this.

Steve

Heather Langenkamp's okay.

Steve

Besides Nancy, she's all right.

Nic

Rod.

Steve

Not good.

Nic

Little rough. Little rough.

Nic

But we get some of the good dialogue here where Tina's explaining to everybody. She's like, you know, and I woke up and my. My pajamas were slashed or whatever. And then Rod's like, yeah, I woke up with a hard on this morning with your name on it. Hard on, right.

Nic

We've retired that. Right. Like, I don't think anyone says that unless you're talking about like, oh, the chief's got a real hard on for me.

Steve

I think you'd be more likely to call somebody a hot on. Like they're giving you a hard time, you know, kind of thing.

Steve

But. But she does have kind of a funny joke about how, hey, Rod, there's four let my name. How could there possibly be enough room on there to write my name? Pretty good.

Nic

And it took him a while to get it.

Nic

Yeah, it was good. So now we know, like, okay, Rod is the kind of jerky, aggressive dudes here.

Steve

This is also the scene because as they're sort of driving to school, Glenn has a convertible. That Glenn is Heather, not Heather, Nancy. I want to make sure I don't mix up the characters and actors names here, but Johnny Depp plays Glenn, who is Nancy?

Steve

That's Heather Langham's character. Kind of the main character in a lot of ways. Heather is. Nancy is. I'm going to do that over and over again.

Steve

So Glenn and Nancy are dating. Rod and Tina are dating. And the four of them are like, driving to school, basically in Glenn's.

Nic

In his sick Cadillac convertible.

Steve

Amazing convertible.

Nic

This is like. It's kind of like a John Hughes neighborhood. Like, the level of wealth in this area, it seems like an affluent area.

Steve

Right.

Nic

They all have these nice big houses and stuff.

Steve

But, yeah, unlike John Hughes, which is always. His stuff is always in, like, Shermer, Illinois, in the outskirts of Chicago. It becomes pretty clear early that we're in Southern California here. A the palm trees be the reference to, like, oh, maybe an earthquake's coming. They always say, like, weird things happens.

Steve

Earthquake. And I don't know, listener, if this is something you're aware of, but, Nic, living in California is a long. You have. I'm sure you've heard the term earthquake weather before, which is sort of a. Yeah. Jokey kind of thing we say because earthquakes are not predictable people.

Steve

But we kind of joke about, like, certain kinds of. It's kind of earthquake weather. And it's like. It made me think of that when they're like, oh, maybe an earthquake's coming because everybody's dreaming. Weird.

Steve

It's like, if only it were so simple.

Nic

It is one of those things where someone says earthquake, whether you're like, yeah, that's not how it works. And then the second you walk away from there, you're like, shit. It kind of is.

Steve

Right.

Steve

It's like a little muggy. It's warm, but overcast. It's a kind of earthquake weather. Like. Yeah.

Nic

So. So the four friends now. So we got Tina and Rod.

Steve

They're a couple.

Nic

And we got N. And Glenn.

Nic

Glenn is Johnny Depp. And they're. They're a couple. And everyone, Tina, Nancy are together. And Tina's basically like, stay with me.

Nic

Like, I had these nightmares like, can you just be with me? I'm scared.

Steve

Right. Yeah.

Nic

And Glenn.

Nic

Johnny Depp is there and whatever. And Rod shows up.

Steve

Right, Right. So they're hanging out at Tina's house. So Tina's mom is out of town.

Steve

Tina's mom is single. A single mother, but she's got a boyfriend. And her boyfriend her. Went to Vegas is what we're told. And so Tina's home alone, but she doesn't want to be alone.

Steve

She's had these nightmares. She's kind of Scared. So she just invites Nancy and Glenn to come over and kind of just stay with her, right? Yeah. But then they start hearing, you know, some sounds actually really, really quick.

Steve

There's a really funny scene where Glenn's got to make an excuse for where he is, right? Because these are like kids. These are like 15 and 16 year old kids. And so he's got to make an excuse. So he calls his mom and he's got like a tape of sound effects.

Steve

He's like, oh, my cousin lives out by the airport. And so I'll just call my mom with the sound of the, of the, of the plane, you know, and that way she'll know I'm there, it'll be okay, and I'll be fine till the night or until the morning. So he calls her and he starts doing that. But the, the audio clips on the little tape keep going and it's like scream gunshots, like all kinds of psychotic stuff.

Nic

It's very set of like random sound effects.

Steve

It's very funny, but he does that. And then, but then they hear a noise outside and it sounds a little like the scraping sound that Tina described from her, from her nightmare where Freddy's, you know, blade fingers were scraping against pipes and things. And so, you know, Glenn and you know, kind of Glenn, good kid, you know, he's a brave kid. He leads the way out there like, I'm going to punch you. I'm gonna punch whoever's out of here.

Steve

Like I'm gonna get, you know, kind of thing. But of course it's Rod. Rod jumps out of the bushes to tackle him. And then they kind of like, you know, whatever, play fight for a minute. And he of like a little, what was a little hand rake, I don't.

Nic

Know what you call it.

Steve

Yeah, there you go. That kind of thing. And he was scraping it against God.

Nic

Knows what and then he just carelessly threw it onto the lawn when he was done.

Nic

He didn't place it anywhere nice. Someone's gonna Sideshow Bob themselves.

Steve

Exactly.

Nic

Yeah. So now the four of them are all kind of hanging at the house and everyone goes off to bed.

Nic

Rod and Tina go into her room. And then Glenn and Nancy are together.

Steve

Well, no, actually, Glenn is sleeping on the couch. Nancy is in Tina's room, and Tina and Rod are in Tina's mom's room. Because that's where every kid, every teenager likes to bang is in their par.

Nic

Nothing gets you going. Like I wouldn't. I don't even open that door when.

Steve

My parents are out of town.

Nic

Yeah, so.

Nic

So they have. Rod and Tina are having some. Some very loud sex, which show that Johnny Depp. Glenn can clearly hear it. He's not conducting it.

Steve

Michael J.

Nic

Fox and Secret of My Success.

Steve

He doesn't.

Nic

Wasn't invited until a couple years later. But, yeah, we get.

Nic

We get this kind of, you know, we know that they're humping. They're the teenagers, and they're getting into it. And if we know from these kind of films, you don't want to be the teenager that's sexually active.

Steve

No, that's true. It's definitely.

Steve

Definitely does not end well. There's a very big morality play in a lot of these movies, especially 13th and Nightmare on Elm street, which is.

Nic

Why I was safe and sound.

Steve

Right. Never had to worry about it.

Steve

That was. That was. That was the bright thinking on my part. Yeah.

Nic

So.

Nic

So Nancy is asleep at one point at. When they're at the house, and it shows really creepy effect. They use a few times of kind of him pushing through the wall as if the wall is just made of, like, cheating.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

So Freddy is like.

Nic

Or something is pushing through the wall above her bed. And then somebody walks in and wakes her up. But it's like, it's coming. It's here, right?

Steve

Well, she actually.

Steve

I don't know. I remember. I don't think he walks in, but she, like, wakes up because she even sort of, like, sensed that something was. And she, like, touches the wall behind her, and it feels solid. She kind of knocks on it, and it is solid.

Steve

She's like, okay, I was just dreaming or whatever. But, yeah, there's definitely this element of, like, he's there, partly, it seems, because she's there in some ways. Like, there's a connection between Nancy and Freddy. Right. That we're not really clear on yet.

Steve

And so we now go to. Tina is sleeping, and Tina is in her dream and she's having a nightmare, and Freddy is there. She's, like, walking through some alleyways or whatever. And Freddy appears and has a great line where she's like, you know, like, oh. Oh, please, God.

Steve

Please, God, save me. And he goes. And he kind of, you know, flashes the blades up and goes, this is God. And it's just very scary and terrifying.

Nic

And so he goes making his body distorted.

Steve

Yeah, he likes his arms stretch out, very arms along.

Nic

He's like a Wario version of Inspector Gadget. An evil. Like. It just makes it so much creepier when they have him move in these distorted ways or they add, like, an extra length or just he.

Steve

Yeah. Mr. Very. Not fantastic, but yeah. So he, he, you know, chases Tina and attacks her.

Steve

And then at one point, as they are fighting and sort of like wrestling and he's, you know, whatever. We cut back to waking reality where Rod is in bed next door and he is woken up by her thrashing around. But he gets up and pulls the COVID off and. And, you know, she's there alone, but she's clearly struggling with someone. Right.

Steve

But there's nobody visible. She ends up being slashed numerous times, like the chest and the stomach and stuff, and pulled up into the corner of the room. She is up against the ceiling, she is being slashed and blood is dripping everywhere. And Rod just has no idea what the hell is going on. He starts screaming about like, tina, Tina, wake up or whatever, you know, but he is just watching her be just shredded, basically.

Steve

Horrifying thing, you know, I can't imagine what it's like. And of course, her screaming and his screaming have woken both Nancy and Glenn. So they're trying to get in, the door's locked, so Glenn's trying to, you know, bash his way in or whatever. By the time he gets in, Tina has, you know, fallen back to the bed, just covered in blood, like absolutely dead for sure. And there's an open window and no Rod.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

So it is not unreasonable that.

Nic

No.

Steve

That the kids think Rod killed her and ran In a world where we.

Nic

Don'T know that Freddy Krueger is like.

Nic

It's pretty realistic. Yeah. And this is the first instance of them using, using this revolving room effect, which was really good. I mean, a great way to be able to show Tina getting like yanked up to the ceiling and everything. Really brutal, though.

Steve

Yeah. I mean, and early. I mean, we are 15ish minutes into this movie and we get a really brutal kill early on. I mean, really from, from Jump street because, oh, Johnny Depp, like, really from right at the very beginning, they. They dial up just ominous and menacing on this movie.

Steve

Real high. I think a few weeks ago we did a. We. We talked about the movie Cape Fear and I felt like the same way where it, like from the very first moments of the movie, we get tension, we get menace, we get ominous. You know, and the same thing with this movie.

Steve

Like, it, it is, it is scary from the beginning. It is tense and scary from the beginning. And to get this sort of like horrific murder early on just completely sets the stage. It shows us just how powerful Freddy is, you know, the way he is able to, you know, enact change and take action in the real world from dreams is just terrifying because how do you, you, how do you beat that? Right?

Steve

How do you stop that? What do you do? It's crazy.

Nic

And then even as a viewer, knowing that he can exist in the dream world and the real world simultaneously, you're kind of on edge in every scene because you don't necessarily know if this is like, is this the real world or is this some dream that, you know, Freddy's gonna pop out in any minute, foreshadowing God. So, so Rod.

Nic

Rod has been blamed. Rod has been blamed for this. And now we're introduced to Donald, who is Nancy's dad, played by John Saxon, who is. I liked him in Enter the Dragon with. He was kind of the, the Johnny Cage character of the Mortal Kombat competition they had there.

Steve

And I remembered him because I was trying to place him when I was watching it. But he's also the, the park manager doing the counterfeiting of money in Beverly Hills Cop 3.

Nic

All right.

Steve

And that was where I remember John Saxon from. So he's all.

Nic

He's sprinkled throughout. So Nancy decides, like, despite this brutal murder of her friend happening like the day before, she's like, I'm going to school. What am I going to do?

Steve

I need to distract myself. And here's the thing too.

Steve

We, we hear in the morning, she's waking up and we hear like a. The murder. And they refer to Tina's by her full name, Christina, but they mentioned she's 15, which I'm like, I did not get the vibe that they were that young. Right. Like, Glenn's driving Rod does seem older.

Steve

Like it's kind of shocking to me that, that the characters are as young as they are. But I mean, we know they're in high school, so it's not that crazy. But it just like felt jarring to.

Nic

Be like, makes it worse. We just seen some reason it makes it worse than like 17.

Steve

It does.

Nic

There's something about it.

Steve

We just watched her like, have sex with her boyfriend and they get brutally murdered. And it's like for that to happen to a 15 year old is just like horrific and heartbreaking and awful. Not that it, not that it would have been better, I guess, if she was 17.

Steve

It does seem worse.

Nic

It elevates the, the stakes of the whole thing. As she's walking to school, she's grabbed from the bushes.

Steve

That's right.

Nic

And, and you know, she's grabbed by who we can see is robbed.

Nic

Rod. And he is, he's wearing. Because he Just jumped out the window to escape. So he's in jeans, a leather jacket and no shirt.

Steve

Yeah, that's all you have.

Nic

That character might have chose to wear that on a given day anyway. So I don't know if that's like. Like really an emergency outfit. But he basically is trying to tell Nancy like, look, I didn't do this, I didn't do. And then immediately after that, Nancy's dad pops out of the bushes like, haha, the plan worked.

Nic

We got you.

Steve

Yeah, I don't think we mentioned. Actually Nancy's father is a local sheriff. Basically he's like the local law enforcement. And yeah, apparently they were following Nancy, hoping Rod would show up or something or try to reach her out.

Steve

Reach out to her and contact her. And frankly, smart move because he's a dumb kid. So of course he's gonna go right back to his friends and try to figure out, you know, what to do. So they get him. So now Rod is going off the jail jail and Nancy is continuing on to school.

Steve

One of my favorite character actresses is her teacher, Lynn Shea. She is wonderful.

Nic

The landlord from Kingpin.

Steve

Oh yeah, exactly. Well, she's that.

Steve

And she was in the insidious movies. We saw her as a political reporter in Brewster's Millions. Very briefly. All kinds of fun stuff. Lynch is fantastic.

Nic

We like Lynch.

Steve

Absolutely.

Nic

Fans.

Steve

And so she is. This seems like it's like English class or they're talking about Shakespeare and stuff.

Steve

But you know, predictably, because she's been under such stress and now she can relax. Like. Like Nancy falls asleep and finds herself just like Tina did, sort of in the hallways of the school, wandering around. She kind of gets up from. Oh no, that's right.

Steve

She sees Tina in a body bag. Right. And then. And then Tina's gone. So she follows her out.

Steve

She just gets. It's like she's in the classroom, she gets up, walks out the door, there's a trail of blood and like all this stuff. And there's a person she runs into who like is like the hall monitor. But it's one of the fun things about this movie that they do this a few times. Right.

Steve

The hall monitor looks normal, but she's wearing a striped red and green sweater.

Nic

Yeah, she's got the Freddy. Freddy's Gang colors on.

Steve

Exactly. And so, yeah, it actually is Freddy.

Steve

Right. So we know he can completely appear as anything he wants to within a dream. Which makes a lot of sense. It's a dream. But basically like, you know, the.

Steve

He was dragging the body of Tina through You know, Tina, no running in the halls and all this kind of stuff.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

But Nancy, no running the halls. So Nancy follows Tina's body down to the boiler room, basically.

Nic

And the body bag, it had shown when, I think when she walked into the.

Nic

The kitchen and her mom was watching the report on tv, it was showing the body bag basically, like, going into the ambulance. Into the ambulance. But it had her arm, like, kind of fall out of it, and it was, like, just really disturbing. And how covered in blood. So this body bag imagery is really, like, you know, that that's something that's burnt into Nancy's mind, was, like, her best friend, and that's the last way she would have seen her.

Nic

Yeah. So they're dragged into the boiler room now and the basement.

Steve

Yeah. And so she goes. She heads into the boiler room and is confronted there by Freddy.

Steve

But she has this sort of epiphany moment where she throws her arm onto a super hot pipe. Right. They're down the boiler room, so there's all these, like, pipes and stuff. And, you know, they're almost always hot. They're made of metal.

Steve

So she throws her forearm onto it. And, of course, that actually wakes her up. Right. She. She's.

Steve

It's. It's almost like, okay, since Freddy's in the nightmare with you, no matter what happens to you in the nightmare will translate to reality.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

Right. So it's like.

Steve

Because that doesn't obviously happen with every dream you have, but once Freddy has, like, appeared, sort of makes everything real. So by doing that, she was able to force herself awake and sure enough, has a burn on her forearm from the dream, which is, like, really crazy. And a really. And again, a really great reminder that.

Nic

You know, I can bring stuff into this world.

Steve

Things that you do in the dream, you know, that's the thing. It seems like it's the first indication that not only does what Freddy does in a dream translate to the real world, but also the person dreaming can. Can affect change in the real world. And this is what comes into play big time. Later.

Steve

Later.

Nic

So. So she wakes up in class, and she's, like, freaking out, screaming, clearly, you know, you. You got to go home. Like, you're.

Nic

You're done here today. You got to take care of yourself. Nancy then goes to jail where Rod is being held. And she's kind of talking to him in jail, and he's describing, like, all the same elements of the dream that she had.

Steve

Yep.

Nic

And sweater, the blended nose. She's like, what the hell's going on? Nancy, then she's home, she's taking a bath, she's relaxing, and man singing the Freddy chant out loud. But she's obviously. I mean, throughout the movie, they do a good job of just showing the effect of not sleeping on a person.

Nic

And she's just getting harder and harder to keep her eyes open. So she falls asleep in the tub. And I see Freddy's gloved hand, like, appear between her legs from the water, which is very creepy.

Steve

One of the most classic visual images from this movie is this scene of Nancy sort of. You know, everything's covered by the suds in the water, but her knees are.

Steve

Are up, her head's just barely above water with the little pillow behind her. And sure enough, you know, there's the gloved hand, you know, coming up. I think even in some versions of, like, you know, the DVD or whatever that might have been, like, not the COVID cover, but, like, on the box. Like, it was a very, like, you know, classic image from the movie. And her mom is like.

Steve

Before that actually happens, her mom is like, oh, Nancy, don't fall asleep in there. You know that people die that way. You know, they drown. People drown all the time doing that. And she's like, mom.

Steve

Like, leave me alone. And then her mom. Mom goes, I'll make you some warm milk. And it's like. And then she even says, warm milk.

Steve

Gross. Like, and I. It was so funny because I literally was just having a conversation with my son, who's 11, like, the other day, and he said something about, like, dad, is it true that people drink warm milk to go to sleep? I'm like, dude, I've. I mean, yes, that's a thing.

Steve

Like, I've never done it. I've never had warm milk in my life. It sounds awful.

Nic

I don't think I have, but, like, there's cocoa powder.

Steve

Well, there you go.

Steve

Yeah, of course. Yes, but. But I was like, yeah, that's a thing. Like, people did. Maybe people like Grandma when Grandma was young, you know, whatever.

Steve

And he's like, oh, because I like milk. That sounds gross. I'm like, yeah, warm milk does not sound good. Milk's got to be ice cold. She doesn't want the warm milk, but, you know, her mother's already sort of like, you know, set the stage of, like, be careful.

Steve

Don't fall asleep in there. Oh, man.

Nic

Yeah. So. So she falls asleep again.

Nic

Like, she kind of woke up and then falls asleep. It drifts off again, right? And now Freddy fully, like, pulls her under the tub. And now this is Not a bathtub. This is a.

Nic

A bottomless, like, dreamless world. It can be whatever.

Steve

Yeah. She's.

Nic

So he pulls her all the way under, and there's this.

Nic

This great struggle, but she ends up being able to.

Steve

She wakes out of it. She able to wake up, and then. And her mom is able to, like, bust into the room, and she sort of, like, you know, tells like, no, no, I'm okay. I'm okay.

Steve

I just, like, you know, I slipped or whatever. She really downplays it, but, yeah, that's.

Nic

Yeah, she really gives no indication to her mom. I mean, she could have given her some info. And then Nancy looks in the medicine cabinet and finds a bottle of, like.

Steve

Pep pills, whatever they were.

Nic

But this is pre Jesse Spano, so kids didn't know that. That it was bad for you at this time.

Steve

That's true. That's true.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

Jesse saved us all.

Nic

She. She comments, I think in the next scene, she's talking to Glenn just about how she's not been able to sleep. And she's like, oh, God, I look 20 years old.

Nic

That made me want to kill myself.

Steve

Oh, you mean great and youthful and spry with tight skin and, like, the.

Nic

Best you'll ever feel?

Steve

Exactly. Right. No aches and pains.

Steve

God damn it. Goddamn kids. But yeah, basically, she is. She talks to Glenn, and she's like, look, I need you to do me a favor. Like, I'm gonna go to sleep.

Steve

You need to stay awake so that you can wake me up if it looks like there's a problem. Just wake me up. And he's like, okay, cool. Because he's climbed in her window, right. Because she decides she's gonna go kind of like try to confront Freddy or something.

Steve

Like, I mean, she's already thinking about meeting. She's brave. Really brave.

Nic

Really bold.

Steve

She's a bad bitch.

Steve

And so she goes and she ends up kind of walking through the town because, again, it seems like almost every time this happens, people start from where they're actually sleeping. Yeah. You know, and she, like, gets up and she leaves her house, and it's all foggy. That's one of the other indicators a lot of times that we're in the dream state, right. Is that it's extra foggy around because it almost never is normally.

Steve

But, you know, it's like that fog comes. So it's very foggy. She wanders and she goes to the police station where her dad works and where Rod is being held, and she can kind of see down. You know, it's the like of one of those, like below ground level sort of basement, you know, rooms. And so she can see through a window that's down on the ground, that rods down there sleeping.

Steve

So she then sees Freddy like come through and phase through the bars, basically.

Nic

Which was another liquid metals through the bars.

Steve

Cool effect that again, $1.8 million Wes Craven. What are you doing? It's amazing, but yeah, great.

Nic

I want like a pop up video where it says the cost of each individual effect. I would love. We need some forensic accounting to done on this film so we can.

Steve

Seriously, really impressive. But basically she.

Steve

She, you know, sees Freddy, but. But Freddy sees her, right? And basically leaves rod and comes after her.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

And at this point she starts screaming for Glenn because like, you know, the whole point is she's thrashing, whatever.

Steve

And we see Glenn back in reality in her room, fast asleep, ass fell asleep. Wake up Glenn like, oh my God. So crazy her.

Nic

So. So she's being chased home by Freddy.

Nic

And this effect is so good and so terrifying where she's running up her stairs, but each step is kind of like quicksand. And that's such like an in your dream sensation that you can have where your feet are just, you know, unexplainably heavy and you just can't take your steps. And I thought that was just a really cool idea.

Steve

The number of things. Like there's a combination this movie of.

Steve

Of the inventive newness of Freddy Krueger himself, specifically. Right. And that character being, you know, this monster we'd never seen before in a lot of ways. But so much of what happens in people's nightmares in this movie really feel like universal experiences, if not explicitly of this happening to you kind of thing. Like you said, your legs just don't work as well.

Steve

You're yelling for someone and they can't hear you. You know, you're in a somewhat familiar place that suddenly turns very not familiar. Right. Or you turn a corner and what should have been there isn't. And it's a complete completely.

Steve

All these things are happening in these nightmares and these dreams and it's just so relatable, you know, in from as the audience to look at that and go like, yeah, like, yeah, like you said when she was like, you know, struggling up the stairs, I'm like, oh yeah, good old quicksand feat. Never happens in real life, but sure as hell happens, man.

Nic

Is that. It's relatable though, that feeling. Yeah, yeah.

Nic

So. So she's able to, you know, get away from Freddy for a Bit. And then the alarm goes off and her and Glenn both wake up. Yeah, she's able to be like, you piece of.

Steve

You had one job.

Nic

What's wrong with you? Her mom. This is. I want to shout out the makeup and special effects for a non horror feature. Oh, her mom's bed head is unbelievable.

Steve

It was really.

Nic

Her mom has the best bed head I've ever seen on somebody. When she comes in to. To check on them, it's clearly all lopsided.

Steve

She must sleep on her.

Steve

Oh, man.

Nic

Okay, so. So now we're. We're kind of back to Rod.

Steve

Well, so, yeah, so now Nancy's like, rod's in trouble.

Steve

Like she's. She equates the fact that she saw Freddy in her dream approaching Rod is meaning like, Rod's also in trouble. Right. And so she and Glenn race down to the police station. You know, they go and they, they talk to one of the officers there.

Steve

And then her dad kind of comes out and is like, what are you doing? You should be home asleep. And she's like, you got to check on Rod. He's in danger. He's in danger.

Steve

And they're just like, what are you talking. He's in a jail cell. Like, what can happen to him? Yeah, we know things that can happen in jail cells.

Nic

So Freddie is epsteining Rod, right?

Steve

Missing a couple minutes of this footage, guys.

Nic

There's guards asleep, know, but God damn it. I mean, it shows, you know, the sheet like creeping its way around his neck and all and you know what's going to happen. And it's just like, listen to your kid. Like you want to scream at the cops, like, what are you guys doing?

Steve

And how brilliant as you know, Freddy is sort of even thinking ahead here, right. If he kills Rod in a way that looks self inflicted, it's going to continue to like, so doubt that anything really weird is happening. Right. If he went and like slashed him up the way he did Tina, people would be like, well, now wait a minute. Nobody else was here.

Steve

There's no KN. Down here in the basement. Like, what the hell happened? But the fact that it looks like he sort of just strung himself up with his bed sheet. Yeah.

Steve

It's like, well, I guess the kid really did kill his girlfriend. And then, you know, didn't want to face the consequences. We killed himself. It's like, yeah, that does happen sometimes.

Nic

So, okay, Rod didn't kill himself, but no, that's right.

Nic

Hashtag. Yeah. And yeah, good point about that. He's not going to have anyone after him. Like, Freddy is able to kind of keep the game going longer by.

Nic

By using this restraint or fucking up people's lives more by killing him in this way. Rod. So, you know, Rod was an accused murderer for a couple days and then immediately.

Steve

A couple days.

Nic

Yes, exactly right.

Nic

It was only a couple days.

Steve

A day, probably.

Nic

And then. So then we're at Rod's funeral and the priest is like, well, you live by the sword, you die by the sword. The most brutal yet, the berries.

Nic

It's like, what the fuck?

Steve

I mean, they did say something about Rod had a. A small rap sheet history, some like, you know, assault charge and like, drug possession.

Nic

He did pull out a knife pretty quickly.

Steve

Right.

Steve

He had the switchblade going, you know, kind of thing. But yeah, the brutal eulogy from the priest of like, you know, he was a piece of shit. Like, you live by the sword, die by the sort kind of thing. It's like, God damn, dude, his mother is right there.

Nic

I didn't know that Catholic church was that harsh on people or themselves.

Nic

I know, but it was like, how about a couple of nice words? Because he hasn't had a trial in.

Steve

I don't even know if he was. I mean, they were treating him like an adult. So let's say he was 18.

Steve

Right. But he wasn't older than that. It wasn't like an adult. An adult adult. Right.

Steve

This is still basically an undeveloped brainchild.

Nic

Right.

Steve

So.

Nic

And then. So was this a budget issue or a intentional issue?

Nic

Is that if he's a character who's a accused murderer? Because Normally, like, at 18 or a high school student dies, like, there's a million people at the funeral.

Steve

Right.

Nic

But because. Because he's an accused murderer, there's like almost nobody there.

Nic

But also, conveniently, we didn't have the money to pay a whole bunch of extras to sit at a funeral. So that worked out as well.

Steve

Yeah, it's probably a fun happy.

Nic

We're funeral out. We got kids getting killed here all the time.

Steve

It's a happy coincidence, I think. But yes, I think the intimation there is that. Yeah, like, Rod was a not well liked sort of bad guy. So when he dies, there's not a ton of sympathy. I mean, there's a lot of that in this movie of, like, sort of constantly judging people and, you know, not having sympathy and empathy for.

Steve

For. For what people are going through. It kind of runs through this whole move that way.

Nic

The parents especially the whole thing. Yeah.

Steve

So, yeah, so now Nancy's parents were like, we were her mom really more than anybody's. Like, we need. You need help. Yeah. So they take her, you know, she takes her to the Katja Institute for the Study of Sleep Disorders.

Steve

So basically, you know, just like a sleep clinic kind of thing. The sleep doctor. The guy there, of course, is one Charles Fleischman, who is the voice of Roger Rabbit. Yeah. So that's a fun little, nice little by him.

Steve

That doesn't sound anything like Roger in this one, but. But that is who that was. And so she gets all hooked up to the little diodes and little, like, monitors and this stuff. And he's got this huge. Looks like a seismograph.

Steve

Like a, like, tracking earthquake stuff.

Nic

It is crazy.

Steve

You know, big, big ream of paper coming through and the little, like, needles bouncing back and forth, like, track, you know, it was like brainwaves or, you know, whatever it is. And he mentions, like, the rapid eye movement. And she starts to see, oh, she'll be dreaming any moment now.

Steve

And of course, then he says something about, like, oh, you know, another night. Like these. These numbers are normal. And it said, like, twos and threes on his screen. And he's like, if it's a nightmare, it'll be like five to eight.

Steve

That's, like, pretty normal. And so the numbers start going to 15, 20, 40. And he is just like, what the hell is going on? So they race in there to try to wake her up because she starts thrashing around and they wake her, and she kind of. From underneath her.

Steve

Her sheet, she's got something in her hand. She's got Freddy's hat. She brought it with her from the dream, which is. Whoa.

Nic

Like, crazy.

Steve

Whole new thing.

Nic

Bring an object. Like.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

Even the tearing on her pajamas could have been explained by.

Nic

By the. On Tina's pajamas, right? Could have been explained by, like, you did that yourself or whatever.

Steve

Long fingernails, Bringing an object.

Nic

Like when you had somebody only in, like, a hospital gown.

Steve

Right.

Nic

And then all of a sudden they produced this hat. Like, they were just handed it like a young Indiana Jones, you know?

Steve

Yeah. She's like, in the most controlled possible situation, like.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

Have they made. I haven't seen all the Frank Freddy sequels. Did they ever do a Frosty the Snowman style situation with his hat?

Steve

Oh, where the hat, like, put the.

Nic

Hat on a snowman, he becomes, like an evil Freddy guy.

Steve

Think so, but.

Nic

Copyright 2Dads1 Movie 2025. Don't steal that.

Steve

Reach out to us, Wes, at the show.

Nic

We know you're listening, Wes.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

So when she takes the hat out and like her mom is kind of given indication of a little bit of being like, that sounds like familiar, like she's withholding something.

Steve

Yeah, she's definitely. There's a lot of.

Steve

There's a lot of skittishness from the adults that doesn't make a ton of sense given that they continuously talk about how they don't believe anything weird is happening. Yeah, right. You just need some sleep. You're just freaking out, like. But yet then, yeah, there is like they're holding something back or there's something that they're not saying or whatever.

Steve

And so when she says Nancy tells her mom, like, his name's in the hat. It says Fred Kruger. Do you know who that is? Yeah. And at first her mom's like, no.

Steve

But then she. Nancy is reading a book. Yes, Nancy is reading.

Nic

Looked for at the Livermore Library. They do not have it without flagging my account.

Steve

Booby Traps and Improvised Anti Personnel Devices, I think is what it was called or something like that. It reminds me of. I think it was a play on the Anarchist Cookbook, I think is the idea. Right. That was because we all remember.

Steve

I don't know if people claim. Claim to have copies or did or whatever, but the Anarchist Cookbook, right, was the famous like 80s 90s, you know, this is how you make napalm from gasoline and Styrofoam or some crap or whatever, you know, all the kind of things and how to make like how to pick locks and all this kind of stuff. So she's now studying like how to make booby traps now that she knows she's gotten Freddy's hat. If she can take things out, then maybe she could bring stuff in or affect things the other direction. And so a very smart girl.

Nic

Super smart. And yeah. And she. She comes home now and she's been gone for a couple hours. And her mom has had very nicely decorated bars, like, put on the way.

Nic

It's not like a whip up. Like, let's just board these things up. Like, it fits with the theme of the house. Like, they're kind of stylish.

Steve

She had a trellis with like roses growing on it that Glenn had climbed up to get to her.

Steve

But that's went down all. Every window has bars on it now. And it's like. Yeah, it took maybe a few hours.

Nic

Which is, yeah, amazing to be able to call the bar guy.

Nic

I mean, to me make a decision on what style of bars you wanted.

Steve

That's where the $1.8 million went.

Nic

Was the rush child that's right.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

We got to get those bars up.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

So when she's. Then when Nancy comes home is where she has the conversation with her mom about, like, the origin.

Steve

And he's like, who is this guy Fred Krueger? Like, do you know who this is?

Steve

And she's like, yeah, I do. And she. She takes her down to their basement, like, their. Where their furnace is. And she's got the glove, the bladed glove, hidden inside.

Steve

Inside the furnace. Right. Is that what it was? Wouldn't that have just burned up over time? I don't know how long ago this event was supposed to occur, because she tells Nancy there was this man, Fred Krueger, who lived here in town.

Steve

And I wrote it down. He killed at least 20 kids in the neighborhood.

Nic

Insane.

Steve

How big is the neighborhood? How is this not, like, well known?

Steve

Just, like, why. Like, why would Nancy and Glenn and Rod and Tina and their friends not know this occurred? Because her mom is talking about it as if we parents did this. Yeah. So what was it, like 10 years ago?

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

I mean, it must be one of those things where, like, the town decides collectively that we're never going to talk about this again. Right. Which always comes back.

Steve

That works out great.

Steve

No, that works out great. And never, never is a problem.

Nic

Yeah. So Fred Krueger, all these horrific crimes, Right. And then apparently is, like, freed on a technicality.

Nic

The parents all come and, like, surround his. His, like, boiler room. He's in an old, kind of, like, industrial style, I guess, really. He's in the kind of building that's great for a final showdown, you know, that kind of building. But they basically, you know, surround the building and cover it in gas and burn it down.

Steve

Fire. Yeah. And they all stand there watching, make sure he doesn't leave. Whatever. So he's dead.

Nic

You can't blame him.

Steve

And she. Oh, no, no. Obviously this person, you know, horrific things. But.

Steve

Yeah, but I love the line that she gives Nancy. She's like, nancy, Freddy can't hurt Fred. Can't hurt you. He's dead, honey. Because Mommy killed him.

Steve

Yeah. Which is just the most, like, unhinged.

Nic

Way to put, yeah, Mommy killed him. I even took his knives.

Steve

Right, Right.

Steve

Oh, my God. Which I guess is why we the. The montage of him making new ones at the beginning. Was that because. Because Nancy's mom stole them from him.

Steve

So bizarre.

Nic

Jesus. I mean. Yeah. So.

Nic

So then, like, there's this incredible darkness beneath, like, the already dark concept of a guy that can murder you in your sleep is a town that Basically, like had this horrific series of events happen and then kind of covered it up. I mean, not in a way that they're protecting the criminal, but they're not protecting the kids by like hiding this from them. Hiding it. That like this is a thing that happened or.

Steve

And they did.

Steve

And they did. You know, it was vigilante justice, which has, you know, is. Has its downsides. It's not like a great way to do, you know, I mean, I get that she's saying, oh, we all knew he did it and he got off on a technicality. But it's like.

Steve

But was that the only reason? Like, are we sure, you know, the justice system is not perfect? Like, are we sure you've got the right guy? I mean, look, in retrospect, you probably do because he wouldn't be coming back and killing all these kids in their dreams. But still.

Steve

Did you know that vigilantes of Elm street movies.

Nic

Movies make vigilante justice so black and white. They always make it seem like the best idea. So Glenn is coming again to meet Nancy, right?

Steve

Nancy basically called Glenn and was like, hey, you know, at midnight, meet me in front of my house.

Steve

You know, we're gonna. I'm going after him. I'm going in there, I'm going after him. And so she's like booby trapping part of her house and you know, all this stuff. Her mom is so funny.

Steve

Her mom like puts her to bed and collects like a coffee pot and a bunch of coffee mugs and all this stuff. And after she leave, Nancy wakes up and she's got a whole ass plugged in coffee maker under her bed. Pulls the whole. The whole Mr. Coffee up onto the thing to have more coffee again.

Nic

We've talked about this before in different movies.

Nic

In the Cape Fear episode where Nic Nolte is like hiding 30ft away, but he's smoking a cigarette. Like you smell a pot of coffee brewing and it was like.

Steve

Or you hear it percolating and it.

Nic

Wasn'T even like, let me take this out and plug it in. It was like this has been brewing under my nightstand the entire time.

Steve

The little red lights on and everything. That was perfect. It was amazing.

Nic

Yeah, I like that part.

Steve

Yeah.

Steve

And we. So we see. So we see. Glenn is talking. And I do love too.

Steve

Glenn's got the classic like 1980s guy in the half T shirt, the whole bare midriff on a man that's just not been a style intense. Woo. But yeah, so he's. He's basically like, agrees. He's like yeah, okay, I'll stay up, you know, like, no problem, whatever.

Steve

And I love like Nancy gives him this line before she ends up like, don't fall asleep. Like, she's super like hardcore about it.

Nic

Because he's already kind of failed her on a very important task earlier.

Steve

Yes.

Nic

And Glenn's parents too are not.

Nic

So she's trying to call Glenn, basically. And Glenn's parents are like, that girl's crazy. And for measure, I'm taking the phone off the hook.

Steve

Off the hook. No call waiting, no, no nothing.

Steve

So yeah, like that's, that's that. But she tries to leave and the door's locked. And you realize it's an interior key lock, which is diabolical, terrifying, just horrific idea. Like, like fire alone is the reason not to do that. But Nancy's mom is just like blotto drunk, passed out on the couch, basically, or half passed out and says like, it's locked, you can't leave all this stuff.

Steve

It's like, that's, that's awful.

Nic

Yeah. And. And you know, she's trying to call. She gets a call basically.

Nic

And it's Freddie on her phone.

Steve

That's right.

Nic

That says like, I'm your boyfriend.

Steve

She ripped her phone out of the wall like that. She pulled it out of the wall.

Steve

I'm your boyfriend now, Nancy. And she's like, wait, wait, my boyfriend now? Oh crap. Glenn's in trouble, you know, so that's when she tries to leave and everything. And I love.

Steve

There's a couple things that happen before Glenn sort of like meets his fate. He's got this like semi portable, you know, bunny ears TV, like a little 13 inch TV, like in his lap. And it's like, you know, it's now 12 midnight and we end our broadcast. Love the concept of the broadcast day, which hasn't existed in so long now with cable and everything else.

Nic

Infomercial.

Steve

Oh man. This like. Yeah, exactly. At least, at least put on the.

Nic

Give me some Ronco.

Steve

Yeah, so give me some. Or one of the Tony Robbins tapes or something. It's gotta be something. But yeah, sure enough, like, basically Glenn dies in one of the most impressive ways in the movie. But also like probably didn't hurt that bad, to be totally honest.

Steve

Like it was probably quick. You know, the way Tina gets chased.

Nic

Suffering a lot to immediately get blended.

Steve

Tina gets chased and scratch and beaten and slashed, all this stuff. Rod gets hung and that's horrific.

Steve

That's a horrible way to go. And it's not even like neck breaking hung. It's like asphyxiation hung.

Nic

I think his hyoid one was broken, actually.

Steve

Yeah, there you go.

Steve

Glenn gets sucked down into his bed, which is weird and crazy. And then just the most monstrous volcanic eruption of blood. Right. And I mean, and it is. I don't know how much blood is in the human body exactly, but it's a lot less than that.

Nic

Less than that. I mean, even if you blended everything in the human body to get all the liquid you could, it would probably be less than that. I like that he gets sucked in along with his like, boom box. And his TV too.

Steve

Yeah, that's right.

Steve

His headphones and everything. Cuz that actually shows up later, which is funny. But like he. It's just this horrific thing. So his parents hear this, this noise basically coming.

Steve

Sounds like running water, I guess. I don't know. But they come in and are just presented with this just horrific again, just blood everywhere, like absolutely monstrous.

Nic

Another rotating room thing. So it's showing the blood, like it's supposed to be erupting up out of the bed, but it's really.

Nic

The bed is up and it's like landing on the ceiling as if it were the floor.

Steve

That's right.

Nic

Cool effect there.

Steve

And yeah, the only way you could again do this, this effect without spending many, many, many hundreds of thousands of dollars on just the effect alone actually like launching it up by doing it that way it's. You get the whole effect.

Steve

There is a moment where it looks a little weird. It looks like it's moving in reverse almost. Or like this, you know, there's a little trick of the camera that you can kind of spot at one point, but. But again, just, just the, the inventiveness and creativity to do that on the budget is amazing.

Nic

Such a crazy scene.

Nic

And this scene kind of takes me back a little a couple movies ago to Tommy Boy, where Tommy is doing the description of this, like this car crash. And then the coroner shows up. Oh my God. Because I thought about this here first. We get the, the ambulance that everyone pulls up.

Nic

There's a character, it doesn't show. He says, you don't need a stretcher up there, you need a mop. And then.

Steve

No, but before they said that, I thought the same thing. As I'm watching, they pull in the stretcher.

Steve

I'm like, what the. Are they gonna stretch her out of here?

Nic

There's nobody stretching because her dad's the cop.

Steve

Yeah, yeah, he's there.

Nic

Where's the corner?

Nic

They're like, the corner's been in the bathroom. Puking.

Steve

Exactly.

Nic

New guys in the corner puking his guts out.

Steve

The same thing.

Steve

Tommy boy also references the puking coroner. It's good stuff. And so Nancy calls her dad, is able to get a hold of her dad over, over at you know, Glenn's parents house. Is this all happening? And is basically just like dad, come over in 20 minutes.

Steve

Come over and, and you know, it doesn't matter. I kick the door in like whatever, just be here 20 minutes. That's exactly 12:30, like be here. And I think maybe this is when she's actually like booby trapping the house, something around there. And but she's, she's going in after him.

Steve

Like she's going in after Freddy. She's going to fall asleep. She's going to try to time it so that she can be holding on to him when she wakes up. Because she believes probably, you know, I mean accurately based on what she's experienced, that if she is holding him him when she wakes, it'll pull him into the real world.

Nic

Everything she's like touching has her hands is coming back with her.

Steve

Exactly. And so, so she tries to do that. So she sets her watch like a little alarm for like 10 minutes, like a countdown. And the watch talks to her. And I was like this seemed like.

Steve

Was this a thing in 1984, like the SPO watch? Right, exactly. But it was like, you know, like Countdown mode, 10 minutes and counting. I'm like, that is a really advanced voice for this watch. I feel like it might have been adr, but like it's pretty cool.

Steve

So she at one point is. So now she wakes up again. She's in, doesn't wake up. Sorry. She's in her dream.

Steve

And she gets up from bed, she's in her home. She goes down to the basement to look for the bladed glove, right. But she pulls out the bundle that her mom had shown her out of the furnace. And it's not there. And so that's a problem.

Steve

She had called her dad, her dad had told. Her dad's like the lieutenant or whatever. Her dad had told one of his like subordinates like hey, keep an eye on my house. If you see anything weird, there's anything that, that strikes you as odd, come get me. Like I don't think it'll be a problem.

Steve

I think it's. My daughter just needs to get to sleep. If you see anything out of the ordinary, just come get me right away. Don't delay.

Nic

And this guy is probably the worst at his job out of anyone we've seen.

Nic

So far. Because apparently within the brackets of ordinary to this guy is the daughter screaming, get my father. Get my father.

Steve

Help get my dad, you asshole hole. Like, screaming from across.

Steve

At which point, after minutes, it felt like of her screaming to get his attention because she has. Has been able to pull Freddy out into the real world. And he's now chasing her around the house.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

You know, getting hit by her booby traps and everything else.

Steve

But like, he's. She. He's chasing her around, she's screaming, get my dad. Just finally the guy goes, maybe I better go tell the lieutenant. It's like, yes, dude.

Steve

Like that's what you were asked to do. You had one job.

Nic

All the while she's in this house that's locked.

Steve

Right. Locked inside.

Nic

Another just terrifying dream scenario where you just. You can't open a door that should by every other logic, open.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

God damn it. And her.

Nic

Yeah. So her dad is terrible.

Steve

Right. Well, the dad. The dad wants.

Steve

He gets a. It's the. It's the other cop that really is screwed up. But the other. The dad does run across.

Nic

Like, you don't outsource the job of watching your daughter who just sets two of her friends get murdered.

Steve

That's absolutely. For three. Really.

Nic

Yeah, that's right.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

So she has Freddy trapped in the house and she's able to get this gasoline on him.

Steve

Right? Yeah. Basically like light him on fire.

Nic

Light him on fire.

Steve

Which, you know, his worst nightmare, I'm sure.

Nic

Right. Yeah.

Steve

That's how he died.

Steve

And so. But it's really interesting to the. The. The Freddy. I'm sure this wasn't Robert England time, this was a stuntman.

Steve

But he's obviously in like a fire suit. Right. Because he's running around burning. He's much larger. He's much thicker.

Steve

He's much thicker with a bigger head and everything, you know, as he's running, running around. But, you know, you got to keep people safe. So again, I'm not gonna like.

Nic

But he can change his size. So that's true.

Nic

Throughout the film we've shown he could be different.

Steve

That's right. So he's chasing around. He's basically lighting the house on fire as he goes. Right.

Steve

Like everywhere he steps. And she realizes that he has run upstairs.

Nic

The flaming footprints.

Steve

His mom is up there. And so he, you know, she busts in and her mom's being attacked by, you know.

Steve

And again, she's the one at least who claims mommy killed him now. Yeah. She makes it sound like a lot of the parents throughout the Town were in on it, but that maybe she lit the match.

Nic

Culprit really keep the hand.

Steve

That's true.

Steve

Exactly. So. So he is attacking her, and they end up throwing, like, a blanket over them to, like. To, like, put out the fire. And when they do, Freddy's gone, but the mom's body is just burned to crisp and then sinks into the bed somehow.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

In the dream world, are we not at this point.

Nic

Right. That was a little weird. Or is it like Freddy has a hold of the bed and the mom so he can still manipulate it in reality.

Nic

But, yeah, that was a very bizarre scene. And really quick for her mom to.

Steve

Just be that charred.

Nic

And her dad. And mom and dad are divorced.

Nic

I don't know if we mentioned that earlier, but I guess that's why, you know, he's not living there. And he's a little less distraught when he sees what's happened. But basically, her dad goes into the room and she's just like, now do you believe me?

Steve

It's like, come on, man.

Nic

Like a.

Nic

He should. I mean, you should make him feel bad about this a lot in the future, but right now, maybe not the time.

Steve

So this then leads us to the final scene of the movie. One of the most classic final scenes, in my opinion of, like, any movie like this. It's wonderfully a cliffhanger.

Steve

It's wonderfully ambiguous. So she wakes up and she heads out the front door, and her mom and her are together heading out the front door, which is like, oh, wait, did her mom not really die? Like, that's weird. But of course, it's all foggy. It's bright, though.

Nic

Well, first, sorry. Freddie is encountering her, and he's kind of behind her, right. And he appears, and she's saying, you're not real.

Steve

Oh, that's right. That's right.

Steve

That's how she kind of overtakes him. So.

Nic

So he's like. It's like, all right, well, she's dead. Freddy's behind her, and she's not turning to look at him.

Nic

She's like, you're not real. You're not real.

Steve

It's just a dream.

Nic

And she's able to do this enough. And Freddy just kind of, like, dematerializes.

Steve

Yeah, he goes to, like, he reaches for her, like, to get her with the gloved hand, with the bladed glove or whatever. And, yeah, just sort of. Yeah. Dissipates. And it's just gone.

Steve

It's. You know, she took his power away, basically by ignoring him. And that was the, you know, which is really kind of how nightmares can be overcome.

Nic

Right.

Steve

You know, in general.

Steve

So. Yes. So then after that, it's. It's. She kind of goes through the door and suddenly it's.

Steve

She's outside up front. It's bright, you know, she makes a comment about how bright it is and her mom says, oh, it's such a nice day. I'm sure this will burn off soon. And you realize it's all foggy, which is like, oh, to date in this movie that's only been in dream world or whatever. Right.

Steve

Car pulls up. It's Glenn's car, the convertible. The top is down, or the top is up, rather. And it's him and Rod and Tina. They're all alive.

Steve

Oh, good. Everybody's alive. Let's get in the car and get going. Well, she gets in the car and that ragtop comes down and, you know.

Nic

Without them not doing anything.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

And it is the green and red stripes of Freddy's sweater. And I. That is one of my favorite visuals in this movie is that convertible ragtop being. Looking like that.

Steve

And sure enough, so those doors lock, the windows roll up and you know, it basically the car drives away and you hear Freddie like, cackling. And it's. It's like, yeah, what actually happened at the end? Are they. Is she safe?

Steve

Is she dead?

Nic

Is she still dreaming?

Steve

You know, what's going on? It just leaves everything open ended. It's an ambiguous ending in the best way possible.

Steve

And that's. That's how the movie wraps, which is just really fantastic.

Nic

And then. And then we're treated to it to an awesome 80s song here, Nightmare by 213. And it's basically the song that they wrote for the movie.

Nic

But it's a good, like butt rock and like, you know, a song about what happens in this. About don't fall asleep.

Steve

That's right.

Nic

So definitely check out that song. But yeah, that's.

Nic

That's Nightmare on Elm Street.

Steve

It is, yeah. What a ride.

Nic

Do you want to do it first?

Steve

I'll give you mine.

Nic

So. All right.

Steve

As I've said, like, I'm a big fan of horror movies. And, you know, this is one of those movies. I mentioned it in the last episode and we kind of introduced that they would be doing this movie.

Steve

There's like a Mount Rushmore in my opinion of. And it's not just my opinion, a lot of people agree. 80s and 90s movie monsters, right. Chucky from the Child's Play movies. Michael Myers from Halloween, Jason Voorhees From Friday the 13th and Freddy Krueger is like one of the just ultimate movie monsters of our sort of childhood and young adulthood in that era.

Steve

And this movie gave it to us. The effects, even before I recognize. Before I looked up what the budget was to do the facts on this, I was impressed with the effects. Right. They're very impressive.

Steve

Impressive. But to then learn that Wes Craven did all this on the amount of money he did on is just mind blowing. Absolutely amazing. The inventiveness of the character, the uniqueness and originality of this monster and his and his methods is all just so impressive. Yeah, the acting wasn't fantastic, but both Heather Langenkamp and Johnny Depp are more than passable even at this stage in their careers.

Steve

You know, very, very. You know, they're good enough for sure for the material. Robert England is terrifying in the best way. John Saxon is, you know, the impression, impressively bungling dad or whatever, cop who wants to help but, like, clearly is just in over his head with all this. I love everything about this movie.

Steve

I'll be totally honest with you. I am 5 out of 5 on a nightmare on Elm Street. I think this is. This movie is important culturally. It's important within the world of horror movies.

Steve

It's important even, you know, more specifically within the world of slashers. It's not like it's the first slasher like we talked about Friday the 13th, Texas Chainsaw Massacre. A bunch of stuff had come out before this did that really was, you know, driving the slasher genre into creation.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

But there's something about the arrival of Freddy Krueger that solidifies the 80s as the decade of the slasher film.

Steve

And so, yeah, I. Five. Five stars for me on A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Nic

All right, well, good. And that makes a lot of sense.

Nic

Yeah, I mean, you give yourself so much more to work with in subsequent films as well, with the Freddy character versus the Jason Voorhees, which is like. It just becomes like, what brutal ways can this guy kill people in? But Freddy can become all these things and he can manipulate all this stuff, and it's really cool. And I don't know, like, how. What the intentions of this movie is, but it does seem like kind of a commentary on just like, vigilante justice and how these things can go sideways.

Nic

Like, if you're trying to collectively cover up, you know, whatever the. This past evil is, even if you're on the side of protecting the kids, it's gonna come back if we're not upfront about this stuff. And if we don't communicate what happened and deal with things the right way. His origin story I thought was interesting. I think I might have not seen this until after I saw Freddy versus Jason.

Nic

Oh, interesting, because I really didn't get into it until late, but I remember in that movie and that's like, it's a not bad late horror movie, one.

Steve

Of the later ones, but it does.

Nic

A really good, good demonstration of like the Freddy origin story. It kind of retells it and it has like visuals to it and stuff. Very short, but it's really effective and just being like, oh, God.

Nic

Like this Freddy Krueger is such beyond, like any level of creep that you can even conceptualize pure evil. Really, really rough, but a lot of fun to watch. And he is kind of fun because he's kind of funny and he does interesting things and. And he has gags and he seems like he's having a good time killing everyone. I can't fault him for that.

Nic

Yeah, so it's not a horror guy. I'm. I did really enjoy watching this and it's short. There's not a lot of fat on it. It's.

Nic

It's well done. It's really scary in parts. I'm going to give this one a four out of five.

Steve

Very nice.

Nic

I thought it was great.

Steve

All right, well, that is a nine out of ten from the two Dads on A Nightmare on Elm Street. Nic.

Nic

Yes.

Steve

You get to pick the next movie. What are we going to watch next week?

Nic

Yeah, so staying with our Shocktoberfest theme, going outside of maybe a traditional horror movie, but this is more one that I really enjoyed that's a scary movie and is going to mess with your mind. I haven't seen this in a long time, but I remember it having just a lot of visuals that stuck with me and really cool film. We're going back to 1990 and we are going to join Tim Robbins and who is a former Vietnam vet and his various struggles. Struggles that he's dealing with in Jacob's Ladder.

Steve

Nice.

Nic

Great psychological thriller and I'm looking forward to see how it holds up.

Steve

I've never seen it, so I look forward to watching it for the first time. That's very cool. And yeah, definitely. I mean, what I know of it, it definitely fits the Shocktoberfest theme.

Steve

So, you know, stick with us audience if you're interested in more scary and. And sort of mess with you movies. I mean, I think that's a lot of what we're picking for this, for this theme. Is like stuff that really messes with.

Nic

You and sticks with you.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

So very excited for that. We'll watch Jacob's Ladder next week. That about wraps it up. So if you like what you hear, and we hope you do, please consider heading over to Apple or Spotify and leaving us a five star review.

Steve

It really helps new folks find the show. If you want to drop us a line, share your thoughts on an episode, tell us what we got wrong, or suggest a movie we should do next, you can do so at the showodadsonemovie.com that's the number two and the number one. You can also follow us on Instagram @2dads1movie. Once again, this has been a nightmare on Elm street. Another episode of 2 Dads 1 Movie.

Steve

I'm Steve.

Nic

And I'm Nic.

Steve

Thank you so much for listening. We'll catch you all next week.

Nic

Thanks everyone.