That's a good horror flick. Some genuinely good special effects (some, at least). Some eerie scoring. Some awesome, shocking kills. It's everything you can want from a Freddy movie.

Not everything works. The performances are really hit-or-miss. Heather Langenkamp still hasn't taken any acting lessons since the first entry. Patricia Arquette in an early role is only a smidge better. The other actors are obviously having fun and doing their best, but yeah, some were amateurish at best. At least Robert Englund was in his full glory!

The real star of the film is Freddy, in all his guises. I won't spoil the surprises, but I was shocked at some of these dream sequences. Chuck Russell and company let their imagination run wild with the scares and the effects and the props, and the movie, and maybe even the character of Freddy, is so much better for it.

I can only hope that the series keeps up this level of creativity, of special effect work, of fun in the rest of the series. It's up there with the best of the 70s and 80s slashers for me. Solid horror rec.