IFDB Review: Nightmare On Elm Street Anthology, Volume 1:

What's left to say about one of the most influential horror films of the 80's? Not much that hasn't already been said really. However, thanks to Dr. Sapirstein we have this edit from 2009 which celebrated the 25th anniversary of Craven's most infamous movie, an extended edit which not only reinserts deleted scenes, but also goes the extra mile in attempting to clean up these sequences and also use some alternate takes as well. The result, perhaps not surprisingly is a mixed bag. Firstly, when you consider the condition some of the deleted scenes are in, Sapirstein does the absolute best that one can expect to try and intergrate them into the movie. Expertly edited they are too; if it wasn't for the difference in quality of the picture, you would never know that these were reinserted scenes. In many ways it reminded me of the way the Halloween 666 Producer's Cut was assembled - or at least the version I was able to see. By that I simply mean that whilst the drop in quality is noticed, it really doesn't matter when they are so skillfully put back into the movie. So, the picture quality varies naturally, but overall the results are excellent on the DVD version I watched. The movie's also given some punch by a good audio mix, with perfect audio editing to complement it. No harsh cuts here - well, apart from Mr Krueger's knives of course. Going away from the technical side however, comes the question of whether the extended version is as good, or any better than the theatrical cut we are all so familiar with. Whilst there are some great added moments, with Glen's extended death scene and the extra talk between the parents about what they did to Krueger originally, being particularly note worthy, it has to be said that one can fully understand why the scenes were cut in the first place. Most add little to the movie, and indeed some just plain slow the movie down too much. This becomes most damaging as we are given a longer scene of Nancy preparing her "A-Team" traps; you can almost hear the original editor and Craven whispering in your ear, "this has got to be trimmed". Having said that, I loved being able to see Nancy's dream fall just as she's entering the dream world to try and bring Freddy into reality, and Craven's original ending is a major plus point as it works so much more effectively than the original. So, as I said, a mixed bag then, but one that is definitely worth adding to the collection of any self respecting Elm Street fan.

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