From Sept. 18-Oct. 16, we’re looking back at the nine films of the “Nightmare on Elm Street” franchise. First up is the original “A Nightmare on Elm Street” (1984):

Earning its place

Out of the big three 1980s slasher franchises, “A Nightmare on Elm Street” debuted last, after 1978’s “Halloween” and 1980’s “Friday the 13th.” But — judging by the first entry in the nine-film saga (eight in the original continuity, plus one remake) — it’s not the least of them.

Writer-director Wes Craven, who had stumbled a couple years prior with “Swamp Thing” (on the short list of worst superhero actioners ever), gets back in his comfort zone of horror.

This is a more creative concept than “Halloween” and “Friday the 13^th” because the teens who live on Elm Street are stalked by Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) in their dreams.

You would think this would make things less scary, since the kids can wake up and escape him. I’m not saying “Nightmare” is scary when I watch it today, but it does equal its contemporaries in intensity.

Craven shows early on that the teens are vulnerable when Freddy attacks Tina (Amanda Wyss) in her sleep. We see from the perspective of boyfriend Rod (Jsu Garcia) that she’s getting sliced to shreds by Freddy, even when she climbs the wall and perches in the ceiling’s corner. “Nightmare” masterfully uses dream logic, but in this movie, if you die in a dream, you’re dead.

Dream logic

My favorite small instance of dream logic is when Nancy (Heather Langenkamp, arguably the slasher genre’s best Final Girl up to this point) runs up the stairs and her feet sink like it’s quicksand. On a larger scale, I like how she pursues Freddy not merely into her basement, but into a dream-reality sub-basement, which then leads to the boiler room where Freddy resides.

Craven captures the weirdness of dreams, and the special effects team does a masterful job bringing his ideas to life, like when Glen (Johnny Depp, in his first credit) gets pulled into a wormhole in his bed.

“Nightmare” is ultimately more fun than scary, although by making Nancy very much the main character, we remain invested in her battle of wits with Freddy.

Her relationships with best friend Tina and boyfriend Glen feel genuine, and there’s decent banter among the four high schoolers. Rod tells Tina he “woke up with a hard-on with your name on it” and Tina remarks that it’s surprising there was room for all four letters.

The final act is frustrating as the parents — who had murdered child-killer Freddy by burning him alive in a building, as Nancy’s mom (Ronee Blakley) reveals — continue to overlook tons of evidence that Freddy is the culprit. Nancy even pulls his hat out of her dream at one point.

Granted, it’s a common horror conceit that the teens have to defeat the villain on their own (not to mention that old standby wherein the normal people don’t believe in the supernatural, even when it’s right in front of them). But the adults — including Nancy’s dad, the police chief (John Saxon, already a genre veteran from “Black Christmas”) — push the boundary of worthlessness here.

Unresolved situation

“Nightmare’s” biggest oddity is that it does not resolve the situation. Worse, it makes things confusing. The grand finale features Nancy – having “Home Alone’d” her house – taking on Freddy in dreamland.

Nancy pulls Freddy out and – after sledgehammering him and setting him on fire — defeats him by using an Eastern philosophy technique wherein she doesn’t acknowledge his existence; thus, he disappears.

But then we get one last scare where he’s still around, which means: 1, Nancy never did pull Freddy out of her dream state, or 2, Freddy is back at it in a subsequent dream. It’s possible this will be explained in the first sequel, but regardless, it’s odd to end a fairly straightforward slasher film without a crisp resolution. This ain’t exactly “Inception.”

But it’s easy to see why “A Nightmare on Elm Street” was a staple of 1980s video-store runs and sleepover marathons. It has a cool concept, creative and well-executed special effects, and a Final Girl we can root for. It earns its slot alongside “Halloween” and “Friday the 13^th.”

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My rating: