DW "A Nightmare On Elm Street" (Craven, 1984)

Genre
- The sub-genre of this film is Slasher. This is made clear by the stock characters and stock scenes, like a young, female protagonist, an older male antagonist with a set of hand blades for a weapon, an adult unaware of the events, and heavy connotations of violence.

Form and Style
- A sense of foreboding is created through sound, mise-en-scene and camera work.
- Character exposition is created through narrative.
- Titles of actors, producers and directors appear in the bottom corners of the frame, with no fancy graphics or movement.
- The main title of the film slides up from the bottom, to the centre of the screen. The typography uses red and white fonts that are irregularly sized and positioned to connote the slasher, psychopathic element of the film.
- The title of the film "A Nightmare On Elm Street" connotes a sense of dark and mystery with the word nightmare, but also the sense of an illusionary, and out of control situation. The use of a street name implies the film is within a domestic environment, which connotes verisimilitude and realism.

Film Language
- Mise-en-scene
- Dark, low key lighting is used throughout the sequence to convey meaning, which connotes doom and sense of mystery as a lot of the shot is hard to clearly see.
- Costume props and location are also used extensively to convey meaning. The whole scene is very industrial, with knives, pipes, hammers and big work benches and machines. These are used to connote a dangerous, busy atmosphere.
- Camera
- Close ups are used extensively on the antagonist, and only his hands are shown, there are no shots of his face. Leaving the antagonist hidden from the audience is a key feature of slasher horror, as it connotes mystery and the unknown.
- Sound
- Non-diegetic sound is used to anchor the sequence, for example high pitch sustained strings play for a lot of the clip, which are key in building tension when the protagonist is looking for the antagonist, and also when she is trying to hide from him.
- An eerie chromatic synth riff is also heard playing. The use of the chromatic scale connotes the unknown as it doesn't stick to a regular scale. This creates dissonance and tension.

Narrative
- The order of the narrative: introduction to the antagonist character, introduction to the protagonist character, protagonist seeks out and finds antagonist, antagonist attacks protagonist.
- Major themes presented: good vs evil, human vs unknown.
- Protagonist
- We are made to identify with the female protagonist, because she is given reaction shots and prevalence over the antagonist.
- We are made to feel alienated against her because we see her invading someone else's space and home.
- Antagonist
- We are made to identify with the male antagonist because we are shown his home and his environment, and the set up of him making his knife claws. We are also shown the protagonist invading his territory which makes us side with the antagonist.
- We are made to feel alienated against him because we are not shown anymore than his hands, so we are made to feel as if he isn't an important character.

Representation & Ideologies
- The protagonist in the sequence is a young woman, and she is represented as foolish and naive by going to find out the source of the noises she can hear, and ends up seeking out the killer. This is a dominant ideological discourse for horror films, for both age and gender, as it is a cliché for someone to go somewhere that they wouldn't in real life.
- The antagonist in the sequence is a male, who's age and identity is hidden from the audience. Because of this, he is represented as a mysterious and creepy character, and also quite dangerous as it is stereotypical to hide the killer from the audience in slasher films, and he is shown to be able to go undetected from the protagonist. This is dominant ideological discourse of the antagonist in slasher films.

- Ideological construction
- Marginalised
- Value judgement

Media Audiences
- The target audience of "A Nightmare On Elm Street" is ordinary teenagers and young people, so was designed to appeal to a mass audience.
- A preferred reading of the text is that the antagonist is a dangerous, yet clever and organised killer who is going to seek revenge on a younger audience, and will kill many in the process.
- A negotiated reading is that the antagonist has bad intentions, yet may be useless in his attempts, and is overcome by the protagonist later in the film.

One idea we could take from the opening sequence of "A Nightmare On Elm Street" is not developing the antagonist, as it is a useful technique in alienating him from the audience, and building a sense of mystery around him.