Customer Reviews

The Nightmare On Elm Street Collection (New Line Platinum Series)

5 star:		(123)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

In this review, I DO NOT AIM TO DISCUSS THE QUALITY OF THE FILMS/MATERIAL. I just want to clarify details about the set's packaging that have been debated in past reviews.

First of all, there are no 3D glasses to be found here (whether the 3D ending of film #6 is still included is still unknown to me, but, like I said, this review isn't to review content).

Second of all, the case is plastic like any DVD case (with a thick slipcover), and not made of paper sleeves as someone else previously reported. The individual discs are housed in plastic "pages" with one disc clipped into each side (not unlike most DVD box sets).

Lastly, the only other thing included in the box besides the 8 discs is a theater admission coupon for the new remake of A Nightmare On Elm Street starring Jackie Earle Haley (NOTE: my review of the remake can be found at [...] if this is an enticing feature of the box set for you). There is no booklet or anything like that.

Also, it may be worth clarifying the fact that the 8th disc contains the film "Freddy vs. Jason", and not simply a documentary/bonus feature set as others have previously mentioned (I imagine people who said otherwise bought the set before 2003).

Overall, I'm very pleased with the packaging of this set, having been prepared for the worst by reading reviews here that were obviously written about past versions of this box set. Since Amazon doesn't provide this information, I figured I'd put it in a review for you guys. Hopefully it was useful in helping to remove any doubts similar to the ones I had when purchasing.

The Nightmare on Elm Street DVD Collection is pretty much a must-have for all Freddy fans, especially those like me who basically came of age watching Freddy do his thing. No movie releases apart from the original Star Wars trilogy invoked more excitement and conjecture in me than did the Elm Street sequels, and all of the films are really just as good now as they were when they were released - better, in fact, thanks to DVD technology and the abundance of special features it makes possible. Of course, the technological explosion in terms of cinematic possibilities we have witnessed in the years since Freddy's birth comes with a price - it is now almost impossible for horror fans such as myself to actually be scared by a movie. Even today's youngest generation will never feel the true magic that Freddy cascaded onto his original audience - they have simply become inured to such primal feelings via the saturation of pop culture itself. Still, though, we who have just turned the door on youth can rediscover the feelings the Elm Street movies first wrought inside our souls, and several of these films do possess the creepy potential to insinuate their horrors into the hearts and minds of the younger generations. The original will never be as shocking as it was in 1984, but it is still a powerful film built on grand archetypes of good and evil that will never fade away. The third film, in contrast to the second one, shows just how effective a true sequel can be at not only recapturing what has come before but expounding upon its very essence in a way sure to delight the audience. Films four and five highlight the innately human propensity to take a good idea and milk it for all it's worth, transforming the core idea that gave birth to something innovative into purely entertaining, meaningless echoes of its original dark self. Freddy's Dead shows just how difficult it can be to recapture the magic that even studio executives know has been lost, and then Wes Craven's New Nightmare makes up for all the bad things, as Freddy's creator returns to the series and recreates and redefines his now-stagnant creation into something just as different and unsettling as the original.

The seven movies basically need no exposition on my part, so I will turn my attention to the extras included on this definitive Freddy collection. For one thing, you get the option of watching the original 3-D ending to Freddy's Dead (along with two sets of 3-D glasses) as well as the 2-D ending that the video release included. The 3-D ending does not make up for the general problems with Freddy's final "death" but its availability to the home viewer counts for a lot in my book. Each DVD allows you to jump to any death sequence you choose, which some fans may like (even though Nightmare's essence was not really about the increasingly outlandish kills). The set comes with a bonus DVD that purports to feature The Nightmare Series Encyclopedia. I found this DVD somewhat tedious after a while, but it does feature a brand new documentary on the series. You also get a number of interviews with the men and women who helped bring Freddy to life as well as interested bystanders such as Clive Barker comparing his Hellraiser films to Craven's Nightmare series. There is a Freddy trivia game included for those who like that sort of thing, a very impressive booklet featuring the original press kit information on each film, two film commentaries, a screensaver, trailers, and cast and crew information. A lot of this bonus material is made available in the form of a labyrinth in which you must travel from place to place picking items at random - fortunately, much of the material is much more handily available through an index of features on the disk.

Two things disappoint me about this collection. For one, the Labyrinth is aggravating and really not enjoyable to explore; I really don't know why industry people think fans enjoy having to work our way to the special bonus features we paid for in the first place. My other disappointment is the lack of commentaries. The original film features a marvelous commentary by Wes Craven, actors Heather Langenkamp and John Saxon, and director of photography Jacques Haitkin, while Wes Craven's New Nightmare contains a fascinating commentary by Wes Craven alone, but these are the only commentaries available over the entire series of movies (the third movie definitely deserves a commentary of its own). Deleted scenes would also have been a welcome addition, especially given Craven's abundant comments concerning scenes he had to remove from his Nightmare films for various reasons. Still, this collection delivers the goods that all Freddy fans care the most about, as the widescreen, digitally remastered versions of the seven films are stunningly impressive.

just purchased this collection been a fan of all the night mare on elm street movies seen them all and for any horror fan a must buy for shure

1,2,3,4 he will be coming for more! Good collection , twisted horror for those how can laugh at horror! Gotta watch em all to appreciate how they tried to stay true to form as the original

A great collectors edition. The only complaint is that the individual dvd cases are paper and not hard plastic.

I've received two copies of this DVD and both were wrong. It does not contain the first nightmare on elm street, instead it's a double feature of freddy vs Jason and Wes cravens a new nightmare

This was an amazing purchase. Nice packaging for a 8 dvd .
Looked brand new. Will definitly purchase from amazon again.

Words can't begin to describe how awsome this set is! But I'll try by saying all seven NIGHTMARE movies in one set is amazing, and then you also get The NIGHTMARE series encyclopedia! With so many bonus features it enough to make your head spin. Original mind blowing animated menus, two feature length commentaries with series creator Wes Craven, a thirty six page collector's booklet with the origional production notes and rare photo's, eight original dream world trivia games (DVD-ROM)*, jump to a NIGHTMARE screne navigation, 3-D DVD sequences (two pairs of glasses included), and all seven screenplays (DVD-ROM)*-watch the scene will reading the script, and much more! This is the best way to see all seven NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET films on DVD! I highly recommend any and all horror moie fan's to pick this set up today!...

Here is the greatest thing for Freddy Krueger fans. This is a box with the 7 movies of the series plus a bonus DVD with a bunch of special bonus. On each DVD there are great trivias in the DVD-Rom features, great sound and captions... If you like this series, it's really worth buying. I don't have to warn you that the movies are violent, blood, sex, guts and this kind of thing, but it's fine, anyway. One of the coolest things is that there are a couple of Nightmare On Elm Street 3D glasses (you use them to see the 6th movie ending). And a booklet full of pictures and cool texts. The only reason I dont give this a maximum rating is the fact that the DVD-Rom features doesn't work on iMac... Buy it anyway. Great fun! Lock your doors, grab a crucifix and.. DO NOT SLEEP!

I'm going to forget about revieweing the flicks and just say I love and respect them all (even Freddy's Dead) for different reasons, so I recommend them all. But, this Platinum Series box set is like a revelation. With new, improved picture and sound and countless extra features, it makes a must buy for anyone looking for good, campy horror fun, and at a fairly low and very bargain price. With eight discs, it's a surprise this baby got off so cheap, but I'm not complaining. The cheaper, the better, right? Anyway, I'm going to divide these up into categories of quality, so to speak.

Picture: The picture was absoloutly perfect. On all seven classics, I detected no problems with grain, film artifacts, speckles, or any other things that plague DVDS. When I buy a New Line DVD, even if it's not a special edition I know the picture will be perfect. The "Nightmare On Elm Street" films are no different. Comparing these to the videos is like comparing mud to water. It is so much clearer and everything is more pronounced than in any previous video, no matter how "Remastered In High Definition" that video was. The movies are all correctly framed at an anamorphic 1:85:1 aspect ratio. Even a twelve year old like me knows the importance of viewing a film in widescreen. I no longer buy, nor watch, fullscreen movies. It is a stupid and ridiculous thing to do. We should all respect what the director and cinematagrograpers (sp?) vision was, and not butcher it by chopping off the sides of the picutre. I'm glad to see other people realize this, too, though many others do not. Viewed on my widescreen TV (which I payed all three thousand dollars for myself out of lots of allowance, thank you very much), the movie only looked even better. In fact, the color seemed even more superior to my standard TV (didn't pay for that one). Well, the point is, these movies look better than ever, and I truly can't imagine them looking any better. Major kudos to New Line. If there were no special features on this set, the picture quality would still earn the set five stars. Yes, friends, it's that good. You can tell a lot of time and effort went into these transfer. 5/5

Sound: Spellbinding. The movies are presented in two different formats. There's the oringal audio (mono on first three and stereo on 4, 5, 6, and 7), or the remixed 5.1 surround sound mixes. When listned to in surround sound, the movies sounded fantastic. Dialogue and effects were all spread evenly throughout the five channels, and there were tons of sound effects that you wouldn't har on video because it is so muffled. If you don't have surround sound, the 5.1 still sounds good, though the stereo and mono are all pretty good, too (over the last week I watched all of them in their original sound). However, I have trouble with Wes Craven's New Nightmare. It seems I'm constantly grabbing the remote to turn the sound up or down. That was the only problem of the whole sound. 4/5

Special Features: This is where the set gets its Platinum title. There is an eighth disc in here called "The Nightmare Encyclopdia." It deserves that title. Every film is spread out separately in an index with plenty of different interviews that reveal very cool information, and finally spread some light on topics not talked about before (the homo-erotic undertones in Part 2). The people being interviewed are all very honest and open about how they feel about the films. Some even talk about how they were stretching the series too far, and the lame 3-D ending of Part 6. None of the interviews are boring, and in fact, I just watched all of them for the fourth time, today (I bought this set in 1999). There is an original ending for Part 1, which isn't much different. There's a second one hidden in the Labyringht, and it's not to different, either (don't bother looking). The labyringh is a sort of video game on the disc. It will not work on some players, but works fine on mine. I have a lot of fun with this game, but some won't. I can understand the frustration of having to play the game to get stuff, but I love playing. A lot of stuff here can be found in the index, but there's new material, as well, including funny interviews with fans.

The discs themselves are pretty bare, because all the special features have been moved to the eighth disc, but there are commentaries on 1 and 7. Both are fascinating, but I much preffer the one on 7. I guess when Wes Craven talks alone, more information comes out then when he talks with a lot of other people. But, both are fascinating. There's also a Cast and Crew section, that at times can be quite interesting (read the Brooke Bundy one to see ehat she thinks of the "Halloween" movies), and a "Jump To A Nightmare" option. There is A PAIR of 3-D glasses provided for Part 6. The reason I highlight A PAIR, is because all these other reviews promised two pairs, but mine only came with one. By that I mean A 3-D goggle thing, not two. So, if I have a friend over and we watch the 3-D ending, either he or I have to watch it all blurry and fuzzy. It's a little annoying. Also, the 3-D end is weak, and if you're getting this set just to have that, you'll be dissipointed. It doesn't work very well. The only time I felt like anything was coming out of the screen was when a parent threw a bottle, and that still didn't look very good. I usually just watch it in 2-D. 4/5 (More like 4 and a half out of five).

Now, there are some bads things in this set. That is my only reason for lowering the extras grade. First, and foremost, the deleted scenes provided on the Special Edition video cassette of Part 1 are missing here. Also, Part 6 aired on FX with three extra scenes, and they're not here. The cut of Part 5 is R-Rated, not Unrated. I preffer the Unrated version (have it on video) because it explains the line Freddy says, "You are what you eat." He was feeding Greta her own guts, but in the R-Rated version you don't know that. Also, Dan turning into a motorcycle was much gorier in the Unrated version. New Line has learned from their mistakes, though, and most of the DVDs they make now contain an R-Rated and an Unrated cut. Anyway, those are my small complaints (oh, and I would have liked commentaries on all the films), that bring it down a notch. Other than those, this set is a must buy. Any Freddy fan will die over this set, and you'll watch it over and over again for the years to come. One day, I intend to share these films with my children (when they're older), and they'll see all the horror, comedy, and fun of one of the best sagas of all time.

"Welcome to prime time, [*]!"

Freddy Krueger