Scores of Scores : Charles Bernstein’s ‘A Nighmare on Elm Street’

Soundtracks and scores have been a huge part of my listening diet. Music can make or break a movie, so getting the right composer putting sound to visuals is as important as getting the right actor, cinematographer, writer, or special effects person. You can have a solid movie ruined by a lousy score.

I’m starting a new series called ‘Scores of Scores’, where I highlight one of my favorite scores in my collection and talk a bit about it. Since we’re officially in the spooky season the first couple will be some of my favorite horror film scores. We’re getting things off with a bang with Charles Bernstein’s excellent score for Wes Craven’s A Nightmare On Elm Street.

A Nightmare On Elm Street was one of the first movies we rented in the 80s when my parents bought a Toshiba Betamax VCR. The actual first two movies we rented were Creepshow and Strange Brew, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving in 1984, but A Nightmare On Elm Street was the following summer, 1985.

I was trying to remember if I knew about the movie prior to renting it, or if it was a random rental. I remember seeing the trailer for A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge late one night with my brother and our parents took us to see it. But since this was the mid-80s there was no internet hype to get you up to speed on movies. You saw trailers during commercials or before films in the theater, or you read about it in Fangoria, Gorezone, or Slaughterhouse. I’m pretty sure we saw a trailer for the first Nightmare movie, so that’s how we knew about it.

As for the movie itself, it blew my 5th grade brain. The concept of a boogeyman/child rapist and murderer that when he killed you in your dream you died for real was one hell of a frightening prospect. Everyone has that dream that you’re falling, or you’re being chased and can’t run. Now, imagine that dream but you will actually die from that fall or that chase. Ehh? Yeah, maybe 11-years old was too young to watch that movie but it’s too late now. Horror films have made their mark on me, which is why I’m the 52-year old that I am.

The thing about A Nightmare on Elm Street was that you liked the “kids” in it, and I use the term kids loosely as the actors were probably all well into their 20s in 1984 when it was made. And Freddy was a genuinely scary character in the first film. He didn’t really start doing his Don Rickles-like one-liners until part 2(“Help yourself, fucker!”) You truly felt for Nancy as she was brewing coffee in her room at 1am to stay awake, or when she was calling Johnny Depp’s parents house to warn them to keep him awake and they blew her off as crazy. Even the leather clad bad boy boyfriend you felt for as he was hung in his jail cell.

Nancy’s mom, played by Ronnie Blakely, was equally clueless in her denial of Nancy’s problems of going to bed. She was an alcoholic, but also in denial of the fact that the boogeyman the parents took care of was haunting their children in their dreams. John Saxon as Nancy’s dad/police chief was a little more understanding, but not until it was nearly too late.

The nightmare sequences in the film, in-particular the one at the high school was amazingly effective and creepy. A bloody body bag being dragged by some unknown force? Creepy and disturbing. Freddy cutting his own fingers off, laughing. Or walking down the alleyway with his arms stretching out and touching the walls on either side of him? Great, shocking visuals.

There are iconic horror film scores. Psycho, Friday the 13th, Jaws, etc…but Charles Bernstein makes a score for this film that is as catchy and eerie as it is melancholy. That piano refrain feels maudlin and haunting, and the rest of the acoustic/electronic score carries you along perfectly into Craven’s nightmare world. But that main title theme is as iconic as the best of them. Bernstein gives us something truly singular when it comes to the film, while making something endlessly listenable whether you’re watching the movie or just spinning the record on a cold, lonely fall eve with the lights turned low.

I finally picked up the score on vinyl via Mondo/Death Waltz Recording Company back in December of 2019. It was a birthday present, along with the newly recorded version of Joseph LoDuca’s Evil Dead score(I still need that new 4K pressing with the new score attached to it.)

It’s spooky season. Time to walk amongst the crunching leaves, the falling pine needles, and the crisp autumnal winds. What better time to give Charles Bernstein’s amazing A Nightmare On Elm Street score a listen than now? And while you’re at it, give the film a rewatch. Still holds up over 40 years later.