Never sleep again....

To prepare fans for the then-upcoming remake, New Line gave us a new Blu-ray edition of the Wes Craven's original "A Nightmare on Elm Street."

Those that are Freddy fans know the story by now. Fred Krueger (Robert Englund) was released from murder charges on a technicality, so the people of Springwood burned and killed him. Krueger, however, came back to kill their children in their dreams.

This Blu-ray release has a spectacular picture. The film never looked better. The black levels are black and the white levels are white. The Infinifilm DVD that came out in 2006 was a step up from the previous DVDs, and now this Blu-ray is two steps above that.

One can't ignore the audio quality as well. Freddy never sounded creepier.

If you'll notice, the cover art for the Blu-ray resembles the Infinifilm DVD cover art. So that means all the features are there, right? That's not always true. There are many examples of where that's not the case at all, but I can discuss that in a different blog entry.

Here, we are treated to most of the features from the Infinifilm edition.

Special features include:
- Ready Freddy Focus Points (alternate takes and filmmaking tips while watching the movie)
- Two commentaries
- Three alternate endings (Scary Ending, Happy Ending, and Freddy Ending)
- Three featurettes ("The House That Freddy Built: The Legacy of New Line Horror," "Never Sleep Again: The Making of A Nightmare on Elm Street," "Night Terrors: The Origins of Wes Craven's Nightmares")

The back cover mentions that also included is an interactive trivia track. However, while browsing through the features, I couldn't find it. That's a shame, but it's not a big loss. Since I bought the DVD, I only remember playing it once.

The picture and audio quality alone make this a worthwhile upgrade, especially if you never owned the Infinifilm DVD. The lesser special features have been dropped, but nothing of great importance.

I just hope that we will get the same great treatment for the rest of the series.

The Blu-ray is available on Amazon for $16.99. DVD users can pick up the Infinifilm DVD for $12.49.

Also available is a new edition of the entire series box set for $35.49. It includes all seven "Elm Street" films and "Freddy vs. Jason." I haven't checked it out myself but it sounds like the best in-print set of the whole series. There are a couple "4 Film Favorites" DVDs available too, for less money, but they are on double-sided discs. Decide for yourself how you feel about those.