The opening scene of Nightmare on Elm Street establishes tension as the villain sharpens claws to use as a weapon. After the title appears in red, suggesting blood, a young lady runs toward darkness, implying danger. This frustrates the audience as she runs toward the villain in the enclosed, dark area where deaths often occur in horror films. After the title, a bewildered young blonde woman assumes the victim role due to horror film conventions of depicting the vulnerable victim as blonde and innocent.

1. Opening Scene Of
Nightmare
On Elm Street

2.  The film Nightmare On Elm Street establishes danger
and tension from the onset as the villain is immediately
shown preparing a weapon. It is sharpened to produce
lethal claws. This action is designed to cause fear in the
audience when they realise how the villain intends to
torture or possibly kill a potential victim. The music
starts eerily and quietly building up in volume as the
tension increases. This unknown villain so far is creating
a weapon to build up tension for the audience to
assume he is preparing to threaten, blackmail, maim, or
kill someone. We don’t know yet…

3.  After the weapon is produced, the
Nightmare On Elm Street title is shown. The
majority of the title is in red to depict blood.
This is significant as the weapon could
produce a huge amount of blood to occur.
By using a title in red may show this
outcome of the weapon.

4.  This also makes the opening scene automatically dangerous
as we first see the weapon being made by the villain and then
an innocent young lady runs into a closed area. This is a
unique shot as she’s walking toward darkness, implying
danger rather than walking towards brightness which could
symbolise safety. This could be reinforced as being scared of
the dark is a common fear, and therefore with the character
walking towards it, the audience can imagine that something
bad is going to happen. With this character running, we
assume she’s running away from the villain. However, due to
the codes and conventions of most deaths happening in
enclosed, dark areas, we realise that she’s running towards
him. This causes huge frustration in the audience as well as
tension as they are horrified by the possibility of a young
innocent girl possibly getting murdered.

5.  After the title we see a young blonde woman looking
bewildered by her surroundings. With no signs to
acknowledge her personality one assumes she is the
victim in this film due to codes and conventions. The
codes and conventions in horror films (such as
Hitchcock's famous shower scene in Psycho and the
final attack scene in The Birds) depicts the victim as
blonde, vulnerable, attractive and innocent which is
utilised in this film. This creates fragility, as blonde
females are perceived as helpless in danger and may be
discriminated against with the phrase ‘dumb blonde’.
This is later exploited when the female victim decides
to run into an abandoned, darkened area, which may
put her life in danger. She is also running away from
brightness where she could be able to receive help if in
danger.