Watching the films of Johnny Depp is a fraught exercise in 2024. Depp has been frequently in trouble with the law throughout his career, having gotten into fights, having threatened paparazzi, and having once trashed a hotel room. A lot of Depp’s early temper problems were likely connected to his admitted alcoholism, something he wrestled with for a long span of his life. Depp’s highly publicized separation from his wife Amber Heard also caused a media firestorm, leading to mutual accusations of physical abuse, more drug use, and a lot of bad blood. Both Depp and Heard were found guilty of defamation.
Many have come to refuse Depp’s movies altogether, hating the abuse he visited upon Heard. Ever since 2018, Depp has appeared in the public eye less and less frequently. His film “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” wasn’t a big hit, and his character was replaced by Mads Mikkelsen in the follow-up. He has made very few films since, and none of them have been major studio releases. Depp is persona non grata.
It’s a pity he made himself so difficult to like, as Depp turned in many great performances throughout his career, often taking daring, weird, edgy roles, happy to play a long string of weirdos and maniacs. His work with Tim Burton remains first-rate (“Ed Wood” probably being the best of their many collaborations), and his dizzying performance in “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” is one for the ages. We worked with John Waters on “Cry-Baby,” happy to use the rockabilly comedy to eschew his late ’80s “teen heartthrob” reputation.
Of all of Depp’s scripted films, however, his first remains his best reviewed. In 1984, when Depp was only 20, he appeared in Wes Craven’s horror classic “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” a film that sports a 95% approval rating on the famed aggregate.
A Nightmare on Elm Street
Technically, one film has a higher percentage of positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, and that would be the 2020 documentary film “Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan,” about the outsize lead singer of The Pogues. Depp produced “Crock of Gold,” and appeared as himself, speaking with the title subject. That film has a 96% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. “A Nightmare on Elm Street” is Depp’s best-reviewed fiction film.
In “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” Depp plays Glen, the understanding, tolerant boyfriend of Nancy (Heather Langenkamp), the film’s heroine. Nancy, her friend Tina (Amanda Wyss), and Tina’s boyfriend Rod (Nick Corri) have all been dreaming of the same creepy figure, a man with a burned-up face, a filthy sweater, and a glove that sports a small blade protruding from each finger. When this mysterious entity kills them in a dream, they die in real life. The vision will later be revealed to be a dead murderer named Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund), a man who was killed by the vigilante justice of the local adults, but who came back to stalk their offspring in their dreams.
Glen might be called the skeptic of the group. He isn’t being stalked by Freddy, so can’t say for sure whether what Nancy is experiencing is real or not. Glen, however, always listens to what Nancy has to say, and even offers help; late in the film he offers to appear in one of Nancy’s dreams, just in case Freddy shows up. Glen, quite sadly, meets a very grisly fate. Something about a blood volcano.
“Nightmare” was a huge hit, making $57 million on a $1.1 million budget. In 2024, that’s like a $3 million film making $164 million. Freddy Krueger became a legitimate pop culture icon, and the film spawned eight sequels, a TV series, a remake, and a few video games along the way.
The rise and fall of Johnny Depp
Eventually, the “Nightmare” series would become overcommercialized to the point of no longer being scary. Freddy became sillier and sillier, and the dreams became mere showcases for their (admittedly creative and awesome) special effects. When one goes back to the original, though, one can once again feel Nancy’s panic, and rediscover how odd and scary the original premise was. Depp’s sensitive “normal guy” performance helped to ground the movie, and his presence was invaluable.
After “Nightmare,” Depp would take on the notable role of Tom Hanson on the 1987 teen-cop drama “21 Jump Street.” He appeared in 80 episodes of the show and was instantly branded a teen idol for a new generation. Depp famously resented his heartthrob status and railed against it publically. Thanks to “Cry-Baby” and Tim Burton’s tender Frankenstein riff “Edward Scissorhands,” Depp broke out of that mold, proving he was more interested in challenging, quirky roles than romantic leads or generic hunks. Depp started to work with notable filmmakers like Emir Kusturica, Jim Jarmusch, Terry Gilliam, and Roman Polanski (another fraught figure).
Depp became a commercial powerhouse in 2003 with the release of “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,” a Disney blockbuster based on a Disneyland attraction. He played a drunken pirate named Jack Sparrow, and the public fell in love with Depp all over again. The role netted him an Academy Award nomination.
As mentioned, Depp’s off-screen behavior has taken him out of public favor, and many will hesitate to watch any of his movies. While I shan’t defend Depp here; one can decide for themselves if they want to pay for a ticket to see him, knowing his violent past. I will, however, say that you would be doing yourself a disservice to skip a horror classic like “A Nightmare on Elm Street.” To this day, it’s still great. And scary.