A Nightmare On Elm Street (video Game)
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''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' is a 1984 American
supernatural Supernatural phenomena or entities are those beyond the Scientific law, laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin 'above, beyond, outside of' + 'nature'. Although the corollary term "nature" has had multiple meanin ...
slasher film A slasher film is a subgenre of horror films involving a killer or a group of killers stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed or sharp tools. Although the term "slasher" may occasionally be used informally as a generic ...
written and directed by
Wes Craven Wesley Earl Craven (August 2, 1939 – August 30, 2015) was an American film director, screenwriter and producer. Amongst his Wes Craven filmography, prolific filmography, Craven worked primarily in the Horror film, horror genre, particularly sla ...
and produced by
Robert Shaye Robert Kenneth Shaye (born March 4, 1939) is an American businessman, film producer, actor, director, and writer. Shaye is the founder of New Line Cinema, a film production studio that was most successful for distributing ''The Lord of the Rin ...
. It is the first installment in the ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' franchise and stars
Heather Langenkamp Heather Elizabeth Langenkamp (born July 17, 1964) is an American actress, director, writer, producer, and disc jockey. Langenkamp is best known for her acting work within the horror genre, as well as television sitcoms. Langenkamp was inducted ...
, John Saxon, Ronee Blakley,
Robert Englund Robert Barton Englund (born June 6, 1947) is an American actor and director. Englund is best known for playing the villain Freddy Krueger in the ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' franchise. Englund has received multiple accolades and honors, incl ...
as
Freddy Krueger Freddy Krueger () is a fictional character and the antagonist of the ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' horror film franchise. Created by Wes Craven, he made his debut in Craven's '' A Nightmare on Elm Street'' (1984) as the malevolent spirit of a ...
, and
Johnny Depp John Christopher Depp II (born June 9, 1963) is an American actor and musician. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Johnny Depp, multiple accolades, including a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for ...
in his film debut. The film's plot concerns a group of teenagers who are targeted by Krueger, an
undead The undead are beings in mythology, legend, or fiction that are deceased but behave as if they were alive. A common example of an undead being is a cadaver, corpse reanimated by supernatural forces, by the application of either the deceased's o ...
child killer who murders teenagers through their dreams, as retribution against their parents who burned him alive. Craven filmed ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' in
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
on an estimated budget of $1.8 million. It was one of the first films produced by
New Line Cinema New Line Productions, Inc., Trade name, doing business as New Line Cinema, is an American film production, film and television production company that is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, a division of the Major film studios, ...
, who by that point mostly distributed films, leading the company to become a successful mini-major film studio and earning it the nickname "The House that Freddy Built". The film is credited with carrying on many tropes found in low-budget horror films of the 1970s and 1980s, originating in
John Carpenter John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American filmmaker, composer, and actor. Most commonly associated with horror film, horror, action film, action, and science fiction film, science fiction films of the 1970s and 1980s, he is ...
's ''
Halloween Halloween, or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve), is a celebration geography of Halloween, observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christianity, Western Christian f ...
'' (1978), including the
morality play The morality play is a genre of medieval and early Tudor drama. The term is used by scholars of literary and dramatic history to refer to a genre of play texts from the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries that feature personified concepts ( ...
that revolves around sexual promiscuity in teenagers resulting in their eventual death, leading to the term "slasher film". Critics and film historians state that the film's premise is the struggle to define the distinction between dreams and reality, manifested by the lives and dreams of the teens in the film. Later critics praise the film's ability to transgress "the boundaries between the imaginary and real", toying with audience perceptions.
James Berardinelli James Berardinelli (born September 25, 1967) is an American film critic. His reviews are mainly published on his blog ''ReelViews.'' Approved as a critic by the aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, he has published two collections of reviews of movies on ...
, review of ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'', a
ReelViews
last accessed August 30, 2006.
''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' was released on November 9, 1984, and grossed $57.1 million worldwide. The film received critical acclaim upon its release, and has since been considered to be one of the greatest horror films ever made. In 2021, ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' was selected for preservation in the United States
National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation (library and archival science), preservation, each selected for its cultural, historical, and aestheti ...
by the
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...
as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The film spawned a franchise consisting of six sequels, a television series, a crossover with ''Friday the 13th'', various other merchandise, and a remake of the same name.Jim Harper, ''Legacy of Blood: A Comprehensive Guide to Slasher Movies'' (Manchester, Eng.: Headpress, 2004), p. 126, . The film was followed by '' A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge'' (1985).


Plot

Teenager
Tina Gray Tina Gray (1885 – 26 June 1985) was a medical pioneer and the sister of 'Glasgow School, Glasgow Girl' Norah Neilson Gray. Family life Tina Gray was born in Helensburgh, one of the seven children of Norah Neilson and George Gray, a ship o ...
awakens from a terrifying nightmare in which a disfigured man wearing a bladed glove attacks her in a boiler room. Her mother points out the mysterious slashes on her nightgown. The following morning, Tina's best friend Nancy Thompson and Nancy's boyfriend, Glen Lantz, divulge that they too had nightmares about the same disfigured man. During a sleepover at Tina's house, Tina's boyfriend, Rod Lane, arrives, and they have sex. When Tina falls asleep, she dreams of the disfigured man attacking her, while Rod sees her fatally slashed by an unseen force, causing him to flee. Nancy and Glen find Tina's bloodied corpse. The next day, Nancy's policeman father, Don Thompson, arrests Rod despite his pleas of innocence. At school, Nancy falls asleep in class and dreams of the man chasing her in a boiler room. She deliberately burns her arm on a pipe, which startles her awake in class, and leaves a burn mark on her forearm. Nancy visits Rod at the police station, where he describes Tina's death along with his own recent nightmares about the same man. At home, Nancy falls asleep in the bathtub and is nearly drowned by the man. She then relies on caffeine to stay awake and invites Glen to watch over her as she sleeps. In her nightmare, Nancy watches the man preparing to kill Rod in his cell, but he turns his attention toward her and attacks her. Nancy wakes up when her alarm clock goes off. The man kills Rod, staging it as a suicide. At his funeral, Nancy's parents grow worried when she describes her nightmares. Her mother, Marge, drives her to a sleep disorder clinic where, in a nightmare, Nancy grabs the man's fedora with the name " Fred Krueger" written in it and pulls it into the real world. After barricading their house, Marge discloses to Nancy that Krueger was a child murderer who killed 20 children but was released on a technicality. He was then burned alive by the victims’ parents, alongside other Elm Street residents, who sought vigilante justice. Marge then showcases Krueger's bladed glove concealed in their furnace, and Nancy realizes that Krueger targeted her and her friends because their parents were accomplices to his homicide. Later that night, Glen falls asleep and is killed by Krueger. Nancy asks Don, who's across the street investigating Glen's murder site, to break into their house in 20 minutes. She rigs booby traps and successfully lures Krueger out of her nightmare and into the real world. The booby traps allow her to light him on fire and lock him in the basement. The police arrive to find that Krueger has escaped from the basement. Nancy and Don find a burning Krueger smothering Marge in her bedroom. After Don extinguishes the fire, Krueger and Marge vanish into the bed before Krueger rises behind Nancy. Realizing that Krueger is fueled by his victims' fear, she calmly turns her back to him, and Krueger evaporates. Nancy steps outside into a foggy morning where all her friends and her mother are still alive. She gets into Glen's convertible to go to school when the top suddenly comes down (colored in green and red stripes), locking them in as the car speeds down the street and Marge waves them goodbye on her doorstep. Three girls in white dresses playing jump rope chant Krueger's nursery rhyme while Marge is grabbed by Krueger through the front door window.


Cast

*
Heather Langenkamp Heather Elizabeth Langenkamp (born July 17, 1964) is an American actress, director, writer, producer, and disc jockey. Langenkamp is best known for her acting work within the horror genre, as well as television sitcoms. Langenkamp was inducted ...
as Nancy Thompson *
Robert Englund Robert Barton Englund (born June 6, 1947) is an American actor and director. Englund is best known for playing the villain Freddy Krueger in the ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' franchise. Englund has received multiple accolades and honors, incl ...
as Fred "Freddy" Krueger *
Johnny Depp John Christopher Depp II (born June 9, 1963) is an American actor and musician. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Johnny Depp, multiple accolades, including a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for ...
as Glen Lantz * Ronee Blakley as Marge Thompson * John Saxon as Lt. Donald "Don" Thompson * Amanda Wyss as Christina "Tina" Gray * Nick Corri as Rod Lane * Leslie Hoffman as Hall Guard * Joseph Whipp as Sgt. Parker *
Charles Fleischer Charles Fleischer (born August 27, 1950) is an American actor, stand-up comedian, musician, and writer, best known for his recurring role as Carvelli in '' Welcome Back, Kotter'', and for appearing in films such as ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'', ...
as Dr. King *
Lin Shaye Lin Shaye (born October 12, 1943) is an American actress. In a career spanning over fifty years, Shaye has appeared in more than a hundred feature films. She is regarded as a scream queen due to her roles in various horror productions, which inc ...
as Teacher * Mimi Craven as Nurse * Jack Shea as Minister * Ed Call as Mr. Lantz * Sandy Lipton as Mrs. Lantz * David Andrews as Foreman * Jeff Levine as Coroner * Donna Woodrum as Mrs. Gray * Paul Grenier as Mrs. Gray's boyfriend * Ash Adams and Don Hannah as Surfers * Shashawnee Hall, Brian Reise and Carol Pritikin as Cops * Kathi Gibbs, John Richard Peterson, Chris Tashima and Antonia Yannouli as Kids (uncredited)
Robert Shaye Robert Kenneth Shaye (born March 4, 1939) is an American businessman, film producer, actor, director, and writer. Shaye is the founder of New Line Cinema, a film production studio that was most successful for distributing ''The Lord of the Rin ...
has two uncredited roles as broadcasters for local television news and KRGR Radio station.
Make-up artist A make-up artist, also called a makeup artist, and often shortened to MUA, is an artist whose medium is the human body, applying makeup and Prosthetic makeup, prosthetics on others for theatre, television, film, fashion, magazines and other simil ...
David B. Miller designed Krueger's disfigured face based on photographs of burn victims obtained from the UCLA Medical Center.


Production


Development

''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' contains many biographical elements from director Wes Craven's childhood. The film was inspired by several newspaper articles printed in the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'' in the 1970s about
Hmong Hmong may refer to: * Hmong people, an ethnic group living mainly in Southwest China, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand * Hmong cuisine * Hmong customs and culture ** Hmong music ** Hmong textile art * Hmong language, a continuum of closely related ...
refugees, who, after fleeing to the United States because of
war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...
and
genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...
in Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam, suffered disturbing nightmares and refused to sleep. Some of the men died in their sleep soon after. Medical authorities called the phenomenon Asian Death Syndrome. The condition afflicted men between the ages of 19 and 57 and was believed to be sudden unexplained death syndrome or Brugada syndrome or both. Craven stated, "It was a series of articles in the ''LA Times''; three small articles about men from South East Asia, who were from immigrant families and had died in the middle of nightmares—and the paper never correlated them, never said, 'Hey, we've had another story like this." The 1970s pop song " Dream Weaver" by
Gary Wright Gary Malcolm Wright (April 26, 1943 – September 4, 2023) was an American musician and composer best known for his 1976 hit songs " Dream Weaver" and " Love Is Alive". Wright's breakthrough album, '' The Dream Weaver'' (1975), came after he h ...
sealed the story for Craven, giving him not only an artistic setting to jump off from, but a
synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...
riff for the movie soundtrack.
Wes Craven Wesley Earl Craven (August 2, 1939 – August 30, 2015) was an American film director, screenwriter and producer. Amongst his Wes Craven filmography, prolific filmography, Craven worked primarily in the Horror film, horror genre, particularly sla ...
. ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' DVD audio commentary.
Craven has also stated that he drew some inspiration for the film from
Eastern religions The Eastern religions are the religions which originated in East, South and Southeast Asia and thus have dissimilarities with Western and African religions. Eastern religions include: * East Asian religions such as Confucianism, Taoism, Tengrism ...
. Other sources attribute the inspiration for the film to be a 1968 student film project made by Craven's students at
Clarkson University Clarkson University is a private research university with its main campus in Potsdam, New York. Clarkson has additional graduate programs and research facilities in the New York Capital District. It was established in 1896 and enrolled over 4 ...
. The student film parodied contemporary horror films, and was filmed along Elm Street in
Potsdam, New York Potsdam is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in St. Lawrence County, New York, United States. The town population was 14,901 at the 2020 census. When the State University of New York at Potsdam and Clarkson University are in sess ...
. The film's villain, Freddy Krueger, is drawn from Craven's early life. One night, a young Craven saw an elderly man walking on the sidepath outside the window of his home. The man stopped to glance at a startled Craven and walked off. This served as the inspiration for Krueger. Initially, Fred Krueger was intended to be a child molester, but Craven eventually characterized him as a child murderer to avoid being accused of exploiting a spate of highly publicized child molestation cases that occurred in California around the time of the film's production. On Freddy's nature, Craven states that "in a sense, Freddy stands for the worst of parenthood and adulthood – the dirty old man, the nasty father and the adult who wants children to die rather than help them prosper. He's the boogey man and the worst fear of children – the adult that's out to get them. He's a very primal figure, sort of like Kronos devouring his children – that evil, twisted, perverted father figure that wants to destroy and is able to get them at their most vulnerable moment, which is when they're asleep!". By Craven's account, his own adolescent experiences led him to the name Freddy Krueger; he had been bullied at school by a child named Fred Krueger. Craven had done the same thing in his film '' The Last House on the Left'' (1972), where the villain's name was shortened to Krug. Craven chose to make Krueger's sweater red and green after reading an article in a 1982 ''
Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it, with more than 150 Nobel Pri ...
'' that said these two colors were the most clashing colors to the human retina. Craven strove to make Krueger different from other horror film villains of the era. In 2014, he recalled, "A lot of the killers were wearing masks:
Leatherface Leatherface is a character from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (franchise), ''The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'' series. He first appeared in ''The Texas Chain Saw Massacre'' (1974) as the mentally disabled member of a family of deranged Human cannibalis ...
, Michael Myers,
Jason Jason ( ; ) was an ancient Greek mythological hero and leader of the Argonauts, whose quest for the Golden Fleece is featured in Greek literature. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcos. He was married to the sorceress Med ...
. I wanted my villain to have a mask, but be able to talk and taunt and threaten. So I thought of him being burned and scarred." He also said the killer should use something other than a knife because it was too common. "So I thought, 'How about a glove with steak knives?' I gave the idea to our special effects guy, Jim Doyle." Ultimately two models of the glove were built: the hero glove that was only used whenever anything needed to be cut, and the stunt glove that was less likely to cause injury. For a time, Craven had considered a
sickle A sickle, bagging hook, reaping-hook or grasshook is a single-handed agricultural tool designed with variously curved blades and typically used for harvesting or reaping grain crops, or cutting Succulent plant, succulent forage chiefly for feedi ...
as the weapon of choice for the killer, but around the third or fourth drafts of the script, the iconic glove had become his final choice.


Writing

Wes Craven began writing the screenplay for ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' around 1981, after he had finished production on ''
Swamp Thing Swamp Thing is a superhero and antihero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Len Wein and artist Bernie Wrightson, the Swamp Thing has had several different incarnations throughout his publication. The ch ...
'' (1982). He pitched it to several studios, but each one of them rejected it for different reasons. The first studio to show interest was
Walt Disney Productions The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...
, although they wanted Craven to tone down the content to make it suitable for children and preteens as a family-friendly PG-13 film; Craven declined.Rockoff, Adam, ''Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film, 1978–1986'' (McFarland & Company, 2002), p. 151, . Another studio Craven pitched to was
Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...
, which passed on the project due to its similarity to '' Dreamscape'' (1984).
Universal Studios Universal Studios may refer to: * Universal Studios, Inc., an American media and entertainment conglomerate ** Universal Pictures, an American film studio ** Universal Studios Lot, a film and television studio complex * Various theme parks operat ...
also passed; Craven, who was in desperate personal and financial straits during this period, later framed the company's rejection letter on the wall of his office, which reads in its December 14, 1982 print: "We have reviewed the script you have submitted, ''A Nightmare on Elm Street''. Unfortunately, the script did not receive an enthusiastic enough response from us to go forward at this time. However, when you have a finished print, please get in touch and we would be delighted to screen it for a possible negative pick up." Finally, the fledgling and independent
New Line Cinema New Line Productions, Inc., Trade name, doing business as New Line Cinema, is an American film production, film and television production company that is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, a division of the Major film studios, ...
corporation, which had up to that point only distributed films, agreed to produce the film. During filming, New Line's distribution deal for the film fell through and, for two weeks, it was unable to pay its cast and crew. Although New Line has gone on to make bigger and more profitable films, ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' was its first commercial success and the studio is often referred to as "The House That Freddy Built". New Line Cinema lacked the financial resources for the production themselves and so had to turn to external financiers. They found two investors in
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
who each contributed 40% and 30% respectively to the necessary funds; one of the producers of ''
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre ''The Texas Chain Saw Massacre'' is a 1974 American independent horror film produced, co-composed, and directed by Tobe Hooper, who co-wrote it with Kim Henkel. The film stars Marilyn Burns, Paul A. Partain, Edwin Neal, Jim Siedow, ...
'' contributed 10%, and home video distributor
Media Home Entertainment Media Home Entertainment Inc. was a home video company headquartered in Culver City, California, originally established in 1978 by filmmaker Charles Band. Media Home Entertainment also distributed video product under additional labels — The N ...
contributed 20% of the original budget. Four weeks before production began, the English investor who had contributed 40% backed out, but Media Home Entertainment added in another 40% to the budget. Among the backers were also Heron Communications and Smart Egg Pictures. According to producer
Robert Shaye Robert Kenneth Shaye (born March 4, 1939) is an American businessman, film producer, actor, director, and writer. Shaye is the founder of New Line Cinema, a film production studio that was most successful for distributing ''The Lord of the Rin ...
, all the film's original investors backed out at one point or another during pre-production. The original budget was $700,000. "It ended up at $1.1 million ... half the funding came from a Yugoslavian guy who had a girlfriend he wanted in movies."


Casting


Freddy

Actor David Warner was originally cast to play Freddy. Make-up tests were done, but he had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts. Replacing him was difficult at first.
Kane Hodder Kane Warren Hodder (born April 8, 1955)According to the State of California. ''California Birth Index, 1905–1995''. Center for Health Statistics, California Department of Health Services, Sacramento, California. At Ancestry.com is an Americ ...
, who would later be best known for playing fellow slasher icon
Jason Voorhees Jason Voorhees () is a fictional character and the antagonist of the Friday the 13th (franchise), ''Friday the 13th'' series. He first appeared in ''Friday the 13th (1980 film), Friday the 13th'' (1980) as the young son of camp-cook-turned-kil ...
, was among those who Wes Craven talked with about the role of Freddy. According to Hodder, "I had a meeting with Wes Craven about playing a character he was developing called Freddy Krueger. At the time, Wes wasn't sure what kind of person he wanted for the role of Freddy, so I had as good a shot as anybody else. He was initially thinking of a big guy for the part, and he was also thinking of somebody who had real burn scars. But obviously, he changed his whole line of thinking and went with Robert Englund, who's smaller. I would have loved to play the part, but I do think Wes made the right choice". Hodder would in a way eventually play Freddy, as the hand that grabs Jason's mask at the epilogue in '' Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday'' (1993). Wes Craven explains that:
"I couldn't find an actor to play Freddy Krueger with the sense of ferocity I was seeking", Craven recalled on the film's 30th anniversary. "Everyone was too quiet, too compassionate towards children. Then Robert Englund auditioned. ewasn't as tall I'd hoped, and he had baby fat on his face, but he impressed me with his willingness to go to the dark places in his mind. Robert understood Freddy."
Englund has stated that Craven was indeed in search of a "big, giant man" originally, but casting director Annette Benson had talked Craven into seeing him about the role after Englund had auditioned for National Lampoon's ''Class Reunion'' (1982) previously. Before Englund's agent at the time, Joe Rice, sent him to the casting office, Rice's friend Rhet Topham recommended Englund to act "rat-like", "weasel-like", adding that "When we read about abusers and molesters in the newspaper, they're not big, hulking men, but weasels. I thought he should go in and play it like that. And it worked!". Englund had darkened his lower eyelids with cigarette ash on his way to the audition and slicked his hair back. "I looked strange. I sat there and listened to Wes talk. He was tall and preppy and erudite. I posed a bit, like
Klaus Kinski Klaus Kinski (, born Klaus Günter Karl Nakszynski 18 October 1926 – 23 November 1991) was a German actor. Equally renowned for his intense performance style and notorious for his volatile personality, he appeared in over 130 film roles in a ...
, and that was the audition," he said later. He took the part because it was the only project that fit his schedule during the hiatus between the '' V'' miniseries and series.


Nancy

Craven said he wanted someone very non-Hollywood for the role of Nancy, and he believed Langenkamp met this quality. Langenkamp, who had appeared in several commercials and a TV film, had taken time off from her studies at
Stanford Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and th ...
to continue acting. Eventually she landed the role of Nancy Thompson after an open audition, beating out more than 200 actresses. Langenkamp was already known to Anette Benson as she had auditioned for '' Night of the Comet'' and '' The Last Starfighter'' previously, losing out to Catherine Mary Stewart at both occasions.
Demi Moore Demi Gene Moore ( ; née Guynes; born November 11, 1962) is an American actress. After rising to prominence in the early 1980s, she became the world's highest-paid actress by 1995. List of awards and nominations received by Demi Moore, Her acc ...
, Courteney Cox, Tracey Gold, and
Jennifer Grey Jennifer Grey (born March 26, 1960) is an American actress. She made her acting debut with the film Reckless (1984 film), ''Reckless'' (1984), and had her breakthrough with the teen comedy film ''Ferris Bueller's Day Off'' (1986). She earned wo ...
have all been rumoured to have auditioned for ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'', but Benson definitely ruled out Moore and Cox while also being unsure of Gold and Grey. Langenkamp returned as Nancy in '' A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors'' (1987), and also played a fictionalized version of herself in ''
Wes Craven's New Nightmare ''Wes Craven's New Nightmare'' (also known simply as ''New Nightmare'') is a 1994 American meta supernatural slasher film written and directed by Wes Craven, creator of 1984's ''A Nightmare on Elm Street''. It is the seventh installment in the ...
'' (1994). There were no separate auditions for the characters of Tina and Nancy; all actresses who auditioned for one of the two female roles read for the role of Nancy, and upon potentially being called back, were mixed with other actresses trying to find a pair that had chemistry. Amanda Wyss was among those switched to Tina after a callback. Wes Craven decided immediately upon mixing Wyss and Langenkamp that this was the duo he wanted. Craven then mixed the duo with auditioners for the male teenage roles trying to find actors who had chemistry with Wyss and/or Langenkamp.


Glen

Johnny Depp was another unknown when he was cast, initially accompanying his friend (
Jackie Earle Haley Jack Earle Haley (born July 14, 1961) is an American actor and director. His earliest roles included Moocher in '' Breaking Away'' (1979) and Kelly Leak in '' The Bad News Bears'' (1976), '' The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training'' (1977) and '' ...
who went on to play Freddy in the 2010 remake) to an audition. According to Depp, the role of Glen was originally written as a "big, blond, beach-jock, football-player guy", far from his own appearance, but Wes Craven's daughters picked Depp's headshot from the set he showed them. Depp got his own nod in a cameo role in '' Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare'' as a man on TV and later in the '' Freddy vs. Jason'' intro, in clips from earlier films.
Charlie Sheen Carlos Irwin Estévez (born September 3, 1965), known professionally as Charlie Sheen, is an American actor. He is known as a leading man in film and television. Sheen has received numerous accolades including a Golden Globe Award as well as ...
was considered for the role but allegedly wanted too much money. Anette Benson states that they did in fact offer the part to Sheen but he passed on it due to his agent demanding twice the weekly wage of $1,142 for Sheen, which New Line Cinema did not consider themselves to have the budget for. Sheen himself objects to the sentiment that he turned down the role for the reason of money, saying:
I didn't price myself out of it because I didn't get greedy until years later. That came much later. I just didn't get it, and I've never been more wrong about interpreting a script ... I just didn't get it completely, but I still took a meeting with Wes. And when I met him, I said, "Look, with all due respect, and as a fan of your talents, I just don't see this guy wearing a funny hat with a rotted face and a striped sweater and a bunch of clacky fingers. I just don't see this catching on."
Mark Patton, who would later be cast as Jesse Walsh in the sequel, auditioned for the role of Glen Lantz and claimed that the auditioners had been winnowed down to him and Johnny Depp before Depp got the role. Other actors like
John Cusack John Paul Cusack ( ; born June 28, 1966)(28 June 1996)Today's birthdays ''Santa Cruz Sentinel'', ("Actors John Cusack is 30") is an American actor. With a career spanning over four decades, he has appeared in over 80 films. He began acting in f ...
,
Jon Cryer Jonathan Niven Cryer (born April 16, 1965) is an American actor. Born into a show business family, he made his film debut with a lead role in ''No Small Affair'' (1984); his breakout role was as Duckie in the John Hughes (filmmaker), John Hughe ...
,
Brad Pitt William Bradley Pitt (born December 18, 1963) is an American actor and film producer. In a Brad Pitt filmography, film career spanning more than thirty years, Pitt has received list of awards and nominations received by Brad Pitt, numerous a ...
,
Kiefer Sutherland Kiefer William Frederick Dempsey George Rufus Sutherland (born 21 December 1966) is a Canadian actor. He is best known for his starring role as Jack Bauer in the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox drama series ''24 (TV series), 24'' (2001–2010, 20 ...
,
Nicolas Cage Nicolas Kim Coppola (born January 7, 1964), known professionally as Nicolas Cage, is an American actor and film producer. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Nicolas Cage, various accolades, including an Academy A ...
, and C. Thomas Howell have been mentioned over the years, but Anette Benson has failed to definitely recall those actors as having been among the auditioners. Though Cage had probably not auditioned for ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'', he was in fact involved in introducing Johnny Depp to acting, through Cage's own agent who introduced Benson to him, resulting in an audition for the film.


Filming

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...
began on June 11, 1984, and lasted a total of 32 days, in and around Los Angeles, California. The high school the protagonists attend was filmed at John Marshall High School, where many other productions such as '' Grease'' and ''
Pretty in Pink ''Pretty in Pink'' is a 1986 American teen romantic comedy-drama film about love and social cliques in American high schools in the 1980s. The film stars Molly Ringwald, alongside Harry Dean Stanton, Jon Cryer, Annie Potts, James Spader, a ...
'' have been filmed. The fictional street address of Nancy's house in the film is 1428 Elm Street; in real life, this house is a private home located in Los Angeles at 1428 North Genesee Avenue. The Lantz' family home was at 1419 North Genesee Avenue on the other side of the road. The boiler room scenes and police station interior were shot in the Lincoln Heights Jail (closed since 1965) building, while the exterior used for the police station was Cahuenga Branch Library. Rod's burial was filmed at Evergreen Cemetery. The
American Jewish University American Jewish University (AJU) is a Private university, private Jewish university in Los Angeles, California. It was formed in 2007 from the merger of the University of Judaism and Brandeis-Bardin Institute. AJU's academic division includes ...
on 15600 Mulholland Drive was used for the ''Katja Institute for the Study of Sleep Disorders'' visited by Marge and Nancy. During production, over 500 gallons of fake blood were used for special effects production."Frightful Facts" a
House of Horrors
; last accessed November 22, 2017.
For the blood geyser sequence, the filmmakers used the same revolving room set that was used for Tina's death. While filming the scenes, the cameraman and Craven himself were mounted in fixed seats taken from a Datsun B-210 car while the set rotated. The film crew inverted the set and attached the camera so that it looked like the room was right side up, then they poured the red water into the room. They used dyed water because the special effects blood did not have the right look for a geyser. During filming of this scene, the red water poured out in an unexpected way and caused the rotating room to spin. Much of the water spilled out of the bedroom window covering Craven and Langenkamp.''Never Sleep Again: The Making of A Nightmare on Elm Street'', documentary on the Special Edition 2006 DVD of ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' (2006, New Line Cinema Entertainment)
B000GETUDI
.
Earth's gravity was also used to film another
take A take is a single continuous recorded performance. The term is used in film and music to denote and track the stages of production. Film In cinematography, a take refers to each filmed "version" of a particular shot or "setup". Takes of each ...
for the TV version in which a skeleton shoots out from the hollowed out bed and smashes into the "ceiling". More work was done for Freddy's boiler room than made it into the film; the film crew constructed a whole sleeping place for Freddy, showing that he was quite a
hobo A hobo is a migrant worker in the United States. Hoboes, tramps, and bums are generally regarded as related, but distinct: a hobo travels and is willing to work; a tramp travels, but avoids work if possible; a bum neither travels nor works. Et ...
, an outcast and reject from society, living and sleeping where he worked, and surrounding himself with naked Barbie dolls and other things as a showcase of his fantasies and perversions. This place was supposed to be where he forged his glove and abducted and murdered his victims. The scene where Nancy is attacked by Krueger in her bathtub was accomplished with a special bottomless tub. The tub was put in a bathroom set that was built over a swimming pool. During the underwater sequence, Heather Langenkamp was replaced with a stuntwoman. The melting staircase in Nancy's dream was Robert Shaye's idea based on his own nightmares; it was created using pancake mix. The film's special effects artist Jim Doyle portrayed Freddy on the scene where his face and hands that stretch through the wall and reach out for Nancy when she dreams; the wall was built by Doyle out of
spandex Spandex, Lycra, or elastane is a synthetic fiber known for its exceptional elasticity. It is a polyether- polyurea copolymer that was invented in 1958 by chemist Joseph Shivers at DuPont. Name The name ''spandex'', which is an anagram of t ...
. In the scene where Freddy walks through the prison bars to threaten Rod as seen by Nancy, Wes Craven explains that, "we took triangulations of the camera so we knew exactly the height of it from the floor and the angle towards the point where the killer was going to walk through", and then "we put the camera again at the exact height and walked the actor through that space. Then those two images were married and a rotoscope artist went through and matted out the bars so it appeared they were going straight through his body." Jsu Garcia, who was cast as Rod and credited as Nick Corri, says the production was difficult for him. He was dealing with depression due to recent homelessness by snorting heroin in the bathroom between takes. In 2014, he revealed that he was high on heroin during the scene with Langenkamp in the jail cell. "His eyes were watery and they weren't focused," Langenkamp said. "I thought, 'Wow, he's giving the best performance of his life. Craven said in a 2014 interview that twelve frames of blood had to be cut during Tina's death scene or the film would have been axed. Following Tina's death, Nancy repeatedly dreams of an animate corpse of Tina in a translucent body bag. During the scene in which Freddy kills Rod in the prison cell, Nancy witnesses a
centipede Centipedes (from Neo-Latin , "hundred", and Latin , "foot") are predatory arthropods belonging to the class Chilopoda (Ancient Greek , ''kheilos'', "lip", and Neo-Latin suffix , "foot", describing the forcipules) of the subphylum Myriapoda, ...
crawl out of Tina's mouth. The filmmakers initially attempted to achieve this effect by having Wyss force a rubber centipede out of her mouth; the effect seen in the final film was accomplished by having an actual centipede crawl out of the mouth of a clay sculpture of Wyss's likeness, sculpted by David B. Miller. During filming, the centipede was temporarily lost on set before being found again. About halfway through the film, when Nancy is trying to stay awake, a scene from
Sam Raimi Samuel M. Raimi ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American filmmaker. He is best known for directing the first three films in the ''Evil Dead'' franchise (1981–present) and the ''Spider-Man'' trilogy (2002–2007). He also directed the super ...
's ''
The Evil Dead ''The Evil Dead'' is a 1981 American independent film, independent supernatural horror film written and directed by Sam Raimi (in his feature directorial debut). The film stars Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeManincor, Betsy Baker ...
'' appears on a television. Craven decided to include the scene because Raimi had featured a '' Hills Have Eyes'' (Craven, 1977) poster in ''The Evil Dead''. In return, Raimi featured a Freddy Krueger glove in the workshed scene of ''
Evil Dead II ''Evil Dead II'' (also known in publicity materials as ''Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn'') is a 1987 American comedy horror film directed by Sam Raimi, who co-wrote it with Scott Spiegel. The second installment in the ''Evil Dead'' film series, i ...
'', and later in ''
Ash vs Evil Dead ''Ash vs Evil Dead'' is an American comedy horror television series developed by Sam Raimi, Ivan Raimi, and Tom Spezialy for Starz. The series is set in the '' Evil Dead'' universe created by Raimi, with Bruce Campbell reprising his role a ...
''. Sean Cunningham, whom Wes Craven had previously worked with while filming '' The Last House on the Left'' (1972), helped Craven at the end of the shooting, heading the second film unit during the filming of some of Nancy's dream scenes. Craven originally planned for the film to have a more evocative ending: Nancy kills Krueger by ceasing to believe in him, then awakens to discover that everything that happened in the film was an elongated nightmare. However, New Line leader Robert Shaye demanded a twist ending, in which Krueger disappears and all seems to have been a dream, only for the audience to discover that it was a dream-within-a-dream-within-a-dream. According to Craven, Craven explains that the effect of the mentioned fog did not work out for the team and they had to film without it: there were around 20 persons with fog machines, but the breeze at the time was too much, and the fog was gone before they had the opportunity to film the intendedly foggy scene. Though several variants of an end scene were considered and filmed, Heather Langenkamp states that "there always was this sense that Freddy was the car", while according to Sara Risher, "it was always Wes' idea to pan to the little girls' jumping rope". Both a happy ending and a twist ending were filmed, but the final film used the twist ending. As a result, Craven who never wanted the film to be an ongoing franchise, did not work on the first sequel, '' Freddy's Revenge'' (1985). Filming wrapped at the end of July, and the film was rushed to get ready for its November release.


Music

The
film score A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to ...
was written by composer Charles Bernstein and first released in 1984 on label
Varèse Sarabande Varèse Sarabande is an American record label, owned by Concord Music Group and distributed by Universal Music Group, which specializes in film scores and cast recording, original cast recordings. It aims to reissue rare or unavailable albums, as ...
. The label re-released the soundtrack in 2015 in an 8-CD box for the franchise soundtracks excluding the remake and again in 2016 in the 12-CD box ''Little Box of Horror'' with various other horror film scores. Bernstein's film score was also re-released in 2017, along with the soundtracks of the first seven films, on the label Death Waltz Recording Company in another 8-LP vinyl box set named ''A Nightmare On Elm Street: Box Of Souls''. In 2017 and 2019, the label also released standalone extended versions of the soundtrack with many snippets that were left out of the original releases.


Freddy's theme song

The lyrics for Freddy's theme song, sung by the jumprope children throughout the series and based on " One, Two, Buckle My Shoe", was already written and included in the script when Bernstein started writing the soundtrack, while the melody for it was not set by Bernstein, but by Heather Langenkamp's boyfriend and soon-to-be husband at the time,
Alan Pasqua Alan Pasqua (born June 28, 1952) is an American rock and jazz pianist. He studied at Indiana University and the New England Conservatory of Music. His album ''Standards'' with drummer Peter Erskine was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2008. As a s ...
, who was a musician himself. Bernstein integrated Pasqua's contribution into his soundtrack as he saw fit. One of the three girls who recorded the vocal part of the theme was Robert Shaye's then-14-year-old daughter.


Themes

Freddy exclusively attacks teenagers and his actions have been interpreted as symbolic of the often traumatic experiences of adolescence. Nancy, like the archetypal teenager, experiences social anxiety and her relationship with her parents becomes strained. Sexuality is present in Freudian images and is almost exclusively displayed in a threatening and mysterious context (e.g., Tina's death visually evokes a rape, Freddy's glove between Nancy's legs in the bath). The original script called for Krueger to be a child molester, rather than a child murderer, before being murdered. Wes Craven has explained that "the notion of the screenplay is that the sins of the parents are visited upon the children, but the fact that each child is not necessarily stuck with their lot is still there." Robert Englund observes that "in ''Nightmare'', all the adults are damaged: They're alcoholic, they're on pills, they're not around". Blakley says the parents in the film "verge on being villains." Englund adds: "the adolescents have to wade through that, and Heather is the last girl standing. She lives. She defeats Freddy." Langenkamp agrees: "''Nightmare'' is a feminist movie, but I look at it more as a 'youth power' film."


Release


Censorship issues

When the film was submitted to the
Motion Picture Association of America film rating system The Motion Picture Association film rating system is used in the United States and its territories to rate a motion picture's suitability for certain audiences based on its content. The system and the ratings applied to individual motion pictur ...
(MPAA), they required two cuts to grant it an R rating. The theatrical version was released with an R rating and thirteen seconds of cuts. In the United Kingdom, the film was released theatrically and on home video uncut. The Australian theatrical release was edited to an M rating, but the VHS home video was released uncut in 1985 with an Australian R rating. The uncut version would not see a release in the United States until the 1996
Elite Entertainment Elite Entertainment was an American home media distribution company, founded by Vincent Bancalari and Don May, Jr. in 1993. The company specialized in LaserDisc and later, DVD releases of horror, science fiction, and cult films, many of which w ...
Laserdisc release. All DVD, digital, and Blu-ray releases use the R-rated theatrical version; the uncut version would not be released on a digital format until 2024, though six seconds had previously been restored for home video and a further two seconds for subsequent releases (which the Ultra HD Blu-ray release did not involve with
Media Home Entertainment Media Home Entertainment Inc. was a home video company headquartered in Culver City, California, originally established in 1978 by filmmaker Charles Band. Media Home Entertainment also distributed video product under additional labels — The N ...
and Smart Egg Pictures).


Theatrical

It was released in the United States on November 9, 1984, through New Line Cinema and in the United Kingdom on August 30, 1985, through Palace Pictures.


Home media

The film was first introduced to the home video market by Media Home Entertainment in early 1985 and was eventually released on
Laserdisc LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. It was developed by Philips, Pioneer Corporation, Pioneer, and the movie studio MCA Inc., MCA. The format was initially marketed in the United State ...
. It has since been released on
DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...
, first in 1999 in the United States as part of the ''Nightmare on Elm Street'' Collection box set (along with the other six sequels), and once again in a restored Infinifilm special edition in 2006, containing various special features with contributions from Wes Craven, Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon and the director of photography. The special edition consisted of two DVDs, one with the film picture and sound restored (DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1, and original mono audio track) and another DVD with special features. Along with the restored version of the film, DVD one also had two commentaries, and other nightmares (if not all) from the film's sequels (two through seven and ''Freddy Vs. Jason''). It also included additional, extended or alternate scenes of the film, such as one scene where Marge reveals to Nancy that she had another sibling who was killed by Freddy. These unused clips and scenes were not included or added to the DVD film but could be viewed separately from the DVD's menus. On April 13, 2010, the film was released on
Blu-ray Disc Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of ...
by
Warner Home Video Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment, Inc. (doing business as Warner Bros. Home Entertainment; formerly known as Warner Home Video and WCI Home Video and sometimes credited as Warner Home Entertainment) is the American home video distribution ...
, with all the same extras from the 2006 special edition; a DVD box set containing all of the films up to that point was released on the same day. In conjunction with the film's fortieth anniversary, Warner released the film on 4K and Ultra-HD Blu-ray on October 15, 2024.


Reception


Box office

''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' premiered in the United States with a limited theatrical release on November 9, 1984, opening in 165 cinemas across the country. Grossing $1,271,000 during its opening weekend, the film was considered an instant commercial success. The film eventually earned a total of $25,504,513 at the US and Canadian box office''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' a
Box Office Mojo
; last accessed June 1, 2014.
and $57 million worldwide.


Critical response


Contemporaneous

In a contemporary review,
Kim Newman Kim James Newman (born 31 July 1959) is an English journalist, film critic, and fiction writer. He is interested in film history and horror fiction – both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's ''Dracula'' at the age of eleven & ...
wrote in the ''
Monthly Film Bulletin The ''Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 until April 1991, when it merged with '' Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those wi ...
'' that ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' was closer to a
Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author. Dubbed the "King of Horror", he is widely known for his horror novels and has also explored other genres, among them Thriller (genre), suspense, crime fiction, crime, scienc ...
adaptation with its small-town setting, and "invented monster myth". Newman concluded that the film found "Craven emerging from his recent career slump (''
Swamp Thing Swamp Thing is a superhero and antihero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Len Wein and artist Bernie Wrightson, the Swamp Thing has had several different incarnations throughout his publication. The ch ...
'', '' The Hills Have Eyes Part 2'', '' Invitation to Hell'') with a fine, perhaps definitive bogeyman to back him up" and that the film was "a superior example of an over-worked genre".
Paul Attanasio Paul Albert Attanasio (born November 14, 1959) is an American screenwriter and producer. He has twice been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, once for '' Quiz Show'' (1994) and once for '' Donnie Brasco'' (1997). Earl ...
of ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'' praised the film, stating that "for such a low-budget movie, ''Nightmare on Elm Street'' is extraordinarily polished. The script is consistently witty, the camera work (by cinematographer Jacques Haitkin) is crisp and expressive." The review noted that "the genre has built-in limitations... but Craven faces the challenge admirably; ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' is halfway between an exploitation flick and classic surrealism". The review also commented on Freddy Krueger, calling him "the most chilling figure in the genre since 'The Shape' made his debut in ''
Halloween Halloween, or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve), is a celebration geography of Halloween, observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christianity, Western Christian f ...
''." '' Variety'' commented that the film was "a highly imaginative horror film", praising the special effects while finding that the film "fails to tie up his thematic threads satisfyingly at the conclusion." The review commented negatively on some of the scenes involving Nancy's family, noting that "the movie's worst scenes involve Nancy and her alcoholic mother". On the character development, Newman stated that "the impression that about two hundred pages worth of characterisation has been compressed into cliché details like boozy Ronee Blakley demonstrating her renewed self-respect by throwing away a half-full bottle." Newman also said that the nightmares in the film worked against itself, stating that "while the kissing telephone and bottomless bathtub are disorienting in the avidCronenberg spirit, they get in the way of the relentless, pursuing-monster aspect that Carpenter manages so well."


Retrospective

Author Ian Conrich praised the film's ability to rupture "the boundaries between the imaginary and real", and critic James Berardinelli said it toys with audience perceptions. Kelly Bulkeley interpreted the overriding theme as a social subtext, "the struggles of adolescents in American society". The film has a 94% approval rating based on 66 reviews on
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
with an average rating of 7.8/10 and with the site's consensus saying: "Wes Craven's intelligent premise, combined with the horrifying visual appearance of Freddy Krueger, still causes nightmares to this day." The film is also considered one of the best of 1984 by Filmsite.org. In 2010, the Independent Film & Television Alliance selected the film as one of the 30 most significant independent films of the past 30 years. It ranked at number 17 on
Bravo Bravo(s) or The Bravo(s) may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music Groups and labels * Bravo (band), a Russian rock band * Bravo (Spanish group), represented Spain at Eurovision 1984 * Bravo Music, an American concert band music publishing compa ...
's '' The 100 Scariest Movie Moments'' (2004)—a five-hour program that selected cinema's scariest moments. In 2008, ''Empire'' ranked ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' 162nd on their list of the 500 greatest movies of all time. It also was selected by ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' as one of the best 1000 movies ever made. American Film Institute recognition * AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains – #40, Freddy Krueger, Villain


Accolades

* Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films – Best Horror Film (1985) (nomination) * Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films – Best Performance by a Young Actor – Jsu Garcia (1985) (nomination) * Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films – Best DVD Classic Film Release (2007) (nomination) *
Avoriaz Avoriaz (, ) is a French mountain resort in the Portes du Soleil in the French commune of Morzine, on a shelf above the town of Morzine. Cars are forbidden in Avoriaz; transport includes horse-drawn sleighs and snowcats during winter. One ...
Fantastic Film Festival – Critics Award – Wes Craven (1985) (winner) * Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival – Special Mention for Acting – Heather Langenkamp (1985) (winner)


Other media


Literature

A joint novelization of the 1984 film and the sequels ''Freddy's Revenge'' and ''Dream Warriors'' was released in 1987, written by Jeffrey Cooper. An eight part comic book adaption in 3D was commissioned in early 1989 to be published by Blackthorne Publishing and were to be written by Andy Mangels; these plans fell apart due to the collapse and bankruptcy of said publisher throughout later 1989 and 1990. Some lost
concept art Concept art is a form of visual art used to convey an idea for use in film, video games, animation, comic books, television shows, or other media before it is put into the final product. The term was used by the Walt Disney Animation Studios ...
was finished of this planned comic book adaption before the folding of Blackthorne; Mangels explains that "Blackthorne had the 3-D rights, but they went bankrupt after I had written three issues, one had been pencilled, and none had been published". A 3D comic book adaption written by Mangels would eventually be released of the fifth sequel '' Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare'' on
Innovation Publishing Innovation Publishing (also known as Innovation Books and the Innovative Corporation) was an American comic book company based in Wheeling, West Virginia. It was co-founded by David Campiti in 1988 after writing a business proposal and raising ...
. Cinematic derivatives of ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' (1984) includes the two separate
Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is primarily produced in Mumbai. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". The in ...
horror films '' Khooni Murda'' (1989) and '' Mahakaal'' (1993), the
Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...
n horror film '' Satan's Bed'' (''Batas Impian Ranjang Setan''; 1986) and the American pornographic parody film named '' A Wet Dream on Elm Street'' (2011).


Remake

In 2010, a remake was released, also titled ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'', starring
Jackie Earle Haley Jack Earle Haley (born July 14, 1961) is an American actor and director. His earliest roles included Moocher in '' Breaking Away'' (1979) and Kelly Leak in '' The Bad News Bears'' (1976), '' The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training'' (1977) and '' ...
as Freddy Krueger. The film was produced by
Michael Bay Michael Benjamin Bay (born February 17, 1965) is an American film director and producer. He is best known for making big-budget high-concept action films with fast cutting, stylistic cinematography and visuals, and extensive use of special eff ...
, directed by Samuel Bayer, and written by the team of Wesley Strick and Eric Heisserer. The film was intended as a reboot to the franchise, but plans for a sequel never came to fruition after the film received mostly negative reviews despite being a financial success. On August 7, 2015, it was reported that
New Line Cinema New Line Productions, Inc., Trade name, doing business as New Line Cinema, is an American film production, film and television production company that is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, a division of the Major film studios, ...
was developing a second remake with ''
Orphan An orphan is a child whose parents have died, are unknown, or have permanently abandoned them. It can also refer to a child who has lost only one parent, as the Hebrew language, Hebrew translation, for example, is "fatherless". In some languages ...
'' writer David Leslie Johnson. Englund expressed interest in returning to the series in a cameo role. Leslie Johnson later added that the work is in limbo due to the success of
The Conjuring Universe ''The Conjuring'' Universe is an American horror franchise and shared universe centered on a series of supernatural horror films. The franchise is produced by New Line Cinema, Atomic Monster, and the Safran Company, and distributed by Warner ...
, saying that "Nothing is percolating just yet", and "Everybody wants to see Freddy again I think, so I think it's inevitable at some point".


See also

*
List of ghost films Ghost movies and shows can fall into a wide range of genres, including romance, comedy, horror, juvenile interest, and drama. History With the advent of motion pictures and television, screen depictions of ghosts became common and spanned a vari ...
*
List of monster movies This is a list of monster movies, about such creatures as Extraterrestrials in fiction, extraterrestrial aliens, Megafauna, giant animals, Kaiju (the Japanese counterpart of giant animals, but they can also be machines and plants), Mutant (fiction ...


Notes


References


Bibliography

* * Badley, Linda. ''Film, Horror, and the Body Fantastic''. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1995. . * Baird, Robert. "The Startle Effect: Implications for Spectator Cognition and Media Theory". ''Film Quarterly'' 53 (No. 3, Spring 2000): pp. 12–24. * Carroll, Noël. "The Nature of Horror." ''Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism'' 46 (No. 1, Autumn 1987): pp. 51–59. * Christensen, Kyle. "The Final Girl versus Wes Craven's 'A Nightmare on Elm Street': Proposing a Stronger Model of Feminism in Slasher Horror Cinema". ''Studies in Popular Culture'' 34 (No. 1, Fall 2011): pp. 23–47. * Cumbow, Robert C. ''Order in the Universe: The Films of John Carpenter''. 2nd ed., Lanham, Md.: Scarcrow Press, 2000. . * Johnson, Kenneth. "The Point of View of the Wandering Camera". ''Cinema Journal'' 32 (No. 2, Winter 1993): pp. 49–56. * King, Stephen. ''Danse Macabre''. New York:
Berkley Books Berkley Books is an American imprint founded in 1955 by Charles Byrne and Frederic Klein owned by the Penguin Group unit of Penguin Random House. History Berkley Books began as an independent company in 1955. It was founded as "Chic News Compa ...
, 1981. . * Prince, Stephen, ed. ''The Horror Film''. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2004. . * Schneider, Steven Jay, ed. ''Horror Film and Psychoanalysis: Freud's Worst Nightmare''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. . * Williams, Tony. ''Hearths of Darkness: The Family in the American Horror Film''. Rutherford, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1996. .


External links

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