''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' is a 1984 American
supernatural
Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin (above, beyond, or outside of) + (nature) Though the corollary term "nature", has had multiple meanings si ...
slasher film
A slasher film is a genre of horror films involving a killer stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed or sharp tools like knife, chainsaw, scalpel, etc. Although the term "slasher" may occasionally be used informally as a ...
written and directed by
Wes Craven
Wesley Earl Craven (August 2, 1939 – August 30, 2015) was an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and editor. Craven has commonly been recognized as one of the greatest masters of the horror genre due to the cultural imp ...
and produced by
Robert Shaye
Robert Kenneth Shaye (born March 4, 1939) is an American businessman, film producer, actor, director, and writer. He is the founder of New Line Cinema, a film production studio that distributed films such as ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'', ''Tee ...
. 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. She is considered an influential figure in horror films and in popular culture, noted for her acting in several works of the genre and her behind-the-scenes work coordinat ...
,
John Saxon
John Saxon (born Carmine Orrico; August 5, 1936 – July 25, 2020) was an American actor who worked on more than 200 film and television projects during a span of 60 years. He was known for his work in Western (genre), Westerns and horror film ...
,
Ronee Blakley
Ronee Sue Blakley (born August 24, 1945) is an American actress, singer-songwriter, composer, producer and director.
She is perhaps best known for her role as the fictional country superstar Barbara Jean in Robert Altman's 1975 film ''Nashville ...
,
Robert Englund
Robert Barton Englund (born June 6, 1947) is an American actor and director. He is best known for playing the supernatural serial killer Freddy Krueger in the '' Nightmare on Elm Street'' film series. Classically trained at the Royal Academy o ...
as
Freddy Krueger
Freddy Krueger () is a fictional character and the primary antagonist in the ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' film series. He was created by Wes Craven and made his debut in Craven's ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' (1984) as the malevolent spirit ...
,
and
Johnny Depp
John Christopher Depp II (born June 9, 1963) is an American actor and musician. He is the recipient of multiple accolades, including a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for three Academy Award ...
in his film debut.
Craven filmed ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' on an estimated budget of $1.1 million.
The film was released on November 9, 1984, and grossed $57 million worldwide.
''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' was met with rave critical reviews and is considered to be
one of the greatest horror films ever made, spawning 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, .] Aside from
''Stunts'',
''Polyester'', and
''Alone in the Dark'', it was one of the first films produced by
New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema is an American film production studio owned by Warner Bros. Discovery and is a film label of Warner Bros. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye as an independent film distribution company; later becoming a film studio after acq ...
, who by that point mostly distributed films, leading the company to become a successful
mini-major film studio and was even nicknamed "The House that Freddy Built".
The film is credited with using many of the tropes found in the low-budget horror films of the 1970s and 1980s that originated with
John Carpenter
John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American filmmaker, actor, and composer. Although he worked in various film genres, he is most commonly associated with horror, action, and science fiction films of the 1970s and 1980s. He ...
's ''
Halloween
Halloween or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve) is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Saints' Day. It begins the observanc ...
'' (1978). The film includes a
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 ( ...
where
sexually promiscuous
Promiscuity is the practice of engaging in sexual activity frequently with different Sexual partner, partners or being indiscriminate in the choice of sexual partners. The term can carry a moral judgment. A common example of behavior viewed as pro ...
teenagers are killed.
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 and former engineer. His reviews are mainly published on his blog ''ReelViews.'' Approved as a critic by the aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, he has published two collections of r ...
, review of ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'', a
ReelViews
last accessed August 30, 2006. The film was followed by ''
A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge''.
In 2021, the film 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, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception i ...
by the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Plot
Teenager
Tina Gray
Tina Gray (1885 – 26 June 1985) was a medical pioneer and the sister of ' 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 owner in Glasgow ...
awakens from a terrifying nightmare wherein a disfigured man wearing a blade-fixed glove attacks her in a boiler room. Her mother points out four mysterious slashes on her nightgown. The following morning, Tina's best friend
Nancy Thompson and Nancy's boyfriend, Glen Lantz, console her, revealing they each also had a nightmare the previous night. The two stay at Tina's house when Tina's mother goes out of town, where she discovers that Nancy also had a nightmare about the disfigured man. Tina's boyfriend, Rod Lane, interrupts their sleepover. When Tina falls asleep, she dreams of the disfigured man chasing her. Rod is awakened by Tina's thrashing and sees her dragged and fatally slashed by an unseen force, forcing him to flee as Nancy and Glen awaken to find Tina bloodied and dead.
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 that the man chases her to the boiler room where she is cornered. She then deliberately burns her arm on a pipe. The burn startles her awake in class and she notices a burn mark on her arm. Nancy visits Rod at the police station, who describes Tina's death along with his own recent nightmares about the same man stalking her in her dreams, making Nancy believe that the man killed Tina.
At home, Nancy falls asleep in the bathtub and is nearly drowned by the man. Nancy then depends on
caffeine
Caffeine is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant of the methylxanthine class. It is mainly used recreationally as a cognitive enhancer, increasing alertness and attentional performance. Caffeine acts by blocking binding of adenosine t ...
to stay awake and invites Glen to watch over her as she sleeps. In her dream, Nancy sees the man prepare to kill Rod in his cell but then he turns his attention towards her. Nancy runs away and wakes up when her alarm clock goes off. The man kills Rod by wrapping bed sheets around his neck, staging it as a suicide via hanging. At Rod's funeral, Nancy's parents become worried when she describes her dreams. Her mother, Marge, takes her to a sleep disorders clinic where, in a dream, Nancy grabs the man's fedora, with the name "
Fred Krueger" written in it, and pulls it into the real world.
After barricading the house, Marge explains that Krueger was an insane child murderer who killed twenty children but was released on a technicality, and then burned alive by the victims' parents living on their street seeking vigilante justice. Nancy realizes that Krueger, now a
vengeful ghost
In mythology and folklore, a vengeful ghost or vengeful spirit is said to be the spirit of a dead person who returns from the afterlife to seek revenge for a cruel, unnatural or unjust death. In certain cultures where funeral and burial or crem ...
, is killing her and her friends out of revenge and to satiate his psychopathic needs.
Nancy tries to call Glen to warn him, but his father prevents her from speaking to him. Glen falls asleep and is killed by Krueger. Now alone, Nancy puts Marge to sleep and asks Don, who is across the street investigating Glen's death, to break into the house in 20 minutes. Nancy rigs booby traps around the house and grabs Krueger out of the dream and into the real world. The booby traps affect Krueger enough that Nancy can light him on fire and lock him in the basement. Nancy rushes to the door for help.
The police arrive to find that Krueger has escaped from the basement. Nancy and Don go upstairs to find a burning Krueger smothering Marge in her bedroom. After Don extinguishes the fire, Krueger and Marge vanish into the bed. When Don leaves the room, Krueger rises from the bed behind Nancy. Realizing that Krueger is powered by his victim's fear, she calmly turns her back to him. Krueger evaporates when he attempts to lunge at her.
Nancy steps outside into a bright and foggy morning where all her friends and her mother are still alive. Nancy gets into Glen's convertible to go to school when the green and red striped top suddenly comes down and locks them in as the car drives uncontrollably down the street. Three girls in white dresses playing
jump rope
A skipping rope (British English) or jump rope (American English) is a tool used in the sport of skipping/jump rope where one or more participants jump over a rope swung so that it passes under their feet and over their heads. There are multi ...
are heard chanting Krueger's nursery rhyme as Marge is grabbed by Krueger through the front door window.
Cast
The cast of ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' included a crew of veteran actors such as Robert Englund and John Saxon and several aspiring young actors like Johnny Depp and Heather Langenkamp.
*
Heather Langenkamp
Heather Elizabeth Langenkamp (born July 17, 1964) is an American actress. She is considered an influential figure in horror films and in popular culture, noted for her acting in several works of the genre and her behind-the-scenes work coordinat ...
as
Nancy Thompson
*
John Saxon
John Saxon (born Carmine Orrico; August 5, 1936 – July 25, 2020) was an American actor who worked on more than 200 film and television projects during a span of 60 years. He was known for his work in Western (genre), Westerns and horror film ...
as
Lt. Donald "Don" Thompson
*
Robert Englund
Robert Barton Englund (born June 6, 1947) is an American actor and director. He is best known for playing the supernatural serial killer Freddy Krueger in the '' Nightmare on Elm Street'' film series. Classically trained at the Royal Academy o ...
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 multiple accolades, including a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for three Academy Award ...
as
Glen Lantz
*
Ronee Blakley
Ronee Sue Blakley (born August 24, 1945) is an American actress, singer-songwriter, composer, producer and director.
She is perhaps best known for her role as the fictional country superstar Barbara Jean in Robert Altman's 1975 film ''Nashville ...
as
Marge Thompson
*
Amanda Wyss
Amanda Louise Wyss (born November 24, 1960) is an American actress. She began her career in the early 1980s in teen-oriented roles such as Lisa in the coming-of-age comedy film ''Fast Times at Ridgemont High'' (1982), Tina Gray in the slasher f ...
as
Christina "Tina" Gray
*
Nick Corri
Jesus "Jsu" Garcia (), also credited as Nick Corri (born October 6, 1963), is an American film and television actor and producer. Together with author John-Roger, he runs the production company Scott J-R Productions.
Early life
Garcia was bor ...
as
Rod Lane
*
Leslie Hoffman
Leslie Hoffman (born 21 January) is a former American stunt performer, stunt coordinator, and actress.
Career
Hoffman's early education and training included gymnastics, ballet camps, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and Herbert Berkoff ...
as Hall Guard
*
Joseph Whipp
Joseph Whipp (born July 12, 1941) is an American actor who has starred in many films and starred on television. He is known for playing police officers in films and on television.
Career
Whipp taught drama at Carlmont High School in the 1970 ...
as Sgt. Parker
*
Charles Fleischer
Charles Fleischer (born August 27, 1950) is an American actor, stand-up comedian, musician, and writer, best known for appearing in films such as ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'', ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'', '' The Polar Express'', '' Rango'', '' ...
as Dr. King
*
Lin Shaye
Linda Shaye (born October 12, 1943) is an American film, television, and theater actress. In a career spanning over forty years, she has appeared in more than a hundred feature films. She is perhaps best known for her starring role as Elise Rain ...
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
Don Hannah (born in Shediac, New Brunswick) is a Canadian playwright and novelist. He won a Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Award for his first play, ''The Wedding Script''.
He has been playwright in residence at Tarragon Theatre, the Canadian S ...
as Surfers
* Shashawnee Hall, Brian Reise and Carol Pritikin as Cops
* Kathi Gibbs, John Richard Peterson,
Chris Tashima
Christopher Inadomi Tashima (born March 24, 1960) is a Japanese American actor and director. He is co-founder of the entertainment company Cedar Grove Productions and Artistic Director of its Asian American theatre company, Cedar Grove OnStage. T ...
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. He is the founder of New Line Cinema, a film production studio that distributed films such as ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'', ''Tee ...
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 prosthetics on others for theatre, television, film, fashion, magazines and other similar productions inc ...
David B. Miller designed Krueger's disfigured face based on photographs of burn victims obtained from the
UCLA Medical Center
Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center (also commonly referred to as ''UCLA Medical Center'', "RRMC" or "Ronald Reagan") is a hospital located on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles, in Westwood, Los Angeles, California, United ...
.
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'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' 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 to ...
refugees, who, after fleeing to the United States because of war and genocide 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
Brugada syndrome (BrS) is a genetic disorder in which the electrical activity of the heart is abnormal due to channelopathy. It increases the risk of abnormal heart rhythms and sudden cardiac death. Those affected may have episodes of syncope ...
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 (born April 26, 1943) is an American musician and composer best known for his 1976 hit songs "Dream Weaver" and " Love Is Alive", and for his role in helping establish the synthesizer as a leading instrument in rock and pop ...
sealed the story for Craven, giving him not only an artistic setting to jump off from, but a
synthesizer
A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...
riff for the movie soundtrack.
Wes Craven
Wesley Earl Craven (August 2, 1939 – August 30, 2015) was an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and editor. Craven has commonly been recognized as one of the greatest masters of the horror genre due to the cultural imp ...
. ''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, African and Iranian religions. This includes the East Asian religions such as Confucianism, Taoism, Chinese ...
.
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, and additional graduate program and research facilities in the New York Capital Region and Beacon, New York. It was founded in 1896 and has an enr ...
. The student film parodied contemporary horror films, and was filmed along Elm Street in
Potsdam, New York
Potsdam ( moh, Tsi tewate’nehtararénies) is a town in St. Lawrence County, New York, United States. The town population was 14,901 at the 2020 census. The ZIP Code is 13676. When SUNY Potsdam and Clarkson University are in session, the popul ...
.
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 production of the film.
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
''The Last House on the Left'' is a 1972 American exploitation horror film written, directed and edited by Wes Craven in his directorial debut. The film follows Mari Collingwood (Sandra Peabody), a hippie teenager who is abducted, raped, and ...
'' (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 famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it i ...
'' 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. "A lot of the killers were wearing masks:
Leatherface
Leatherface is a fictional character in ''The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'' film series created by Kim Henkel and Tobe Hooper. He first appears in '' The Texas Chain Saw Massacre'' as a disfigured, cannibalistic and mentally unstable mass murdere ...
,
Michael Myers,
Jason
Jason ( ; ) was an ancient Greek mythological hero and leader of the Argonauts, whose quest for the Golden Fleece featured in Greek literature. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcos. He was married to the sorceress Medea. He w ...
," he recalled in 2014. "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 felt 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 forage chiefly for feeding livestock, ei ...
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
The Swamp Thing is a superhero in American comic books published by DC Comics. A humanoid/plant elemental List of swamp monsters, creature, created by writer Len Wein and artist Bernie Wrightson, the Swamp Thing has had several humanoid or mo ...
'' (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 known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
, although they wanted Craven to tone down the content to make it suitable for children and preteens. 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 is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...
, which passed on the project due to its similarity to ''
Dreamscape'' (1984).
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...
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 Cinema is an American film production studio owned by Warner Bros. Discovery and is a film label of Warner Bros. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye as an independent film distribution company; later becoming a film studio after acq ...
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 country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
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 horror film produced and directed by Tobe Hooper from a story and screenplay by Hooper and Kim Henkel. It stars Marilyn Burns, Paul A. Partain, Edwin Neal, Jim Siedow and Gunnar Hansen, w ...
'' 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 three additional labels — ...
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. He is the founder of New Line Cinema, a film production studio that distributed films such as ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'', ''Tee ...
, 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 David or Dave Warner may refer to:
Sports
* Dave Warner (strongman) (born 1969), Northern Ireland strongman competitor
* David Bruce Warner (born 1970), South African alpine skier
* David Warner (cricketer) (born 1986), Australian cricketer
Oth ...
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 character (arts), character from 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-killer Pamel ...
, 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 c ...
, 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
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...
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
''Night of the Comet'' is a 1984 American science fiction comedy horror film written and directed by Thom Eberhardt. It stars Catherine Mary Stewart, Robert Beltran, and Kelli Maroney as survivors of a comet that has turned most people into ei ...
'' and ''
The Last Starfighter
''The Last Starfighter'' is a 1984 American space opera film directed by Nick Castle. The film tells the story of Alex Rogan (Lance Guest), a teenager recruited by an alien defense force to fight in an interstellar war. It also features Robert ...
'' previously, losing out to
Catherine Mary Stewart
Catherine Mary Stewart (; born 22 April 1959) is a Canadian actress. Her film roles include '' The Apple'', ''The Last Starfighter'' and ''Weekend at Bernie's''. She was also the original Kayla Brady in ''Days of our Lives''.
Early life
Stewar ...
at both occasions.
Demi Moore
Demi Gene Moore ( ; née Guynes; born November 11, 1962) is an American actress. After making her film debut in 1981, Moore appeared on the soap opera '' General Hospital'' (1982–1984) and subsequently gained recognition as a member of the Br ...
,
Courteney Cox
Courteney Bass Cox (previously Courteney Cox Arquette; born June 15, 1964) is an American actress and filmmaker. She gained international recognition for her starring role as Monica Geller on the NBC sitcom '' Friends'', which aired from 1994 ...
,
Tracey Gold
Tracey Gold (born May 16, 1969) is an American actress and former child star known for playing Carol Seaver on the 1980s sitcom ''Growing Pains''.
Acting career
Tracey Gold became an actress at the age of four, first appearing in a Pepsi print ...
, and
Jennifer Grey
Jennifer Grey (born March 26, 1960) is an American actress. She made her acting debut with the film ''Reckless'' (1984), and had her breakthrough with the teen comedy film '' Ferris Bueller's Day Off'' (1986). She subsequently earned worldwide ...
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 slasher film written and directed by Wes Craven, creator of 1984's ''A Nightmare on Elm Street''. A standalone film and the seventh installment in ...
'' (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
Amanda Louise Wyss (born November 24, 1960) is an American actress. She began her career in the early 1980s in teen-oriented roles such as Lisa in the coming-of-age comedy film ''Fast Times at Ridgemont High'' (1982), Tina Gray in the slasher f ...
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 ''The ...
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
''Freddy vs. Jason'' is a 2003 American slasher film directed by Ronny Yu and written by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift. It is a crossover between the ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' and ''Friday the 13th'' series, being the eighth installment i ...
'' 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 has appeared in films such as ''Platoon'' (1986), ''Wall Street'' (1987), '' Young Guns'' (1988), '' The Rookie'' (1990), ''The Thr ...
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, producer, screenwriter and political activist. He is a son of filmmaker Dick Cusack, and his ol ...
,
Brad Pitt
William Bradley Pitt (born December 18, 1963) is an American actor and film producer. He is the recipient of various accolades, including two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award. ...
,
Kiefer Sutherland
Kiefer William Sutherland (born 21 December 1966) is a British-Canadian actor and musician. He is best known for his starring role as Jack Bauer in the Fox drama series '' 24'' (2001–2010, 2014), for which he won an Emmy Award, a Golden Glo ...
,
Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Kim Coppola (born January 7, 1964), known professionally as Nicolas Cage, is an American actor and film producer. Born into the Coppola family, he is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Gu ...
, and
C. Thomas Howell
Christopher Thomas Howell (born December 7, 1966) is an American actor. He has starred in the films '' Soul Man'', '' The Hitcher'', '' Grandview U.S.A.'', ''Red Dawn'', ''Secret Admirer'' and '' The Outsiders''. He has also appeared in '' Gett ...
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 actor ...
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. A cult classic, it is commonly identified as a "Brat Pack" film. It was directed by Howard Deutch, produc ...
'' 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
Lincoln Heights Jail is a former jail building complex in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, located adjacent to the Los Angeles River and situated about southwest of the Lincoln/Cypress station. The original building ...
(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), formerly the separate institutions University of Judaism and Brandeis-Bardin Institute, is a Jewish institution in Los Angeles, California.
Its largest component is its Whizin Center for Continuing Education in ...
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
The is an automobile built by the Japanese automaker Nissan from 1966 to 2006. In the early 1980s, the brand changed from Datsun to Nissan in line with other models by the company. Although production of the Sunny in Japan ended in 2006, the na ...
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 s ...
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, 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's Benger Laboratory in Waynesboro, Virginia, US.
The g ...
.
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
Jesus "Jsu" Garcia (), also credited as Nick Corri (born October 6, 1963), is an American film and television actor and producer. Together with author John-Roger, he runs the production company Scott J-R Productions.
Early life
Garcia was bor ...
, 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.
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 New Latin , "hundred", and Latin , " foot") are predatory arthropods belonging to the class Chilopoda (Ancient Greek , ''kheilos'', lip, and New Latin suffix , "foot", describing the forcipules) of the subphylum Myriapoda, an ...
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 Spider-Man (2002 film series), ''Spider-Man'' trilogy (2002–2007) and the ''Evil Dead'' franchise (1981–present). He also directed the 1 ...
's ''
The Evil Dead
''The Evil Dead'' is a 1981 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Sam Raimi, produced by Robert Tapert and executive produced by Raimi, Tapert, and Bruce Campbell, who also starred alongside Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeMan ...
'' appears on a television. Craven decided to include the scene because Raimi had featured a ''The Hills Have Eyes (1977 film), 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'', and later in ''Ash vs Evil Dead''.
Sean S. Cunningham, Sean Cunningham, whom Wes Craven had previously worked with while filming ''
The Last House on the Left
''The Last House on the Left'' is a 1972 American exploitation horror film written, directed and edited by Wes Craven in his directorial debut. The film follows Mari Collingwood (Sandra Peabody), a hippie teenager who is abducted, raped, and ...
'' (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 intendendly 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, ''A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge, 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 was written by composer Charles Bernstein (composer), Charles Bernstein and first released in 1984 on label Varèse Sarabande. 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, 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.
Per the script, the lyrics are as follows:
One two, Freddy's coming for you.
Three four, better lock your door.
Five six, grab your crucifix.
Seven eight, gonna stay up late.
Nine ten, never sleep again.
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 (MPAA), they required two cuts to grant it an Motion Picture Association of America film rating system, 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 Australian Classification Board#Unrestricted/Advisory, 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 Laserdisc release. All DVD, digital, and Blu-ray releases use the R rated theatrical version; the uncut version has yet to be released on a digital format,
though six seconds were restored for home video and a further two seconds for current releases.
Theatrical
It was released in the United States on November 9, 1984, through New Line Cinema and in the United Kingdom in 1985 through Palace Pictures.
Home media
The film was first introduced to the home video market by
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 three additional labels — ...
in early 1985 and was eventually released on Laserdisc. It has since been released on DVD, 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 by Warner Home Video, 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.
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 wrote in the ''Monthly Film Bulletin'' that ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' was closer to a Stephen King 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
The Swamp Thing is a superhero in American comic books published by DC Comics. A humanoid/plant elemental List of swamp monsters, creature, created by writer Len Wein and artist Bernie Wrightson, the Swamp Thing has had several humanoid or mo ...
'', ''The Hills Have Eyes Part II, The Hills Have Eyes Part 2'', ''Invitation to Hell (1984 film), 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 of ''The Washington Post'' 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 observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Saints' Day. It begins the observanc ...
''." ''Variety (magazine), 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 [David] Cronenberg 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 95% approval rating based on 56 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes 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 (US TV channel), Bravo's ''100 Scariest Movie Moments, 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'' 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 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 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.
Cinematic derivatives of ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' (1984) includes the two separate Bollywood horror films ''Khooni Murda'' (1989) and ''Mahakaal'' (1994), the Indonesian horror film ''Batas Impian Ranjang Setan'' or ''Satan's Bed'' (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 ''The ...
as Freddy Krueger. The film was produced by Michael Bay, 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 Cinema is an American film production studio owned by Warner Bros. Discovery and is a film label of Warner Bros. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye as an independent film distribution company; later becoming a film studio after acq ...
was developing a second remake with ''Orphan (2009 film), Orphan'' 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, 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
* List of monster movies
Notes
References
Bibliography
*
Further reading
* 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, 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
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nightmare On Elm Street, A
A Nightmare on Elm Street (franchise) films
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1980s supernatural horror films
1980s teen horror films
1984 horror films
American ghost films
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American supernatural horror films
American teen horror films
1980s English-language films
Films about child abuse
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Films directed by Wes Craven
Films scored by Charles Bernstein
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