A Nightmare on Elm Street

Article

Gallery

A Nightmare on Elm Street
Official poster
Information
Released	November 9, 1984 (Original theatrical release) September 20, 2006 (Theatrical Rerelease)
Writer(s)	Wes Craven
Director(s)	Wes Craven
Producer(s)	Robert Shaye
Starring	Heather Langenkamp Johnny Depp Amanda Wyss Jsu Garcia John Saxon Ronee Blakley Robert Englund
Runtime	91 minutes
Budget	$1,800,000
Gross	$25,504,513 (USA)
Next	A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge

A Nightmare on Elm Street (full title: Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street) is a 1984 horror-fantasy film, and the first film in the A Nightmare on Elm Street film series. The film stars Robert Englund, Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon , Leslie Hoffman, Ronee Blakley, as well as Johnny Depp in his feature film debut.

Set in the fictional Midwestern town of Springwood, Ohio, the plot revolves around four teenagers who are stalked and killed in their dreams by dead child murderer Freddy Krueger. The teenagers don't know why Krueger is trying to kill them, but their parents hold a dark secret from long ago.

Plot

THIS SECTION IS BEING WORKED ON.

A pre-death Freddy Krueger is shown in the Boiler Room walking toward a worktable, picking a paper sack up off the floor on the way. Upon dumping the contents of the sack (which are several metal pieces) onto the worktable, which already had various items on it, Freddy picked up one of the metal pieces with his right hand and then picked up a knife, which had already been on the table, from the table with his left hand. He then picks up an already existing glove, which becomes the basis of the glove he is making, with his left hand. He then starts cutting the glove with the knife. He then picked up a folding straight razor with his right hand. He then holds a metal piece with his left hand and hammers it with his right hand. He then holds a metal piece against the edge of the workbench with his left hand and files it with his right hand. A metal piece is then shown in a vice and he is welding a knife to it with a blowtorch. He is then shown hammering one of the metal pieces. He is then flexing a metal piece. He is then shown flexing a metal piece with a blade attached.

With the glove having been made and underside of the glove and his right hand both facing upward, he then puts his right hand into the glove for the first time. He is holding both his right hand and the glove with his left hand while doing this.

He is then shown with the upperside of the glove and his right hand facing upward, with the four fingers, not includes his thumb, pulled in to his hand. He then quickly flexs the four fingers outward and then turns his glove and right hand over.

He stabs through some fabric with his glove and right hand, put it isn't shown WHEN he does this, if he's alive or dead, in the physical world or Dream World. He scream can be heard.

Tina screams in the Boiler Room before her nightgown is shredded at the front by the burned figure.

Teenager Tina Gray is first shown against a bright white background, which could be interpreted as the "strange white mist" described in the equivalent part of A Nightmare on Elm Street (book adaptation of the 1984 film by E.L. Flood).

A hallway with pipes on the upper walls, spraying steam and leaking water, is then shown, with what is apparently the bright white background at one end, with Tina standing in front of it. There is water all over the floor.

Tina runs away from the bright white background, briefly turns around to look at it several times, then turns back around several times and continues running away from it.

Freddy says Tina's name. Tina turns around. There is also a bright white background at the other end of the hallway. There is also a sheep in the hallway.

Tina then turns and enters the Boiler Room.

The area where Tina enters the Boiler Room appears not to be floor level. She appears to be on a catwalk.

Freddy is shown staring at her.

When she sees him, Freddy proceeded to chase her, where she is then cornered at a furnace. Though she screamed in fear of being killed, Freddy instead disappears. Tina then hears the crying of a baby and as she was about to investigates on where it is coming from, Freddy suddenly appears from behind her and ambushes her, causing Tina to wake up screaming in her bed, revealing it was all a nightmare. Her mother comes to the door and asks her daughter if she's ok and Tina replies that it was only a dream. However, her mother points out four razor cuts in Tina's nightdress, which are identical to the cuts in Tina's dream. Tina looks down at the cuts and examines them with her fingers. Her mother's boyfriend then comes to the door, and gets her mother to come back to bed. After they left, Tina takes the crucifix off her room wall and clutches it to her chest.

The next morning, three girls in white dresses were playing jump rope while a fourth girl in a white dress holds a ball and watches in what is clearly in the physical world on the front lawn of Springwood High School. Glen Lantz, who is the boyfriend of teenage girl Nancy Thompson, drove both her and Tina to the school in a red convertible. When they reached the sidewalk and began towards the high school, Tina tells Glen and Nancy about the dream and the latter tells Tina that she too had a bad dream herself. Rod Lane, who is Tina's boyfriend, then comes up behind them and tells Tina that he'd woken up with an erection. Tina then makes an unflattering comment about Rod's penis, which Rod doesn't appreciate. He then runs off to the school's front entrance.

Tina then tells Nancy and Glen that she couldn't go back to sleep after the nightmare she had. When she asks Nancy what she'd dreamt about. her friend refuses to answer. Glen implies that he'd had a nightmare as well and then runs off to school. When Tina yells out a question about whether he'd had a nightmare too, he either ignores the question or doesn't hear it.

Tina then says to Nancy that maybe they're about to have a big earthquake, saying that things had gotten weird before, before they go into the school to start class. That night, Tina, Nancy and Glen are having a sleep-over at 620 Elm Street to make the distraught Tina feel better, as she is still troubled by her nightmare. However, as Tina describes the man she encountered (Freddy Krueger) in her dream, this made Nancy remember realizes that she had also dreamt of the same person. She described more details of the figure; he wore a red and green sweater and has large finger knives, to which Nancy assumed that he made them himself, which he scratches over everything, which makes a scary noise. Although he registers a look of recognition himself, Glen assures them that what they are talking about is impossible.

Nancy describing to Tina the similar dream she had about the burned man.

The three teenagers suddenly hear noises in the backyard of the house and they go outside to investigate, with Glen in the lead. After taking a few yards away from the backdoor, Rod suddenly tackles Glen and scares all three of them.

After a short conversation between all of them, Rod takes Tina upstairs to have sex in her mother's bed while Nancy and Glen stay downstairs to talk for a while before Nancy goes upstairs to Tina's room to sleep. Glen stays downstairs and sleeps on the couch. After Rod and Tina have sex, Rod reveals to Tina that he too had recent nightmares, although he doesn't discuss the content. He then rolls over and they go to sleep.

Meanwhile in Tina's room, the same crucifix falls off the wall and onto the bed.

Later, Tina is apparently woken up by rocks being thrown at the window. When she tries to wake Rod up, he is sound asleep. She goes to the window alone and sees a rock hitting and breaking the glass. Back in Tina's room, Freddy tries to come through the wall, but Nancy wakes up, forcing him to hide again. She then puts the crucifix back to where it is hung and then knocks on the wall.

Tina goes outside and into an alley to investigate on who threw the rocks and she encounters Freddy Krueger, who reveals himself. This is the first indication that Tina is dreaming. After chasing her down the alleyway and to the house, Freddy catches up to her in her back yard. After scaring her by cutting off two of his own fingers with a knife on his glove, he finally gets a hold on her. As he scuffles with her, Rod wakes up to Tina's screams as she continue to scuffle with Freddy under the blanket. When Rod removes it from her he finds Tina violently shaking as Freddy uses his glove to slash at her chest, though Rod didn't see him. The latter was forced to watch as Tina was dragged out of bed and onto the wall before stopping on the ceiling. As Rod helplessly watches while at the same time screaming out to her, he reaches out to Tina before she falls onto the bed and tumble to the floor dead. Nancy, who woke up to Tina's screams, tries to get Rod to open the door but she could only hear him calling out to the murderer, as he didn't know that it was Freddy. When Nancy and Glen managed to get inside the room, they find Tina's bloodied body, though they were unable to find Rod as he had escaped through the window.

Some time later, at the Springwood 5th Precinct Police Station, Nancy's father Police Lt. Donald Thompson and a subordinate were discussing the incident and the murder that had occurred. Lt. Thompson then speaks to Nancy and her mother, as he was angry that Nancy was sleeping in the same house as Rod, who he refers to as a "lunatic delinquent", as he believed that Rod was responsible for Tina's death. Nancy denies that Rod is a lunatic, but makes no attempt to deny that he is a delinquent. Donald asks Nancy if she has a sane explanation for what Rod did.

When Nancy insists that Rod and Tina's argument was not enough to warrant him for the murder, Marge comments to her daughter that perhaps she doesn't think murder is serious, which offends Nancy, who tells her parents on why she and Glen were at Tina's house. The next morning, after not sleeping, Nancy heads off to school despite the objections from her mother. As she walks past a house with the number 1622, Nancy sees a man very openly watching her. When she looks again a few seconds later, he had disappeared. Another second later, she is grabbed by Rod and dragged into the bushes. Rod tries to explain what he saw and that it wasn't him that killed Tina. Although somewhat receptive to Rod's claims, Rod gets angry at Nancy and stupidly threatens her. Lt. Thompson suddenly appears in the bushes and pulls a gun on Rod, causing him to runs off into the street where he is arrested by other policemen. Nancy, angrily accusing her father of having used her as bait for Rod, leaves for school in anger.

During class, Nancy falls asleep. In the Dream World, she notices Tina's corpse in a body bag standing outside the classroom. Leaving class, she finds the body bag being dragged down the hall, leaving a trail of leaked blood. Turning the corner, Nancy knocks over the Hall Guard, who is wearing a green and red striped sweater. She demands of Nancy "Where's your pass?". After telling the Hall Guard to "Screw your pass!" and running down the hall, the Hall Guard calls out for Nancy in Freddy Krueger's voice. Looking back, Nancy sees her wearing the same glove Freddy wears. She tells Nancy "Hey Nancy, no running in the hallway!" before letting out an evil laugh. Nancy continues to follow the trail of blood down a stairway and into Springwood High School's basement.

Since the basement is part of the Dream World, it is revealed to be connected to the same boiler room Tina had went into. Going inside, Nancy was attacked by Freddy Krueger, who finally revealed to her his first name. Realizing that she is dreaming, she burns her arm on the boiler pipes to force herself to wake up. Upon awakening, she screams in pain in the classroom, alarming the teacher and the class. Embarrassed and scared, Nancy elects to leave class and go home while her arm is still burned in the same spot as in the dream.

These nightmares cause her to talk to Rod in jail, who finishes telling her what he saw in Tina's mother's bedroom. He tells Nancy that he never saw anyone and when he first saw Tina being murdered, he assumed he was having another nightmare. When Rod mentions that all four slashes in Tina's chest happened simultaneously, Nancy finally believes Rod is innocent.

Later at home, Nancy is taking a bath when she falls asleep, causing Freddy's glove to emerge in the water but was forced to submerge when Marge knocks on the door. She warns her daughter to not to fall asleep and offered her warm milk, to which Nancy rejects it calling it "gross". As Nancy drifts off in the tub again, Freddy pulls Nancy under the water, causing her to scream which caused her mother to come running into the bathroom after Nancy was able to wake up and get out of the tub.

That night, Glen climbs into Nancy's bedroom through a window and Nancy reveals her thoughts about Tina's murder. She asks Glen to watch over her while she sleeps. Nancy goes to sleep and in her dream, she leaves her house. As she walks into an area, she asks Glen if he is still watching and she hears a yes from what appears to be him, when he appeared behind a bush, but one has to wonder if this is really him. If it was, it would pretty much have to mean that Glen fell asleep.

Nancy walks to the Springwood 5th Precinct Police Station and looks through a window to see Freddy go into Rod's cell and begins pulling the bedsheet over him, Nancy starts to panic and she began screaming out to Glen. When she looks back into the window, Freddy had disappeared. Nancy then notices an apparition of Tina, who calls out to Nancy in an eerie tone before she releases a centipede from her mouth. When Nancy calls out to Glen again, she hears Freddy Krueger answering "I'm here." before he suddenly appears from a bush, causing Nancy to run back to her house with Freddy chasing after her.

After going inside and locking the front door, she began going up the staircase to her room only to discover that the carpet on the stairs appears to turn into marshmallow as Freddy Krueger breaks the window on the front door. As Nancy struggles to go up the stairs she hears her mother calling out to her for help. Upon reaching the top of the stairs, she hurries into her room where she find the lights off and a dozing Glen. When Nancy began telling herself in front of a mirror that everything is all a dream and not real, Freddy suddenly bursts through the mirror and pounces on her. During the struggle, Nancy tries to wake Glen up, to no avail. After breaking herself free of Freddy's grasp, she grabs her feather pillow to defend herself, but Freddy slashes it and throws it away, causing lots of feathers to fly everywhere. As Freddy continues to scuffle with her, Nancy's alarm clock goes off causing her to wake up.

Glen, who indeed fell asleep in the physical world, also woke up to the noise of the alarm clock along with Nancy's screams. The latter proceeded to chastise him for having not stayed awake. As she scolded for him for falling asleep, Marge suddenly calls out to Nancy, causing Glen to immediately leave the room through the same window he went through and Nancy tells him to not leave yet.

When Marge came into the room in her nightgown, she asks her daughter if she's okay and Nancy convinces her that it was just a dream and that she is going back to bed. After Marge turns off the light and leaves the room, Nancy calls out to Glen but discovers that he had left. After finding him, they both go to the police station to see Rod. Meanwhile, in Rod's cell, an invisible Freddy Krueger ties up the bedsheets into a noose and proceeded to quietly wrap it around Rod's neck while he is asleep. After Nancy manages to convince her father to let her and Glen visit Rod, Freddy proceeded to drag the latter by the noose and proceeded to hang him from the cell's ceiling, making it look like he committed suicide. When Lt. Thompson and his subordinate noticed Rod being hanged they immediately untied the noose that is wrapped around his neck. Upon checking for a heartbeat they realized that Rod had died which left Nancy devastated. not knowing that Freddy was responsible, Rod's death was deemed a suicide.

The next day, a graveside service is being held for Rod at Evergreen Cemetery. After the funeral, Nancy tells her parents that Rod was not the killer and describes said killer as a horribly burned man who wears a dirty red and green sweater, a weird hat and has razors on his fingers. This causes the color drains out of both of her parent's faces, indicating recognition. Marge then takes her to the Katja Institute for the Study of Sleep Disorders to ensure she gets some sleep. As Nancy goes through a comprehensive test, she once again went through a nightmare. after Marge and the doctors managed to keep her under control, they discovered a white streak in her hair and her arm badly cut. Nancy then finds that she has brought something out from her dream: Freddy's battered hat. Upon seeing the hat, this arouses concern, but also other feelings, in Marge, who is clearly hiding a secret.

Nancy confronts Marge about the hat and points out that the name Fred Krueger is written into the hat. She demanded if she knows who he is. Although Marge reveals almost nothing, she insists to Nancy that no one is trying to kill her and all Nancy needs is to get some sleep. This caused her daughter to argue back at her and this made Marge slap her in the face. When she reassures Nancy that Fred Krueger won't come after her as he is "dead". When Nancy confronts her mother over knowing on who he is, Marge insists that she is sick and is just imagining things and that she'll feel better when she gets some sleep. This made Nancy snap, causing her to leave the house.

Meeting up with Glen again, Nancy reveals she hasn't slept in over seven days. Glen, at this point, tells Nancy about the Balinese way of sleeping and informs her that when the Balinese see a monster in their dreams they turn their back on said monster, robbing it of all its power and it will disappear. He then notices that Nancy is reading a book on booby traps and asks her on what it is for and she informs him that it is for survival.

Upon returning home, Nancy discovered that her mother has installed window bars on all the windows in the house. Enraged by this, Nancy, upon entering the house, proceeded to call out to her mother on why she had installed bars on all the windows. Marge then takes her daughter down to the basement of the house, where she finally reveals her secret; Freddy Krueger was a child murderer who killed at least twenty children over a decade earlier. When he was released from jail on a technicality due to an improperly signed warrant, the parents of the victims, with Marge among them, proceeded to track Krueger down to an abandoned boiler room. They poured gasoline all over the boiler room, poured a trail of gasoline out the door, lit the end of the trail, and watched the boiler room burn until the fire went out. When she reassures Nancy that Krueger cannot hurt anyone, she reveals his bladed glove, which she takes from a hiding place in the furnace, as proof. (It should be noted here that this glove can't possibly be the same glove Krueger has been using in the Dream World.)

Later that night, Nancy calls Glen and makes a deal with him. She tells him that he is going to go into her dreams and pull Freddy out. She requests Glen that he be there to knock him out when she pulls Freddy into the physical world When Glen insists that nothing will happen, Nancy assures him that he then has nothing to lose. Finally, before hanging up she instructs him to not fall asleep. A few minutes later, she begins to put her plan into motion. However, she was unaware that Glen's father, Mr. Lantz, is watching her. He tells his wife Ms. Lantz that he believes that Nancy is a lunatic and he doesn't want his son hanging out with her anymore. When Nancy tries to call Glen, Miss. Lantz picks it up instead.

When Nancy tells her that he wants to talk to Glen and that it is private, Miss. Lantz relays it to her husband, who reaches the end of his tether and refuses to let Nancy speak to his son. He then takes the phone off the hook. Because of this, Nancy unsuccessfully tries to call Glen and is frustrated that he might fall asleep again. When the phone rings, Nancy proceeded to answer it, and upon hearing nothing but an apparent eerie high -pitch laugh, she screams in frustration and pulls on the phone cord before deciding to go to Glen's house in secrecy. However, before she could fully leave her room, the phone began to ring again. When she picks it up once again, Freddy Krueger's voice tells her "I'm your boyfriend now, Nancy." before his mouth appears in the phone and his tongue began licking her face, causing her to freak out and stomp on the phone. Knowing that Glen is in trouble, she hurries downstairs to go to his house but discovers that the front door is locked. When Marge, who was sleeping on the couch, tells her that it is locked and that she is going to get "some sleep", Nancy demanded the key, but her mother refused, causing a frustrated Nancy to scream in anger.

Meanwhile, in his room, Glen had fallen asleep, causing Freddy's arm to come out of the bed and pull Glen into it, killing him. Krueger then sends a torrent of blood, which shoots out of the bed and drenches the room. Upon discovering this, Mrs. Lantz, who came to check on her son, began screaming in horror. The police, Lt. Thompson among them, and an ambulance were soon called in.

With Glen dead, an emotionally distraught and mentally drained Nancy decides to take on Krueger herself. She calls her father and asks him to be ready when she finds the killer. He tells her he will, making it clear that he is just humoring his overly tired daughter and tells his deputy to watch the house. Nancy then sets her watch, says a prayer, and goes to sleep to find Freddy.

Nancy bravely pursues Krueger and going down the basement, she finds herself back in the old boiler room. When she encounters Freddy again another chase ensues. As they began scuffling with each other, Nancy's alarm clock goes off, causing her to wake up in her bed, seemingly alone. In frustration and dismay, Nancy assures that she herself is crazy and wrong before Krueger jumps on her before trying to kill her. Having prepared beforehand, Nancy proves more than a match for Freddy, leading him through a barrage of booby traps. Nancy continuously calls out for her absent father until the officer who was watching her gets Lt. Thompson. Freddy then chases Nancy down to the basement where she sets him on fire.

Lt. Donald Thompson and Nancy happen upon Marge Thompson's incinerated corpse as it is sucked into the bed

Nancy locks him in the basement and finally gets her father and the rest of the police to help. After discovering that Krueger has escaped and find fiery footsteps leading upstairs, Nancy witnessed Krueger smothering Marge in her bed with his flaming body. In a desperate attempt to save her mother, Nancy takes a wooden chair and knocks Krueger out with it. Upon arriving at the scene, Lt. Thompson immediately uses a blanket to smother Freddy's burning body. Upon taking it off, Freddy had disappeared, with only Marge's charred corpse on the bed. Nancy and her father then watched as the corpse sink and disappear into the bed. Devastated over the loss of her mother, Nancy embraces her father, who too was heartbroken over Marge's death. After sending her father away, Nancy goes to face Krueger on her own.

As the dream demon emerges from the bed, Nancy coldly tells him that she now knows him well, causing Freddy to threateningly tell her that she'll die. Unfazed, she tells him that it is too late for that and that she now knows a secret; everything is just a dream and that he is not alive. Turning towards Freddy, she wishes her mother and friends back, which angers him. Now clearly angry, Nancy declares that she'll take back every energy that she gave him and that he is nothing. When she turns her back on Freddy, he attempts to kill her only to suddenly disappear, seemingly destroyed.

When Nancy walks out of her mother's bedroom, the scene outside changes to the next morning and Marge also appears, looking much alive. As Nancy gets in a car with Glen and the rest of her friends, who seemed to have been brought back from the dead, to go to school, Freddy Krueger, who is shown to have survived immediately possesses the car just before Nancy and her friends could drive off. The car then drives away with Nancy screaming for her mother, who strangely just watches and waves. As the convertible continues to drive away, the same three little girls who were seen earlier, were playing jump-rope, though the fourth girl is not seen, as they sing Freddy's song. While Marge was watching them, Freddy grabs and pulls her through the window of the front door while the three girls, who seemed to have switched places and were ignorant of what happened, continued playing.

Cast

• John Saxon as Lt. Donald Thompson
• Ronee Blakley as Marge Thompson
• Heather Langenkamp as Nancy Thompson
• Amanda Wyss as Tina Gray
• Jsu Garcia as Rod Lane
• Johnny Depp as Glen Lantz
• Robert Englund as Fred Krueger
• Charles Fleischer as Dr. King
• Joseph Whipp as Sergeant Parker
• Lin Shaye as Teacher
• Joe Unger as Sergeant Garcia
• 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 Tina's Mom
• Shashawnee Hall as Cop #1
• Carol Pritikin as Cop #2
• Brian Reise as Cop #3
• Ash Adams as Surfer #1
• Don Hannah as Surfer #2
• Leslie Hoffman as Hall Guard
• Paul Grenier as Tina's Mom's Boyfriend
• John Richard Petersen as John. Kid In Classroom
• Antonia Yannouli as Girl In Nancy's English Class

Box Office

A Nightmare on Elm Street premiered in the United States on a limited theatrical release on November 9, 1984, opening in 165 cinemas across the country. The film performed moderately well commercially with little advertising — relying mostly on commercial advertisements and word-of-mouth. Grossing US$1,271,000 during its opening weekend, the film was considered an instant commercial success. The film eventually earned a total of $26.5 million at the American box office. Additionally, A Nightmare on Elm Street was released in Europe, India, Canada and Australia.

New Line Cinema is sometimes referred to as "the house that Freddy built," due to the success of the film and its sequels. New Line had previously gone through a serious financial slump and was in danger of going out of business.

Reception

The ever famous bathtub scene.

Since its initial release, critics have praised the film's ability to rupture "the boundaries between the imaginary and real," toying with audience perceptions. Some film historians interpreted this overriding theme as a social subtext, "the struggles of adolescents in American society". Variety said the film was "A highly imaginative horror film that provides the requisite shocks to keep fans of the genre happy".

The film has a 95% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and is considered by many as one of the best films of 1984. It ranked at #17 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments (2004), a five-hour program that selected cinema's scariest moments. In 2003, Freddy Krueger was named the 40th greatest film villain on American Film Institute's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains. 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.

Sequels

The 1984 classic A Nightmare on Elm Street's huge success also brought up several high quality sequels, and some of them even received higher reception than the original. In 1985, one year after the first film's release, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge was released, grossed over $29.9 million domestically and received very negative reviews. Two years later, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors was released and grossed more than $44.2 million in North America, and received mixed to positive reviews, some of the critics believe the third film saved the series.

After the success of Dream Warriors, the fourth film A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master was released in 1988, and grossed more than $49.9 million at domestic box office, becoming the highest grossing horror film of that year, and was well received with overall mixed to positive reviews from critics, and it is also one of the fan favorites. In 1989, New Line Cinema then released A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child. It box office performance was mediocre, but still grossed $22.2 domestically. Its plot, more Gothic and darker than previous installments, was praised by critics for its film style, and the reception was generally mixed.

In 1991, New Line released Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, in a decision to end the franchise, with the ending in 3D. It grossed $34.5 million, but the reception was very negative. Three years later, Wes Craven's New Nightmare was released. Its story is set in the "real" world relative to the original six films. Though it didn't do well on box office, only grossing $18.3 million in North America, it received mixed to positive reviews, and became a reference of another hugely successful horror series: Scream.

New Line released Freddy vs. Jason, which is part of both the A Nightmare on Elm Street film series and the Friday the 13th film series, in 2003, crossing over Jason Voorhees (from the Friday the 13th film series) with Freddy Krueger.

It was a box office success of $82.3 million domestically, however, it received mixed reviews.

In 2010, a A Nightmare on Elm Street reboot was released. The North American box office performance of the film was $63.5 million, and it received very negative reviews. Most audiences believe it is one of the worst A Nightmare on Elm Street films, with many people believing it is the worst A Nightmare on Elm Street film.

Censorship

The original cut was rated X, and the MPAA forced Wes Craven to remove 5 seconds from Tina's death and 8 seconds from Glen's death before giving the film an R rating. Glen's death was gradually restored to Craven's original version, with 6 seconds restored for the initial home video release and the remaining 2 seconds for the DVD release, but Tina's death remains censored to this day. The uncut X-rated version was only available outside of the United States, mostly on VHS, though a rare DVD of this cut was issued in Turkey.

Trivia

• The scene where the blood shoots out of Glen's bed was actually filmed upside down.
  • At the time it was the most fake blood ever used in one scene.
  • When Glen's mother opened the door at the end of that scene you can actually see blood running horizontal and diagonal which was caused by them flipping the room back over. (Mentioned on directors’ commentary)
  • The room was the same room as was used for Tina's death at the beginning of the film.
• The confusing ending of the movie was due to producer Robert Shaye wanting a scary ending. Wes Craven intended the movie to have a happy ending that when Nancy wakes up after defeating Freddy, she realizes the entire movie was just a dream. Shaye wanted the ending scene to actually be a nightmare. The ending the movie actually received was a compromise of the two endings.
• This movie was filmed from 11th June to 13th July 1984.

• This film is the only one in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise to be selected by the United States National Film Registry for preservation in the Library of Congress.

Gallery

THIS CONTENTS OF THIS SECTION NEED TO BE TRANSFERRED TO A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984 FILM)/GALLERY AND THEN THIS SECTION NEEDS TO BE DELETED.

Posters

Behind the scenes

Screenshots