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A Nightmare on Elm Street

  • 1984
  • R
  • 1h 31m
IMDb RATING
7.4/10
249K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
1,217
15
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Teenager Nancy Thompson must uncover the dark truth concealed by her parents after she and her friends become targets of the spirit of a serial killer with a bladed glove in their dreams, in which if they die, it kills them in real life.
Play trailer1:30
6 Videos
99+ Photos
Horror

Teenager Nancy Thompson must uncover the dark truth concealed by her parents after she and her friends become targets of the spirit of a serial killer with a bladed glove in their dreams, in... Read allTeenager Nancy Thompson must uncover the dark truth concealed by her parents after she and her friends become targets of the spirit of a serial killer with a bladed glove in their dreams, in which if they die, it kills them in real life.Teenager Nancy Thompson must uncover the dark truth concealed by her parents after she and her friends become targets of the spirit of a serial killer with a bladed glove in their dreams, in which if they die, it kills them in real life.

  • Director
    • Wes Craven
  • Writer
    • Wes Craven
  • Stars
    • Heather Langenkamp
    • Johnny Depp
    • Robert Englund
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    7.4/10
    249K
    YOUR RATING
    POPULARITY
    1,217
    15
    • Director
      • Wes Craven
    • Writer
      • Wes Craven
    • Stars
      • Heather Langenkamp
      • Johnny Depp
      • Robert Englund
    • 939User reviews
    • 206Critic reviews
    • 76Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 6 wins & 6 nominations

    Videos6

    Official Trailer
    Trailer 1:30
    Watch Official Trailer
    A Nightmare on Elm Street
    Trailer 1:50
    Watch A Nightmare on Elm Street
    A Nightmare on Elm Street
    Trailer 1:37
    Watch A Nightmare on Elm Street
    'The Nightmare on Elm Street' | Anniversary Mashup
    Clip 1:04
    Watch 'The Nightmare on Elm Street' | Anniversary Mashup
    A Nightmare on Elm Street
    Clip 1:55
    Watch A Nightmare on Elm Street
    Tika Sumpter of 'Nobody's Fool' Answers Life's Big Questions About TV and Film
    Video 2:50
    Watch Tika Sumpter of 'Nobody's Fool' Answers Life's Big Questions About TV and Film

    Photos331

    Johnny Depp, Heather Langenkamp, Jsu Garcia, and Amanda Wyss in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
    Heather Langenkamp and Jsu Garcia in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
    Amanda Wyss in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
    Robert Englund in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
    Ronee Blakley in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
    Johnny Depp in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
    Heather Langenkamp in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
    Robert Englund and Heather Langenkamp in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
    Robert Englund in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
    Robert Englund in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
    Robert Englund and Heather Langenkamp in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
    Heather Langenkamp in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Heather Langenkamp
    Heather Langenkamp
    • Nancy Thompson
    Johnny Depp
    Johnny Depp
    • Glen Lantz
    Robert Englund
    Robert Englund
    • Fred Krueger
    John Saxon
    John Saxon
    • Lt. Thompson
    Ronee Blakley
    Ronee Blakley
    • Marge Thompson
    Amanda Wyss
    Amanda Wyss
    • Tina Gray
    Jsu Garcia
    Jsu Garcia
    • Rod Lane
    • (as Nick Corri)
    Charles Fleischer
    Charles Fleischer
    • Dr. King
    Joseph Whipp
    Joseph Whipp
    • Sgt. Parker
    Lin Shaye
    Lin Shaye
    • Teacher
    Joe Unger
    Joe Unger
    • Sgt. Garcia
    Mimi Craven
    Mimi Craven
    • Nurse
    • (as Mimi Meyer-Craven)
    Jack Shea
    • Minister
    Ed Call
    • Mr. Lantz
    Sandy Lipton
    • Mrs. Lantz
    David Andrews
    David Andrews
    • Foreman
    Jeff Levine
    • Coroner
    • (as Jeffrey Levine)
    Donna Woodrum
    • Tina's Mom
    • Director
      • Wes Craven
    • Writer
      • Wes Craven
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      New Line Cinema was saved from bankruptcy by the success of the film, and was jokingly nicknamed "The House that Freddy Built".
    • Goofs
      In the full-screen version, during the first nightmare sequence right before Freddy pops up to scare Tina, you can see Robert Englund as Freddy crouched down and moving into place behind her; however, at the time of the film's release, director Wes Craven would assume that only the wide-screen version would eventually be available for home viewing. You can't see Englund behind Tina in the wide-screen version.
    • Quotes

      Children: 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.

    • Crazy credits
      Film title logo as the end credits are finished.
    • Alternate versions
      The German television version is heavily cut, allowing for an earlier time slot. The cuts are:
      • When Tina is sliced by Freddy Krueger, we don't see how he slices her chest and is pulled to the ceiling.
      • In Tina's last dream we don't see when Freddy cuts his own fingers off his hand. Later, there is a scene where Freddy's face is pulled off by Tina. This scene is also missing.
      • When Nancy meets Freddy for the first time, we can't see when he slices his abdomen and when Nancy puts her arm on the hot pipe.
      • When Rod's neck is broken by Freddy Krueger, we only see Rod looking at the "snake", before it kills him.
      • The scene where the dead Tina is talking to Nancy while snakes are coming out her dress is also cut.
      • Glen's famous dead scene is also cut. We only see how he is sucked in his bed. The bloody, second half is cut.
      • When Nancy is burning Freddy, we only see the fire reach his feet, then it cuts to Nancy calling her dad.
      • The scene where Freddy is killing Nancy's mother by burning her is also cut.
      • These changes were also made in the German video version, which has a "not under 16 years" rating. The uncut version is sometimes shown on Pay-Per-View and is rated "not under 18 years."
    • Connections
      Edited into The Kill Count: A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010 Remake) (2018)
    • Soundtracks
      Nightmare
      Performed by 213

      Written and Produced by Martin Kent, Steve Karshner, Michael Schurig

    User reviews939

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    9/10
    The original and best of the Elm Street series!
    The teenagers of Springfield, Illinois are having nightmares. Tina and her best friend Nancy learn that they're dreaming about the same creature, a hideously burned man in a dirty red and green sweater who bears an odd weapon; a glove with razor fingers. When Tina is brutally murdered in her bed one night, suspicion falls upon her volatile boyfriend Rod, who was the only other person in the room with Tina when she died. But Rod swears he didn't do it, and tells Nancy that he too has been suffering from terrible nightmares in which a knife- fingered man is trying to kill him. Nancy begins to suspect that something evil is happening within their dreams, and that perhaps the boogeyman is real. When Rod turns up dead in his jail cell, Nancy is convinced that a ghostly killer is stalking them in their sleep. Her mother, worried for Nancy's sanity, takes her to a dream clinic where her sleep patterns can be monitored. When Nancy awakens screaming from a nightmare with a bloody slash mark on her arm, she shows her mother and the doctor what she has pulled out of her dream: the battered fedora that the killer always wears. The hat bears a name tag: Fred Krueger. Nancy's mother recognizes the name and soon tells Nancy the story of a brutal child killer who had terrorized the town many years ago. When he was released on a technicality, Nancy's parents and the parents of the other nightmare-plagued children hunted Fred Krueger down and burned him alive. Fred Krueger is dead, but he's found a way to return and wreak vengeance upon the children of his killers. Nancy knows that she must find a way to stop him before he kills her and everyone else on Elm Street.

    I just sat down and watched this movie again the other day and it's still damn impressive. The acting isn't always the greatest and it looks just the slightest bit dated, but it's still a really damn good movie. It's power lies in the fact that sleep cannot be avoided. In so many other horror movies, the victims are nothing more than vapid cattle wandering dumbly up the slaughterhouse chute and calling out: "Is anyone there?" as they go up. They purposefully get themselves into stupid and dangerous situations and therefore we feel no real pity for them when they are eviscerated. However, in A Nightmare On Elm Street, all the characters have to do to endanger themselves is to go to sleep. Even the most hardcore insomniac (like myself) knows that eventually, sleep will come for you; it is unavoidable. We cannot blame our cast for wandering around doing stupid things in their dreams, because how many of us have had dreams in which we show up for work naked? Very rarely are we in control of our dreams, and in A Nightmare On Elm Street, the only person in control is Freddy Krueger.

    Robert Englund as Freddy is flawless. Before this movie was released, the boogeymen of horror films had always been hulking, silent, expressionless shapes usually hidden way behind masks. Not that there's anything wrong with that! But Englund gave us a new kind of Boogeyman - a smartass. Freddy is hideously burned, covered in scar tissue and has all the fashion sense of a wino, but he's cool. Not content to simply disembowel his screaming victims, Freddy has to tease them a little first, flirting, humiliating or showing off. He makes Tina watch him cut off his own fingers and smiles at her like a drunken uncle who's just pulled a coin out from behind her ear. He sticks his tongue in Nancy's mouth via her telephone. He doesn't waste his sense of humor on the guys in this film, but there's plenty of sequels in which he makes up for that.

    This is such a great, innovative film, filled with pretty cool special effects, disturbing sound effects (including scraping metal fingernails and baby goats bleating in terror) and creepy music. The boiler room is an especially unnerving set, complete with hissing pipes and dripping chains. A young Johnny Depp and his feathery 80s hair make their debut in this film as well, and though his character is about half a million miles away from Captain Jack Sparrow, the raw talent is still very much in evidence here.

    This remains the best movie of the Elm Street series, with a few good sequels and some really crappy ones. But Freddy is always worth watching.
    helpful•91
    25
    • Gafke
    • Dec 8, 2005

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    FAQ17

    • Was this inspired by the Atlanta child murders?
    • If Freddy can disappear and reappear elsewhere, why does he go through Nancy's obstacle course of booby traps?
    • Was Freddy abused as a child and eventually became a child killer for that possible reason?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • November 16, 1984 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Nightmare on Elm Street
    • Filming locations
      • 1428 N. Genesee Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA(Nancy's house)
    • Production companies
      • New Line Cinema
      • Media Home Entertainment
      • Smart Egg Pictures
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $1,800,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $25,624,448
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $1,271,000
      • Nov 11, 1984
    • Gross worldwide
      • $25,685,134
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 31 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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