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A Nightmare on Elm Street

  • 1984
  • R
  • 1h 31m
IMDb RATING
7.4/10
248K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
1,232
13
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
    248K
    YOUR RATING
    POPULARITY
    1,232
    13
    • 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
    7/10
    You'll never want to fall asleep again
    While I love horror films, I am not a big fan of the slasher genre, which has come to dominate and indeed practically to define horror since the late 1970s. While I do love the original "Psycho," most slasher films follow a different, and far more predictable, formula. The idea of a faceless killer going around stabbing teenagers just doesn't frighten me a whole lot, though some of these films do fill me with disgust--a rather different sort of emotion.

    I am far more frightened by films that deal with distortions of reality, where it's hard for the characters to tell what's real and what's not. Admittedly, that genre isn't always so lofty either. Dreams are one of the most overused devices in the movies, having a whole set of clichés associated with them. We are all familiar with the common scene in which a character awakens from a nightmare by jerking awake in cold sweat. This convention is not only overused, it's blatantly unrealistic, for people waking up from dreams do not jerk awake in such a violent fashion. Moreover, these scenes are usually nothing more than little throwaway sequences designed to amuse or frighten the audience without advancing the plot.

    What makes "Nightmare on Elm Street" so clever is how it creates an entirely new convention for representing dreams on screen. The dreaming scenes are filmed with an airy, murky quality, but so are many of the waking scenes, making it very difficult to tell whether a character is awake or asleep. Indeed, the movie never shows any character actually fall asleep, and as a result we are constantly on guard whenever characters so much as close their eyes for a moment. In crucial scenes, it is impossible to tell whether what we are seeing is real or happening only in a character's mind. But the movie ultimately suggests that the difference doesn't matter. The premise of the movie, in which a child-killer haunts teenager's dreams and has the capability of killing them while they're asleep, turns the whole "It was all just a dream" convention on its head: in this movie, the real world is safe, and the dream world is monstrously dangerous.

    The movie finds a number of ways to explore this ambiguity, including a bathtub scene that invites comparisons with the shower scene in "Psycho" without being a cheap ripoff. My personal favorite scene, and one of the scariest I've ever seen in a movie, is the one where Nancy dozes off in the classroom while a student is standing up in front of the class reading a passage from Shakespeare. The way the scene transitions from the real classroom to a nightmarish version of it is brilliantly subtle.

    The director, Wes Craven, understood that the anticipation of danger is usually more frightening than the final attack. There are some great visual shots to that effect, including one where Freddy's arms becomes unnaturally long in an alleyway, and another where the stairs literally turn into a gooey substance, in imitation of the common nightmare where it is hard to get away from a pursuer. The movie continually finds creative ways to tease the audience, never resorting to red herring, that tired old convention used in almost all other slasher films.

    Despite the creativity in these scenes, "A Nightmare on Elm Street" is still a formula movie, with relatively one-dimensional characters and no great performances. This was Johnny Depp's first role, as Heather Langenkamp's boyfriend, and although he does get a few neat lines of exposition (his speech about "dream skills"), his personality is not fleshed out, and there is no sense of the great actor Depp would go on to become.

    Within the genre, however, "A Nightmare on Elm Street" is a fine work. My main criticism isn't its failure to transcend the formula, but its confusing and obtuse ending, apparently put there in anticipation of sequels, but managing to create a mystery that the sequels were unable to clear up. The climactic confrontation between Freddy and Nancy is weakly handled. The crucial words she says to him are surprisingly clunky, and her father's muted behavior during that scene is almost inexplicable. It has led me to consider an alternative interpretation of the scene, but one that feels like a cop-out. The scene that follows, and where the movie ends, is anticlimactic and unnecessary. These clumsily-made final two scenes come close to ruining the movie, and it is a testament to the film's many good qualities that it still stands as an unusually effective horror film that invites repeat viewings.
    helpful•138
    32
    • kylopod
    • Oct 24, 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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