A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

The monstrous spirit of a slain child murderer seeks revenge by invading the dreams of teenagers whose parents were responsible for his untimely death.

Director:

Wes Craven

Writer:

Wes Craven

Stars:

Heather Langenkamp, Johnny Depp, Robert Englund

4 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
John Saxon	...	Lt. Thompson
Ronee Blakley	...	Marge Thompson
Heather Langenkamp	...	Nancy Thompson
Amanda Wyss	...	Tina Gray
Jsu Garcia	...	Rod Lane (as Nick Corri)
Johnny Depp	...	Glen Lantz
Charles Fleischer	...	Dr. King
Joseph Whipp	...	Sgt. Parker
Robert Englund	...	Fred Krueger
Lin Shaye	...	Teacher
Joe Unger	...	Sgt. Garcia
Mimi Craven	...	Nurse (as Mimi Meyer-Craven)
Jack Shea	...	Minister
Ed Call	...	Mr. Lantz
Sandy Lipton	...	Mrs. Lantz

Storyline

On Elm Street, Nancy Thompson and a group of her friends (comprising Tina Gray, Rod Lane and Glen Lantz) are being tormented by a clawed killer in their dreams named Fred Krueger. Nancy must think quickly, as Fred tries to pick them off one by one. When he has you in your sleep, who is there to save you?

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Plot Keywords:

slasher | sleep deprivation | american horror | lucid dream | murder | 

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Taglines:

Don't Fall Asleep!

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Genres:

Horror

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Certificate:

R

Did You Know?

Trivia

For the Castilian Spanish language dub version, Fred Krueger's voice was dubbed by José Guardiola.

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Goofs

The part in Nancy's hair swaps sides when her father is telling her to try to forget about Tina.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Fred Krueger: Tina.

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Crazy Credits

Film title logo as the end credits are finished.

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Alternate Versions

The Australian theatrical release was edited for an M rating but the uncut version was later released on VHS home video with an R rating and can be identified by a yellow strip up in the top right corner of the front cover that says "Graphic Uncut Version".

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Connections

Featured in The Cinema Snob: The Haunting of Sharon Tate (2020)

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Soundtracks

Nightmare
Performed by 213
Written and Produced by Martin Kent, Steve Karshner, Michael Schurig

User Reviews

A Nightmare on Elm Street certainly delivers

Nancy is having grisly nightmares. Meanwhile, her high-school friends, who are having the very same dreams, are being slaughtered in their sleep by the hideous fiend of their shared nightmares. When the police ignore her explanation, she herself must confront the killer in her shadowy realm.

This Film Starred: John Saxon, Heather Langenkamp & Johnny Depp.

A Nightmare on Elm Street was released in 1984 was written and directed by Wes Craven.

In my personal opinion this was a great film, it had it's scary moments which every horror should have unfortunately they did go a bit far on a couple of the sequels which got rather low ratings on here. Not all of the sequels are bad, for example I am a fan of 3 & 4 but sequels like 2 & 5 ARE GIVING THE Freddy movies a bad name and are shadowing the excellence of this movie in particular. People seem to recognise Freddy Krueger as the burnt serial killer with knives for fingers who appeared in all them bad films. A Nightmare on Elm Street 1984 is not one of them films and should be recognised as a the great movie it is. I highly recommend this film to all fans of the horror genre.

****/***** Very Good.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

16 November 1984 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Nightmare on Elm Street

Filming Locations:

612 Milwood Court, Venice, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$1,800,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$1,271,000, 11 November 1984

Gross USA:

$25,504,513

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$25,507,137

Company Credits

Production Co:

New Line Cinema, Media Home Entertainment, Smart Egg Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min 101 min (Workprint Version)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (DeLuxe)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1