A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984 film)

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A Nightmare on Elm Street is a 1984 horror-fantasy film, and the first film in the series. The film stars Heather Langenkamp and John Saxon, as well as Johnny Depp in his feature film debut. Set in the fictional Midwestern town of Springwood, Ohio, the plot revolves around several 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. The movie came from two sources -- both nonfictional; as this article sheds some light on how it came to be. Then a short story from a writer who was then 8 when the original film emerged and studied it into his own years in neighboring College of DuPage. Like Craven he also explored his own nightmares.

Plot

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

Tina Gray has a nightmare in which she is stalked through a boiler room by a mutilated figure with distinctive razor-sharp knives attached to the fingers on his right hand. Just as he catches her, however, she wakes up screaming. Her mother comes in the room to check on her only to discover four razor cuts in her nightdress identical to the cuts in her dream. The next day, she is walking to school and tells her best friends Nancy Thompson and Glen Lantz about the dream. Nancy mentions that the dream is very "One, two, Freddy's coming for you," referencing a jump rope song they knew as children.

After having a small argument with her boyfriend Rod Lane, Nancy tells Tina to forget about the dream. Glen makes a cryptic comment about bad dreams but ignores Tina's inquiry about his own dreams as he runs off to school.

That night, Tina, Nancy and Glen, who is Nancy's boyfriend, have a sleep-over to make the distraught Tina feel better, as she is still troubled by her nightmare. However, as Tina describes the man in his dream, Nancy realizes that they are dreaming about the same person. He is described as being horribly burned with large finger knives that he scratches over everything. Although he registers a look of recognition himself, Glen assures them that what they are talking about is impossible.

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

The three teenagers hear noises in the backyard of the house. They go outside to investigate with Glen leading the two girls. After taking a few yards away from the backdoor, Tina's rebellious boyfriend, Rod, crashes the party 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 bedroom while Nancy and Glen stay downstairs to talk for a while before going to their own rooms to sleep. 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.

Fred Krueger in Tina's second and final nightmare frightening her before her murder.

Later, Tina wakes up and hears rocks being thrown at the window. She goes outside and into an alley to investigate and at this time the burned killer reveals himself. This is the first indication that she is dreaming. After chasing her down the alleyway and to the house, the killer catches up to her in her back yard. After scaring her by cutting off two of his own fingers, he finally gets a hold on her. As he kills her, and murders her brutally. Rod wakes up to find Tina being cut open by invisible knives, then dragged up the wall and across the ceiling. Rod, being the only other person in the room at the time, screams at the murderer and then flees the house.

Nancy and Glenn enter the room to find Rod gone and Tina dead. Police Lt. Donald Thompson discusses the crime with a subordinate before revealing he is Nancy's father. Lt. Thompson speaks to Nancy and her mother, angry that Nancy was sleeping in the same house as Rod, who he refers to as a psychopath. Nancy insists that Rod and Tina's argument was not enough to warrant him murdering her.

The next morning, after not sleeping, Nancy heads off to school despite the objections from her mother. Noticing that her father has placed a police tail on her, Nancy cuts through a different street where 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 appears in the bushes and pulls a gun on Rod forcing him to run into the street where he is arrested by other police men. Nancy, angry at her father for using her to capture Rod, angrily leaves for school.

In class, Nancy notices a figure in a body bag standing outside the classroom. Leaving class, she finds the body bag being dragged down the hall. Turning the corner, Nancy knocks over a girl wearing a green and red striped sweater who demands Nancy to show her hall pass. After telling the girl off and running down the hall, the girls calls out for Nancy in a masculine voice. Looking back, Nancy sees her wearing the finger knives and instructing her not to run in the hallway. Nancy follows the trail of blood into the boiler room, where she is attacked by the killer, finally revealing his first name which is Freddy. Realizing that she is dreaming, Nancy burns her arm on the boiler pipes to wake up. She screams in the classroom, alarming the teacher and the class. Embarrassed and scared, Nancy elects to leave class and go home. Her arm is burned in the same spot as 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. Her mother warns her not to fall asleep and offers to make Nancy some warm milk. As Nancy drifts off in the tub, the razor glove comes out of the water a couple times and eventually pulls Nancy under the water. Nancy's screams bring her mother to the bathroom at the same time as Nancy finally wakes up and gets out of the tub.

That night, Glen climbs into Nancy's bedroom 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 sees the murderer go into Rod's cell. After an encounter with the killer, Nancy wakes to find Glen asleep. She chastises him and tell him to hide as her mother comes to the door.

After convincing her mother she is going back to bed, Nancy and Glen go to the police station to see Rod. Rod is killed in his sleep by a sheet forming a noose and hanging him from the cell wall.

After Rod's funeral, Nancy tells her parents that Rod was not the killer. She describes the killer as a horribly burned man who wears a dirty red and green sweater, a weird hat and has razors on his finger. The color drains out of both of their faces, indicating recognition.

Nancy's mother takes her to a Dream Therapy Clinic to ensure she gets some sleep. Once again, she has a horrendous nightmare. This time, a white streak appears in her hair and her arm is badly cut. She finds that she has brought something out from her dream: the killer's battered hat. It 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. 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.

Glen and Nancy meet up, where Nancy reveals she hasn't slept in over seven days. Glen notices that Nancy is reading about booby traps, to which she informs him she is trying to survive. At this point, Glen tells Nancy about the Balinese way of sleeping. He informs her that when the Balinese see a monster in their dreams they turn their back on the monster, robbing it of all it's power.

Upon returning home, Nancy sees that Marge has barred up all of the windows in the house. Upon entering the home, Marge finally reveals that Fred Kruefer was a child murderer who killed at least twenty children over a decade earlier. Furious, vengeful parents burned him alive in his boiler room hideout after he was released from jail on a technicality due to an improperly signed warrant. She reassures Nancy that Krueger cannot hurt anyone, pulling Krueger's bladed glove from a hiding place in the furnace as proof.

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 the killer out. She requests that Glen be there to knock him out when she does. When Glen insists that nothing will happen, Nancy assures him that he then has nothing to lose. Finally, before hanging up she directs him, "Whatever you do, don't fall asleep.

Glen's father tells his wife he doesn't want Glen hanging out with Nancy anymore. When Nancy calls, he reaches the end of his tether and refuses to let Nancy speak to Glen. He then takes the phone off the hook. Nancy tries unsuccessfully to call Glen before removing the phone cord from the wall. After the phone rings, she answers is to hear the killer tell her, "I'm your boyfriend now, Nancy." His mouth and tongue appears on the phone, licking her face. Nancy knows Glen is in trouble.

After a short visit from his mother, Glen falls asleep in bed with his television. Krueger's arm comes out of the bed and pulls Glen into it, killing him. A torrent and blood and gore shoots out of the bed and drenches the room. Glen's mom enters the room screaming.

An emotionally distraught and mentally drained Nancy decides to take Krueger on herself. She calls her father and asks him to be ready when she finds the killer. He tells her he will, clearly 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 Krueger.

Nancy bravely pursues Krueger and eventually finds him and after they struggle her alarm goes off and she wakes up in her bed, seemingly alone. After assuming she is crazy, Krueger jumps on Nancy and tries 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 finally the officer he had 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 that fiery footsteps lead upstairs, Nancy and her father witness Krueger smothering Marge with his flaming body, then disappearing to leave her corpse to sink into the bed. After sending her father away, Nancy faces Krueger on her own and succeeds in destroying him by turning her back on him and draining him of all energy.

She wishes for all of his victims, including her mother, to be back as she walks out of her mother's bedroom 

The scene changes to the next morning as Nancy gets in a car with Glen and the rest of her friends, on their way to school. Krueger possesses the car just as she gets in.

The car drives away with Nancy screaming for her mother, and Marge being pulled through the door window by Krueger's bladed hand, while three little girls sing his song.

Main Cast

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Mondo releases the graphic posters for Wes Craven's Scream and a Nightmare On Elm Street to co-incide with the release of Scream 4

• John Saxon as Lt. Donald Thompson
• Ronee Blakely 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 Freddy Krueger

Check it from End Title

Supporting Cast

• Charles Fleischer as Dr. King
• Joseph Whipp as Sgt. Parker
• Lin Shaye as Teacher
• Joe Unger as Sgt. 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 Richardson Peterson 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's classic Nightmare on Elm Street's hugely 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 in 2003, crossing over Jason Voorhees (from the Friday the 13th franchise) with Freddy Krueger. It was a box office success of $82.3 million domestically, however, it received mixed reviews. In 2010, a remake of the original film 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 films of the series.

Trivia

• The scene where the blood shoots out of Glen's room 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.
• For many years it was a question where one was able to find the nonfictional source material for the landmark horror-fantasy; this revealed the fact-based elements of the film where this discusses Wes Craven's genesis for the film and later New Nightmare. According to imdb.com, Heather was the subject of pranks because she really did fall asleep when she was in the sleeping scenes and the jump rope was her real-life boyfriend's input. The 2007 published and 2008-2014 revised An Eye In Shadows discusses the ties to Chicago that A Nightmare On Elm Street has to the region; being Wheaton didn't have an Elm Street -- but Roselle did. Wes Craven had an ongoing prank war with Evil Dead creator as some of the posters in the film were part of this prank war. An Eye In Shadows author had played up his surreal traits in the five year memoir as an act of losing to a better man. He lost a gross-out contest with Satan Burger author, but the sophisticated elements showed because where he grew up; as he lived behind Wheaton College. The origins of the film was a paper he did at Wheaton College on dreams and the short story that emerged explored Wes Craven's academia.

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