A Nightmare on Elm Street

Watch: A Nightmare on Elm Street

11/9/19841h 31m

Theatrical (limited) Release (US)

~ If Nancy doesn't wake up screaming she won't wake up at all. ~

Overview:

Teenagers in a small town are dropping like flies, apparently in the grip of mass hysteria causing their suicides. A cop's daughter, Nancy Thompson, traces the cause to child molester Fred Krueger, who was burned alive by angry parents many years before. Krueger has now come back in the dreams of his killers' children, claiming their lives as his revenge. Nancy and her boyfriend, Glen, must devise a plan to lure the monster out of the realm of nightmares and into the real world...

Director:

Wes Craven

Status:

Released

Language:

English

Buget:

$1,800,000.00

Revenue:

$57,004,513.00

Key words:

dreams
nightmare
psychopath
sleep
child murder
supernatural
ohio
murder
slasher
trapped
alcoholic
boiler room
booby trap
disfigurement
medical test
nightmare becomes reality
caffeine
shocking
vexed
frantic
grim
desperate
anxious
supernatural horror
suspenseful
frightened
teen scream
suburban gothic

Cast

Heather Langenkamp

~ as ~

Nancy Thompson

Robert Englund

~ as ~

Freddy Krueger

Johnny Depp

~ as ~

Glen Lantz

John Saxon

~ as ~

Lieutenant Thompson

Ronee Blakley

~ as ~

Marge Thompson

Amanda Wyss

~ as ~

Tina Gray

Jsu Garcia

~ as ~

Rod Lane

Charles Fleischer

~ as ~

Dr. King

Joseph Whipp

~ as ~

Sergeant Parker

Ed Call

~ as ~

Mr. Lantz

View full cast & crew

Reviews (4)

John Chard
Written 10 year(s) ago
9
Dream Attack.

The kids of Elm Street appear to be having the same bad dream, one in which a scarred faced bogeyman in a stripy jumper hunts them with knives attached to his fingers. When the dream becomes a reality for one of the kids, and the worst happens, Nancy Thompson risks all to bring the bogeyman into the open.

Stupendous horror movie, one that not even the ream of sequels, spin- offs and cartoons could ever diminish. Wes Craven creates a film of utter terror, unleashing one of the genres most famous monsters on the unsuspecting film loving public, with Robert Englund as the hideous Fred Krueger having the time of his life slashing away and delivering oral venom.

A number of scenes and sequences are staggeringly memorable, in the process shifting into horror movie folklore. The youthful cast are sensibly written (Craven's screenplay that took inspiration from a true story he read about Cambodian refugees literally dying of nightmares!), they are not dumb these kids, just vulnerable, but led by Nancy (Heather Langenkamp) there may be hope of some survivors?

The blurry line between dreams and reality gets a bloody make-over here, creating biblical snoots in the process. In short, essential horror movie for those inclined. 9/10
John Critic
Written 3 year(s) ago
10
5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

My personal favorite slasher horror film that goes well with my Halloween costume, which itself is an accessory to this horror treasure of the 1980s decade!!!
Andre Gonzales
Written 2 year(s) ago
8
The nightmare that started it all. Made us all scared to go to to sleep. My favorite horror series next to Friday the 13th. Love this movie.
CinemaSerf
Written 2 year(s) ago
7
This is the ultimate in slasher-horror that thrives on the basis that it is, at times, genuinely quite scary, and it doesn't take itself too seriously. Robert Englund is super as the legendary "Freddie Krueger" who, complete with his razor sharp right hand, takes over the dreams of the teenage children of parents who had been responsible for his gruesome death many years earlier. When a terrorised "Nancy" (Heather Langenkamp) begins to put two and two together she sets out with cute boyfriend "Glen" (a first outing for Johnny Depp ) to trap him in her world - and that means drinking enough coffee to sink the Titanic and staying awake! Ronee Blakely does a mean impersonation of Faye Dunaway - as the girl's almost permanently drunk mother (whose battles seem to get larger as the film progresses) too. It doesn't hang about - Wes Craven keeps the pace almost frantic, and there is plenty of humour to keep it's tongue in it's cheek. The effects are limited, but fun, and the whole thing raises more smiles than goosebumps but it's still an entertaining watch 35 year later.