'''A Nightmare on Elm Street''' is an
American horror film directed by
Wes Craven about several teenagers being terrorized in their
nightmares by a mysterious man named
Freddy Krueger in the fictional
Midwest town of Springwood,
Ohio. Released on
November 9,
1984 by
New Line Cinema, the film stars
Robert Englund as
Freddy Krueger,
Heather Langenkamp as
Nancy Thompson,
Ronee Blakley as mother Marge Thompson,
John Saxon as father Lt. Donald Thompson,
Amanda Wyss as Tina Grey,
Nick Corri as Rod Lane and
Johnny Depp as Glen Lantz.
Written by Craven, a former English teacher, the film's premise is the question of where the line between
dreams and
reality lies. The villain, Freddy Krueger, thus exists in the "dream world" yet can kill in the "real world". Sequels to the original would continue to blur the distinction between dream and reality before finally challenging the line between ''
film'' and reality by showing
Heather Langenkamp, playing a fictionalized version of herself, haunted by the villain of a series of films she has starred in.
Craven produced the film on an estimated budget of just $1,800,000,
[1] yet grossed $1,271,000 at the
United States box office in its opening weekend.
[2] To date, its total domestic grossings has been calculated at $25,504,513.
Numerous critics praised the film's ability to rupture "the boundaries between the imaginary and real,"
[3] toying with audience perceptions.
[4] Some movie historians interpreted this overriding theme as a social subtext, "the struggles of adolescents in American society",
[5] and their overwhelming need to confront "the harsh realities of life".
[6]
The film (like countless other
slasher films of the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s) was inspired by the classic
John Carpenter hit ''
Halloween'' (
1978). ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'', earning its own "classic status" spawned a long-running
series of films, a television series, and a
comic book series currently being published by
Wildstorm. Also, in the US,UK and Ireland, there was a book released entitled: ''The Nightmares On Elm Street: The Continuing Story: Parts 1, 2, 3''. This book was released to go along with the movie ''. The book was written by Jeffrey Cooper, and was also based on screenplays written by
Wes Craven, David Chaskin and Bruce Wagner.
Plot
A teenage girl, Tina Grey (
Amanda Wyss) has a disturbing nightmare in which she is stalked through a dark, neverending
boiler room by a creepy, shadowy figure with a dirty red-and-green sweater, a battered hat, and a glove with razor-sharp knives for fingernails. Just as he catches her, however, she wakes up screaming, only to discover four razor cuts in her nightdress identical to the cuts in her dream. The next day, she finds out that her friend
Nancy Thompson (
Heather Langenkamp) had the same dream.
Freddy Krueger in Nancy's bedroom.
That night, Tina, Nancy and her boyfriend Glen Lantz (
Johnny Depp) have a sleep-over to make a distraught Tina feel better. Tina's rebellious, on-and-off boyfriend, Rod Lane (
Nick Corri), crashes the party and goes to bed with Tina. However, Tina has another nightmare, and this time the killer catches her and brutally murders her. Rod wakes up to find Tina being cut open by invisible knives and then dragged across the ceiling. Rod is of course suspected of the killing and is arrested the next day.
Nancy then has three sadistically creepy, violent nightmares, in school, in the bath, and in her bed, where she is viciously stalked then attacked by the same terrifying figure who attacked Tina. These nightmares lead her to talk to Rod in prison, who tells her what he saw in Tina's bedroom. She becomes increasingly convinced that the figure appearing in her dreams is the person responsible for the killing of Tina, much to the dismay of her mother (
Ronee Blakley). Nancy and a skeptical Glen rush to the police station late at night to talk to Rod, only to find that he's been strangled by his own bedsheets. It appears to everyone, except Nancy, to be a suicide.
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, her arm is badly cut, but she finds that she has brought something out from her dream: the killer's battered hat. It arouses concern, but also other feelings in Nancy's mother, who is clearly hiding a secret.
Eventually, Nancy's mother, increasingly drink-sodden, reveals to Nancy that the owner of the hat, and the killer, was a man called
Fred Krueger, a child murderer who killed at least twenty children. Furious, vengeful parents burned him alive in his boiler room hideout when he was released from prison on a technicality. Now, it appears he is manipulating the dreams of their children to exact his revenge from beyond the grave. Nancy's mother, however, reassures Nancy that Krueger can't hurt anyone ("He's dead, honey, because Mommy killed him.")
Nancy devises a plan, with Glen, to catch Krueger, but Glen succumbs to sleep and is viciously killed by being sucked into his bed and shot back up in a fountain of blood and guts. Nancy is left alone with Freddy after pulling him into the real world. She runs around her house and forces him to run into booby traps she had set earlier. After setting Freddy on fire Nancy locks him in the basement, and finally gets her father and the rest of the police to help. After discovering that Freddy has escaped and that fiery footsteps lead upstairs, Nancy and her father witness Freddy smother Nancy's mother with his flaming body, then disappear to leave Nancy's mother's 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, which also reverts all of the murders and bringing everyone back from the dead. In the last scene, Freddy makes the kids drive away when Nancy's mother gets grabbed and pulled through the door window.
Cast
Production
Wes Craven wrote the screenplay around
1981. He
pitched it to several studios, but all of them passed. Finally, the fledgling
New Line Cinema corporation - which had up to that point only distributed films, rather than making its own - gave the project the go-ahead.
During filming, New Line's distribution deal for the movie fell through and for two weeks it was unable to pay its cast and crew. They stayed with the project nevertheless, until New Line found another distributor.
[7] The film's success (US grosses $25 million for an estimated $1.8 million budget
[8]) and that of its sequels ended New Line's financial difficulties and set it on the way to becoming a major studio. While New Line films has since made much bigger and more profitable movies, ''Nightmare'' holds such an important place in the company's history that it is often referred to as 'The House That Freddy Built'.
[9]
Wes Craven originally planned for the film to have a happy ending: Nancy kills Freddy by ceasing to believe in him, then awakes to discover that everything that happened in the movie was an elongated nightmare. However, New Line leader Robert Shaye demanded a twist ending, in which Freddy disappears and the movie all appears to have been a dream, only for the audience to discover that they are watching a dream-within-a-dream-within-a-dream, where Freddy reappears as a car that "kidnaps" Nancy, followed by Freddy reaching through a window on the front door to pull Nancy's mother inside. Both a happy ending and a twist ending were filmed, but the final film used the twist ending. Both endings are available on the
DVD. As a result, Craven (who never wanted the film to be an ongoing franchise), dropped out of working on the first sequel, ''.
Writing
Wes Craven states that the film was inspired by several newspaper articles printed in the LA times on a group of
Cambodian refugees and their children, who, after fleeing to America from
Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime, were suffering horrific nightmares, after which they refused to sleep. Acting on medical advice, their parents encouraged them to do so. However, each of the children died in their sleep soon after, following the second dream. After Craven read the articles covering these events, he began writing the film. Other sources also attribute the inspiration for the movie to be a 1968 student film project made by students of Craven's at
Clarkson University. The student film parodied contemporary horror movies, and was filmed along Elm Street in
Potsdam, NY.
[10]
Perhaps coincidentally, Canadian serial killer Peter Woodcock, who was jailed in 1957 for the murder of three young children in Toronto, officially changed his name to David Michael Krueger in 1982.
[11] Woodcock was remanded to a mental hospital, where he committed a fourth murder, and is still incarcerated today.
By Craven's account, he had been bullied at school by a child named Fred Krueger, and named his villain accordingly. (He had done the same in his earlier film ''
The Last House on the Left'', where the
rapist's name was shortened to 'Krug'). He based Krueger's appearance on another childhood experience in which he had been scared by a
homeless man with a very distinctive red-and-green sweater; the same colored sweater he chose for his villain. In addition, it has been stated that Craven had read that those were the two hardest colours to visually process together, which is another reason as to why he chose the respective colored sweater.
[7]
Box office
The film opened in only 165 theaters, but made $1.2 million on opening weekend. Domestically, the film has made $25.5 million making it a huge success on a budget of just under $2 million.
Release and original reaction
The film was released theatrically on
November 9,
1984, in
Los Angeles, California on a limited release. The box office takings were moderately unsuccessful on its first release. Although ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' only ranked #40 on the US charts for the year, it was a financial success. It opened with a fairly small $1,271,000, but on only 165 screens across the United States. Its revenues eventually reached $25,504,513, a very impressive number for a film that never expanded beyond 380 screens (at the time, wide releases opened on at least 1,100 screens), and highly profitable for its $1,800,000 budget.
[13] It had limited theatrical releases in
Australia,
Great Britain,
China,
Japan,
France and
Canada before being released on
Home Video and
DVD.
Cultural impact
The film spawned several sequels, as well as making a horror icon of the film's villain,
Freddy Krueger. By the time of the film's second sequel, Freddy was a household name, appearing on t-shirts, masks, action figures, candy, magazines, trading cards and much more. The character remains, along with ''
Friday the 13th's''
Jason Voorhees, ''
Halloween's''
Michael Myers, ''
Psycho's''
Norman Bates, ''
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre's''
Leatherface, ''
Hellraiser's''
Pinhead and
Chucky from ''
Child's Play'' as one of the 7 most popular and famous horror villains of modern times. In June 2003, Freddy Krueger was ranked #40 on The American Film Institute's list of the greatest
100 Heroes and Villains of all-time. In 2004, this film was #17 on
Bravo's ''100 Scariest Movie Moments'' for its famous "Revolving Room" scene.
The series was also a phenomenal success after it was released on
VHS and
DVD, spawning numerous versions, special editions and boxsets.
"Infinifilm" DVD Release
DVD cover for the "
Infinifilm" release of ''A Nightmare on Elm Street''.
On
September 26,
2006,
New Line Cinema re-released the movie as a Region 1
Infinifilm special edition DVD. Included on the disc are these features:
★ Brand new, feature-length audio commentary with Wes Craven and actor Robert Englund
★ "Never Sleep Again": Making of documentary
★ "House That Freddy Built": Documentary that looks at the legacy of New Line horror
★ "Night Terrors": Documentary that looks at the origins of Wes Craven's nightmares
★ "Freddy’s Coming For You": Trivia challenge
★ Exclusive Infinifilm interactive video clips
★ Three endings for the film. The first is a happy ending. The second shows Nancy's mother watching them drive away, then getting pulled through the window by Freddy. The third one has the car Glen is driving taken over by Freddy, as Nancy watches her mother get taken away by him, then shows Freddy is now driving the car.
★ All special features were produced by Automat Pictures.
A Region 2 disc, identical to the Infinifilm release, followed the month after.
The Region 4 version was released on the 18th July 2007
Memorabilia
The Nightmare on Elm Street series spawned a huge merchandising collecting cult. Even 20 years after the first film was released, the merchandising is still ongoing, with sites like
eBay listing hundreds of pieces of A Nightmare on Elm Street memorabilia every day and new products rolling off the assembly line and in to toy stores around the world.
A private collector from New Zealand has established an online collection of Nightmare on Elm Street and Freddy Krueger memorabilia spanning more than 20 years and featuring items from all round the world.
[1].
Trivia
'1428 Elm Street' is the fictional
address of the
house that appears in the film, as the home of
Freddy Krueger when he was alive. The actual house is a private home located in
Los Angeles,
California on 1428 North Genesee Avenue.
[14]
The house was sold in
2006 and contains 4
bedrooms and 3.5
bathrooms.
Cultural references
★ The school janitor Fred in ''
Scream'' (played by
Wes Craven) can be seen wearing
Freddy Krueger's outfit from "A Nightmare On Elm Street".
★ ''
The Simpsons'' episode "
Treehouse of Horror VI" features a segment parodying the film. It is entitled "A Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace" and
Groundskeeper Willie substitutes Freddy Krueger.
★
DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince recorded a song, "Nightmare on My Street", where Prince has dreams about being chased by Freddy, and begs Jeff (unsuccessfully) not to fall asleep.
★ In a Russian TV show, ''Yeralash'', a boy watches a Freddy Krueger movie and then later gets attacked by Krueger himself. After a chase and fight it turns out to just be his grandpa wearing the red and green sweatshirt.
★ In the 2001 parody movie ''
Scary Movie 2'', there is a scene where
Tori Spelling is dragged up a wall while being engaged in sexual intercourse by an invisible ghost. The scene is similar to
Amanda Wyss's death in the beginning of the ''NOES'' film.
★ There is a level in ''
Zombies Ate My Neighbors'' called "Nightmare on Terror Street." Apparently, the word "Elm" was changed to "Terror" in order to avoid copyright conflicts. Ironically, Freddy Krueger doesn't appear in this level, or anywhere else in the game.
★ In an episode of ''
Tiny Toons'', Plucky Duck is having a sleep over at Buster's and watches an obvious parody of ''A Nightmare On Elm Street'' until finally being forced to go to bed. While sleeping he dreams he's being attacked by "Eddie Cougar," a cougar that dresses and has the same mannerisms as Freddy.
★ In the new ''
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' series, in episode 86 "All Hallows Thieves" the turtles were walking on the street at Halloween night and were passing two boys, one was dressed up as Sliver Sentry and the other was dressed up as Freddy Krueger.
★ In the television series, ''
Mucha Lucha'' in the episode called "Nightmare on Lucha Street" there is a nightmare demon name Mysterioso Grande who enters young Luchadores dreams, defeats them in wrestling, and takes their masks, and when the kids wake up their masks disappear much like how Freddy Krueger enters teenager's dreams and kills them.
★ In the series, ''
Danny Phantom'' in the episode called "Memory Blank" Sam wants to see the movie called ''Terminetra vs. Femalien vs. Nightmerica'' with Nightmerica resembling Freddy Krueger.
★ In one square of a ''
Life In Hell'' comic strip titled "Young Theories", Bongo is portrayed in his bed with a scared look on his face. This square states "If you die in your dream, you will die", which is exactly what happens in ''Nightmare on Elm Street''.
★ In a horror themed episode of the 90's Nickelodeon television series, ''
Salute Your Shorts'', the campers are haunted by an imitation of Freddy, named "Zeke the Plumber", and decide to re-create the villain in order to frighten another camper who is responsible for scaring everyone while boasting his own inability to be frightened.
★ In the story and comic Element Chronicle, appears a Dark Human called Rém (Word origin from a
hungarian word "Rémálom" meaning "Nightmare") who is dressed up in a red and green sweatshirt, and using four 9 or 10-inch blades, on both hands gloves (While Freddy uses only four 10-inch blades on his right hands glove).
A prequel is currently in production, and is set for a 2009 release
References
1. John Kenneth Muir, "Career Overview" in ''Wes Craven: The Art of Horror'' (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland and Company, 1998), p. 18, ISBN 0786419237.
2. ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' at Box Office Mojo; last accessed August 30, 2006.
3. Ian Conrich, "Seducing the Subject: Freddy Krueger, Popular Culture and the ''Nightmare on Elm Street'' Films" in ''Trash Aesthetics: Popular Culture and its Audience'', ed. Deborah Cartmell, I. Q. Hunter, Heldi Kaye and Imelda Whelehan (London: Pluto Press, 2004), p. 119, ISBN 0745312020.
4. James Berardinelli, review of ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'', at ReelViews; last accessed August 30, 2006.
5. Kelly Bulkeley, ''Visions of the Night: Dreams, Religion, and Psychology'' (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999), p. 108; see also chap. 11: "Dreamily Deconstructing the Dream Factory: ''The Wizard of Oz'' and ''A Nightmare on Elm Street''," ISBN 0791442837.
6. '' Channel 4's 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' Review'' at Channel 4; last accessed August 30, 2006.
7. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087800/trivia
8. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087800/business
9. http://www.dvdreview.com/html/a_nightmare_on_elm_street_editor_s_day.html
10. http://www.potsdam.ny.us/history.html
11. http://www.serialkillercalendar.com/Brief_Bio_of_PETER_WOODCOCK.html
12. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087800/trivia
13. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=elmst.htm
14.
★ Site with a picture of the house;
★ Site with the actual address and floor plan and indoor photos
External links
★
★
★
★
A Nightmare On Elm Street at The Nightmare On Elm Street Companion
★
Cinescare review
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