A Nightmare on Elm Street

A Nightmare on Elm Street is a 1984 American supernatural slasher film written and directed by Wes Craven, and produced by Robert Shaye. It is the first installment in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise and stars Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger, and Johnny Depp in his film debut. The film's plot concerns a group of teenagers who are targeted by Krueger, an undead child killer who murders teenagers through their dreams, as retribution against their parents who burned him alive. Craven loosely based the screenplay on a series of news stories about Hmong refugees dying in the middle of nightmares. Craven filmed A Nightmare on Elm Street in Los Angeles on an estimated budget of $1.1 million. It was one of the first films produced by New Line Cinema, who by that point mostly distributed films, leading the company to become a successful mini-major film studio and earning it the nickname "The House that Freddy Built". The film is credited with carrying on many tropes found in low-budget horror films of the 1970s and 1980s, originating in John Carpenter's Halloween (1978), including the morality play that revolves around sexual promiscuity in teenagers resulting in their eventual death, leading to the term "slasher film". Critics and film historians state that the film's premise is the struggle to define the distinction between dreams and reality, manifested by the lives and dreams of the teens in the film. Later critics praise the film's ability to transgress "the boundaries between the imaginary and real", toying with audience perceptions. A Nightmare on Elm Street was released on November 9, 1984, and grossed $57.1 million worldwide. The film received critical acclaim upon its release, and has since been considered to be one of the greatest horror films ever made. In 2021, A Nightmare on Elm Street was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The film spawned a franchise consisting of six sequels, a television series, a crossover with the Friday the 13th franchise, various other merchandise, and a 2010 remake. The film was followed by A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985).