• A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

    In Wes Craven's classic slasher film, several Midwestern teenagers fall prey to Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund), a disfigured midnight mangler who preys on the teenagers in their dreams -- which, in turn, kills them in reality. After investigating the phenomenon, Nancy (Heather Langenkamp) begins to suspect that a dark secret kept by her and her friends' parents may be the key to unraveling the mystery, but can Nancy and her boyfriend Glen (Johnny Depp) solve the puzzle before it's too late?

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A Nightmare on Elm Street
76
metacriticBased on 12 Critics
88
Based on 365 Users

Release Date: 1984

DVD Release Date: September 7th, 1999

R |1 hr 31 min

Plot Summary

In Wes Craven's classic slasher film, several Midwestern teenagers fall prey to Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund), a disfigured midnight mangler who preys on the teenagers in their dreams -- which, in turn, kills them in reality. After investigating the phenomenon, Nancy (Heather Langenkamp) begins to suspect that a dark secret kept by her and her friends' parents may be the key to unraveling the mystery, but can Nancy and her boyfriend Glen (Johnny Depp) solve the puzzle before it's too late?

Cast: John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Heather Langenkamp, Amanda Wyss, Johnny Depp, Charles Fleischer, Robert Englund, Joseph Whipp

Director: Wes Craven

Genres: Horror

Production Co: New Line Cinema

Keywords: Friend , 1980s , Murder , Revenge , Escape , Mystery , House , Suspenseful

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Ratings & Reviews

  • 88
    James BerardinelliReelViews

    A Nightmare on Elm Street is tailor made for those who like their gore leavened with thought-provoking ideas - something that is a rarity in this genre. show more

  • 50
    Bill CosfordMiami Herald

    A decent ride. It has a boogeyman, exploding teen-agers and blood by the vat; it's part of the oeuvre. It is also, alas, no significant advance of the sub-genre some of us feel, however improbably, attached to. Teens-and- slash may be a form full ofhack work and dim bulbs, but so long as that form stays within reach of young and relatively unsullied directors, there is hope. [6 March 1985, p.C5]

  • 75
    Nick SchagerSlant Magazine

    Nightmare’s skill wasn’t that it invented such associations—which had already been thoroughly mined by its ’70s predecessors—but that it refined them in uniquely disturbing ways, drenching itself in an atmosphere of unreality positioned somewhere between waking and slumbering states. show more

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