A Nightmare on Elm Street

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Timing: 1:31 (91 min)

7.344/10
5666

7.673/10
122172

7.4/10
289000

All about film

Video 20

Photo 170

Actors and characters

Release date

1984-11-09

Country

United States, United Kingdom

Production

New Line Cinema, Cinema 84, Smart Egg Pictures, Media Home Entertainment, The Elm Street Venture

Genre

Horror

Budget

$1 800 000

Revenue

$57 004 513

Website

Director

Wes Craven

Actors

John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Heather Langenkamp, Amanda Wyss, Jsu Garcia, Johnny Depp, Charles Fleischer, Joseph Whipp, Robert Englund, Lin Shaye
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Wes Craven

Producer

Robert Shaye, John Burrows, Sara Risher, Stanley Dudelson, Joseph Wolf

Operator

Jacques Haitkin

Composer

Charles Bernstein

Artist

Audition

Annette Benson

Editing

Patrick McMahon, Rick Shaine, Amy Rabins
All team (58)

• According to Wes Craven, he named Freddy Krueger after a boy who bullied him in school. Wes created Freddy's appearance based on a disfigured homeless man who frightened him as a child.
• To stay awake, Nancy watches "The Evil Dead" (1981). However, she isn't watching the film itself, but rather, most likely, a theatrical trailer.
• A torn poster for "The Evil Dead" (1981) can be spotted in the film.
• Initially, Freddy Krueger's appearance was intended to be even more gruesome and repulsive. For example, his teeth could be seen through the thin skin of his jaw, and the bones of his skull were supposed to be visible… However, the filmmakers had to abandon this concept because such an appearance could not be created with makeup, and the technology of the time did not allow for the use of believable special effects.
• Johnny Depp stumbled into the film's audition completely by chance, accompanying a friend. Seeing Johnny, Craven offered him to read for the role of Glen.
• Joseph Wipp, who played Sergeant Parker, later portrayed Sheriff Burke in Wes Craven's 'Scream' (1996).
• Nancy's bathtub was hermetically sealed on top of a special tank built into the floor, with a section cut out for the tub.
• Filming the scene where Nancy takes a bath lasted twelve hours.
• ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ was the first film shot at New Line Cinema. Before that, New Line was a distributor of films from other studios.
• During filming, the film's distributor terminated its contract with New Line. As a result, the crew worked for two weeks without pay until a new distributor was found. Throughout this period of financial uncertainty, no one left the project.
• Wes Craven originally envisioned Freddy Krueger as a "silent" serial killer similar to Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers. However, during the development of the project, and thanks to numerous sequels, Freddy evolved into a maniac with a rather dark sense of humor, who loves to chat.
• The original Freddy glove was also used in the second film, but was then lost. According to DVD commentary, the original glove can be spotted in "Evil Dead 2" (1987).
• This film saved New Line Cinema from bankruptcy. Subsequently, the studio was jokingly referred to as "the house that Freddy built."
• Approximately 500 gallons of fake blood were used during the filming of the movie.
• Viewers may notice the words "Elm Street" only in the opening and closing credits. The phrase is never spoken throughout the film.
• "A Nightmare on Elm Street" was Johnny Depp's film debut.
• A deleted scene reveals that Nancy and her other friends were not the only children in their families; they had siblings who also died at the hands of Freddy.
• Wes Craven helped Sean S. Cunningham shoot some footage for "Friday the 13th" (1980). In turn, Sean shot some footage for Wes's film.
• Around 200 actresses auditioned for the role of Nancy Thompson, including Jennifer Grey, Demi Moore, Courteney Cox, and Tracy Gold.
• When Freddy Krueger pursues Nancy, she tries to escape him up the stairs, but steps into some viscous substance. According to Wes Craven, it was oatmeal; according to Jacques Etkin – whipped pancake batter; according to Heather Langenkamp, it was something rubbery.
• In the series “Just the Ten of Us” (1988-1990), Heather Langenkamp speaks about a rusty knife on a cutting board: “It looks like something out of ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street.’”
• According to Wes Craven, the idea for the film came to him after he read several newspaper articles about a group of young Cambodians who died from terrible nightmares. The young people suffered from nightmares and refused to sleep for as long as possible. When they finally fell asleep from exhaustion, they woke up with wild screams and died of a heart attack.
• Wes Craven specifically chose a red and green striped sweater for Freddy because he had read somewhere that the human eye finds it difficult to perceive these colors together.
• According to Englund, he was inspired by the performances of actors such as Klaus Kinski and James Cagney when creating the image of Freddy.
• The actor credited as Rod Lane in the film's credits is named Nick Corri. However, this actor is widely known as Hsu Garcia.
• On April 4, 2007, a British man, Jason Moore, was sentenced to prison after attacking his friend with a clawed glove very similar to the one worn by Freddy. According to psychiatrists, the thirty-seven-year-old Moore was simply obsessed with Freddy and his bloody deeds. He had watched the film many times, even immediately before the attack. The detective investigating the case stated that Moore's weapon was "the most terrifying weapon he had ever seen."
• The film's script was ready as early as 1981, but no film studio was interested in producing it.
• In the scene where Glen (Johnny Depp) dies, a poster of the band "Rush's" album "Grace Under Pressure" hangs above his bed.
• In the final scene, the car's sunroof fell too quickly and unexpectedly for the actors, so the reaction on their faces is genuine.
• In her room, after nearly being killed in the bathroom, Nancy looks at her reflection in the mirror and exclaims, "Oh my God, I look twenty years old." Many critics found this line quite amusing, noting that Heather Langenkamp was twenty at the time of filming. However, according to commentary on the DVD, Heather says she was 18 or 19 years old then.
• To film the scene with the geyser of blood, filmmakers used the same rotating set that had been used for Tina's death. The room was flipped upside down, as was the camera, creating the effect of a normally positioned room. Then, several gallons of red-dyed water were poured into the room. Regular fake blood wasn't suitable for this scene, as it was impossible to create a blood geyser with it. During the filming of this scene, the room began to be flipped in the wrong direction, causing fake blood to splatter all over the set and general chaos. In addition, the electricity went out in the pavilion, and, according to Craven, the crew, covered head-to-toe in blood, spent some time in complete darkness.
• Wes Craven's wife, Mimi Craven, played the nurse who is present during the "examination" of Nancy's dreams.
• The film sequence where Nancy Thompson fights Freddy Krueger in the real world ranked third in Play.com's Japanese edition's "Scariest Moments in Cinema" ranking.
• Over 2000 liters of fake blood were used during the filming of the movie.
• Wes Craven originally conceived Freddy Krueger as a 'silent' serial killer similar to Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers. However, during the development of the project, and thanks to numerous sequels, Freddy transformed into a maniac with a very dark sense of humor who loves to chat.