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,[6][7] and Johnny Depp in his film debut. The film’s plot concerns a group of teenagers who are targeted by Krueger, an undead former child killer who can murder people through their dreams, as retribution against their parents who burned him alive.[8]
Craven filmed A Nightmare on Elm Street on an estimated budget of $1.1 million.[3] The film was released on November 9, 1984, and grossed $57 million worldwide.[4][5] The film received critical acclaim upon its release, and has since been considered to be one of the greatest horror films ever made. The movie spawned a franchise consisting of six sequels, a television series, a crossover with Friday the 13th, various other merchandise, and a remake of the same name.[9][10] Aside from Stunts, Polyester, and Alone in the Dark, 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[11] and earning it the nickname “The House that Freddy Built”.
The film is credited with using many of the tropes found in the low-budget horror films of the 1970s and 1980s that originated with the John Carpenter-directed Halloween (1978). The film includes a morality play where sexually promiscuous teenagers are killed.[10][12] 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.[13] Later critics praise the film’s ability to transgress “the boundaries between the imaginary and real”,[14] toying with audience perceptions.[15] The film was followed by A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985).
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”.[16]
