A Nightmare on Elm Street

"If Nancy doesn't wake up screaming, she won't wake up at all."

1984 1h 31m EN

👍

7.4

SOLID

🔥

94%

CERTIFIED FRESH

👌

METACRITIC

⭐

7.4

IMDB

★7.4TMDB · 5,991🍅94%Rotten Tomatoes●76Metacritic★7.4IMDB · 290,356

Horror

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Teenagers in a small town are dropping like flies, apparently in the grip of mass hysteria causing their suicides. A cop's daughter, Nancy Thompson, traces the cause to child molester Fred Krueger, who was burned alive by angry parents many years before. Krueger has now come back in the dreams of his killers' children, claiming their lives as his revenge. Nancy and her boyfriend, Glen, must devise a plan to lure the monster out of the realm of nightmares and into the real world...

“If Nancy doesn't wake up screaming, she won't wake up at all.”

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Cast

Heather Langenkamp
Nancy Thompson
Johnny Depp
Glen Lantz
Robert Englund
Fred Krueger
Amanda Wyss
Tina Gray
Jsu Garcia
Rod Lane
John Saxon
Lt. Thompson
Ronee Blakley
Marge Thompson
Charles Fleischer
Dr. King

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Wes Craven
Writers: Wes Craven
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $1.8M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $57M — a 31.7× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

42 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "A Nightmare on Elm Street Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Wes Craven, shot by Jacques Haitkin. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Charles Bernstein. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Patrick McMahon shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Heather Langenkamp and Johnny Depp and Robert Englund carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Wes Craven directs. Jacques Haitkin behind the camera. Charles Bernstein scores. Patrick McMahon cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $1.8M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
2Grossed $57M — a 31.7× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
342 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
4Part of the "A Nightmare on Elm Street Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
5Directed by Wes Craven, shot by Jacques Haitkin. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Charles Bernstein. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Patrick McMahon shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Heather Langenkamp and Johnny Depp and Robert Englund carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "If Nancy doesn't wake up screaming, she won't wake up at all.".
10IMDB entry: tt0087800 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 28 themes, including "dreams", "nightmare", "psychopath", "sleep".
12Released under 15 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Jacques Haitkin
Original score: Charles Bernstein
Editing: Patrick McMahon
Production design: Gregg Fonseca
Costume design: Dana Lyman
Makeup / hair: RaMona Fleetwood
Sound: Jack Cooley
Stunt coordinator: Anthony Cecere
Runtime: 91 min · 1h 31m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $1,800,000
Box office: $57,004,513
Return: 3167% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Rotten Tomatoes: 94% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 76/100
IMDB rating: 7.4/10 · 290,356 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

7 wins & 8 nominations total

Part of

A Nightmare on Elm Street Collection

A slasher film series revolving around people who are stalked and killed in their dreams by Freddy Krueger.

Also by

Wes Craven

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2015-05-03
★ 9/10
Dream Attack. The kids of Elm Street appear to be having the same bad dream, one in which a scarred faced bogeyman in a stripy jumper hunts them with knives attached to his fingers. When the dream becomes a reality for one of the kids, and the worst happens, Nancy Thompson risks all to bring the bogeyman into the open. Stupendous horror movie, one that not even the ream of sequels, spin- offs and cartoons could ever diminish. Wes Craven creates a film of utter terror, unleashing one of the genres most famous monsters on the unsuspecting film loving public, with Robert Englund as the hideous Fred Krueger having the time of his life slashing away and delivering oral venom. A number of scenes and sequences are staggeringly memorable, in the process shifting into horror movie folklore. The youthful cast are sensibly written (Craven's screenplay that took inspiration from a true story he read about Cambodian refugees literally dying of nightmares!), they are not dumb these kids, just vulnerable, but led by Nancy (Heather Langenkamp) there may be hope of some survivors? The blurry line between dreams and reality gets a bloody make-over here, creating biblical snoots in the process. In short, essential horror movie for those inclined. 9/10
John Critic2022-04-03
★ 10/10
5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ My personal favorite slasher horror film that goes well with my Halloween costume, which itself is an accessory to this horror treasure of the 1980s decade!!!
Andre Gonzales2023-04-17
★ 8/10
The nightmare that started it all. Made us all scared to go to to sleep. My favorite horror series next to Friday the 13th. Love this movie.