At a glance
| First film | A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) |
| Creator | Wes Craven |
| Killer | Freddy Krueger |
| Actor | Robert Englund through Freddy vs. Jason |
Overview
A Nightmare on Elm Street puts the killer in dreams. Wes Craven wrote and directed the 1984 film. Nancy Thompson, played by Heather Langenkamp, is the teenager who fights back. Freddy Krueger, played by Robert Englund, is a dead janitor the parents burned. The sequels make him a comedian. New Nightmare (1994) pulls him into the real world of the actors. Freddy vs. Jason (2003) is the crossover. A 2010 remake recast the role. Englund is not in it.
The films
Craven did not direct the first sequels. Dream Warriors (1987), which he co-wrote, is the one fans treat as the real second film: the surviving kids fight Freddy together. The Dream Master and The Dream Child keep the body count and the jokes. Freddy’s Dead (1991) was sold as the end. New Nightmare is Craven’s own return. The remake, with Jackie Earle Haley, did not start a new series. No further Elm Street feature has followed Freddy vs. Jason.
Films on this site
- A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) review — no separate film page yet
- Dream Warriors
- Freddy vs. Jason
Trivia
- Craven directed the first film and New Nightmare, not Dream Warriors.
- The glove was built from his sketch. Englund supplied the performance.
- Nancy Thompson does not have a character page yet.
- Freddy talks less in the original than in the sequels.
- The 2010 remake is a different actor and a different tone. It stopped there.