A Nightmare on Elm Street is a 1984 American slasher film written and directed by Wes Craven, and produced by Robert Shaye. It stars Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Amanda Wyss, Jsu Garcia, Robert Englund, and Johnny Depp in his film debut. The plot focuses on four teenagers, living on one street in a fictitious town of Ohio, whose dreams are invaded by a burnt killer with a bladed glove. In the dreams, the teenagers are killed, but they also die in reality. The teenagers do not understand the cause of this strange phenomenon, but their parents, who hold a dark secret from long ago, might.

Craven filmed A Nightmare on Elm Street on an estimated budget of $1.8 million, a sum the film earned back during its first week. The film was released on November 9, 1984, where it went on to gross over $25 million at the United States box office. A Nightmare on Elm Street was met with rave critical reviews and is considered to be one of the greatest horror films ever made, spawning a franchise consisting of a line of sequels, a television series, a crossover with Friday the 13th, and various other works of imitation. A remake of the same name was released in 2010.

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 John Carpenter‘s Halloween (1978) and led this subgenre to be called the slasher film. The film includes a morality play where sexually promiscuous teenagers are killed. 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. Critics today praise the film’s ability to transgress “the boundaries between the imaginary and real”, toying with audience perceptions.

A Nightmare on Elm Street is a 1984 American slasher film written and directed by Wes Craven, and produced by Robert Shaye. It stars Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Amanda Wyss, Jsu Garcia, Robert Englund, and Johnny Depp in his film debut. The plot focuses on four teenagers, living on one street in a fictitious town of Ohio, whose dreams are invaded by a burnt killer with a bladed glove. In the dreams, the teenagers are killed, but they also die in reality. The teenagers do not understand the cause of this strange phenomenon, but their parents, who hold a dark secret from long ago, might.

Craven filmed A Nightmare on Elm Street on an estimated budget of $1.8 million, a sum the film earned back during its first week. The film was released on November 9, 1984, where it went on to gross over $25 million at the United States box office. A Nightmare on Elm Street was met with rave critical reviews and is considered to be one of the greatest horror films ever made, spawning a franchise consisting of a line of sequels, a television series, a crossover with Friday the 13th, and various other works of imitation. A remake of the same name was released in 2010.

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 John Carpenter‘s Halloween (1978) and led this subgenre to be called the slasher film. The film includes a morality play where sexually promiscuous teenagers are killed. 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. Critics today praise the film’s ability to transgress “the boundaries between the imaginary and real”, toying with audience perceptions.

The cast of A Nightmare on Elm Street included a crew of veteran actors such as Robert Englund and John Saxon and several aspiring young actors like Johnny Depp and Heather Langenkamp.