A Nightmare on Elm Street series, created by Wes Craven, focuses on several characters who are faced with surviving the attacks of Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund), a child murderer, who gains the ability to stalk and kill people in their dreams, killing them in reality, after his own death at the hands of a vengeful mob.
The series includes nine films, A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985), A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987), A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988), A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989) and Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991), in which Freddy is seemingly killed. A demonic interpretation followed in Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994) where Freddy Krueger attempted to break free from the films into the real world. Nearly a decade later, Freddy was involved in a crossover with Jason Voorhees of the Friday the 13th franchise in Freddy vs. Jason (2003). The series was rebooted in 2010 with A Nightmare on Elm Street, a loose remake of the original film with veteran Krueger actor 'Robert Englund' replaced with Jackie Earle Haley and the character changed from child killer to child molester. The franchise also encompasses a television series, a video game, merchandising and numerous works of literature about Freddy Krueger and his exploits including further crossovers with Jason Voorhees and Ash Williams of the Evil Dead franchise.
In the series Freddy Krueger possesses the ability to enter peoples dreams and control them, taunting and eventually murdering them with his glove, an item with four blades attached to the fingers, that allows him to slash and stab his victims. Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp) survived his attacks in the original film and went on to appear in the third film Dream Warriors where he finally managed to kill her. She went on to be replaced by Alice Johnson (Lisa Wilcox) as the protagonist of the fourth and fifth installments who possessed special abilities in her dreams that allowed her to fight back against Freddy's machinations. He was finally officially killed off by his daughter Maggie Burroughs (Lisa Zane) in Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare though later returned to appear in subsequent media. In the 2010 reboot of the franchise starring Jackie Early Haley as Freddy, the character is slightly altered from a child murderer to a child molester, a facet of the character that Craven had intended to use in the original films before deciding against it. His bladed-glove is a gardening tool instead of an item he crafted himself to commit his killings as in the original series of films.
Though some of the films in the series have suffered critically and financially the franchise is considered one of the most successful media franchises in America not only for its financial success but merchandising and numerous references to the series and the character of Freddy Krueger in popular culture.
The series is notable for being the first on-screen acting role for both Johnny Depp (A Nightmare on Elm Street) and Patricia Arquette (Dream Warriors), both of whom went on to have successful, award-winning careers.
Famous quotes containing the words elm, street and/or characters:
“I want to celebrate these elms which have been spared by the plague, these survivors of a once flourishing tribe commemorated by all the Elm Streets in America. But to celebrate them is to be silent about the people who sit and sleep underneath them, the homeless poor who are hauled away by the city like trash, except it has no place to dump them. To speak of one thing is to suppress another.”
—Lisel Mueller (b. 1924)
“Baltimore lay very near the immense protein factory of Chesapeake Bay, and out of the bay it ate divinely. I well recall the time when prime hard crabs of the channel species, blue in color, at least eight inches in length along the shell, and with snow-white meat almost as firm as soap, were hawked in Hollins Street of Summer mornings at ten cents a dozen.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“The Nature of Familiar Letters, written, as it were, to the Moment, while the Heart is agitated by Hopes and Fears, on Events undecided, must plead an Excuse for the Bulk of a Collection of this Kind. Mere Facts and Characters might be comprised in a much smaller Compass: But, would they be equally interesting?”
—Samuel Richardson (1689–1761)