Nightmare on Elm Street, A

Synopsis
A hellish, razor-fingered monster enters the dreams of the teenage residents of a bucolic town and systematically slaughters them in their sleep--until one courageous young woman does battle with the predatory fiend. An excellent, surprisingly surrealistic genre entry from the master, Wes Craven.

Distributor Notes
Can your nightmares be fatal? In this classic of the horror film genre that launched a movie franchise, a hideously scarred pedophile who was murdered by a lynch mob returns years later in the terrifying nightmares of his killers' teenaged children ... And the dreaming teenagers are starting to die in their sleep.

Production Notes
Both Elite Laserdiscs (EE3734 & EE3733) are limited to editions of 5,000 units.
Color by DeLuxe.

Budget estimate $1.8 million.

Released in USA October 31, 1984.

The film's original running time was listed at 150 minutes, it is now listed at 91 minutes.

Feature film debut for actor Johnny Depp.

Although he directed only the first film, director/writer Wes Craven's "Nightmare on Elm Street" continued to fascinate horror movie buffs. Subsequently, four more films were made, all of them featuring Robert Englund as the infamous Freddy Krueger.
The movie also led to a television series called "Freddy's Nightmares."

Rated BBFC 18 by the British Board of Film Censors.

Reviews
"...A highly imaginative horror film that provides the requisite shocks to keep fans of the genre happy....Wes Craven tantalizingly merges dreams with the ensuing wakeup reality..." (Variety)

"Freddy became a mythic figure." (Premiere)

5 stars out of 5 -- "[T]his is one of the few truly nightmarish horror movies ever made." (Ultimate DVD)

"[S]ome of the effects remain nicely repulsive; Freddy himself comes across as a genuinely nasty piece of work..." -- Grade: B- (Entertainment Weekly)

4 stars out of 5 -- "Craven knows which big, red Freudian buttons to push, turning Freddy into a true monster from the Id." (Total Film)