A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) Turns 40

This post is part of the John Saxon Bloghaton hosted by RealWeedgieMidget Reviews and Cinematic Catharsis)

On November 9 1984 a film went into limited release in the United States that would forever change horror movies. Although often classed as a "slasher film," A Nightmare in Elm Street (1984) could better be described as a supernatural horror movie with some characteristics of a slasher movie. The film would spawn an entire franchise, not to mention several imitators.

In A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) a group of teenagers find themselves targeted by the malignant spirit of a child killer named Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund), who has their ability to enter their dreams and kill them there. Twenty years earlier Freddy Krueger had been captured, but then released on a technicality after having killed 20 children. A lynch mob then hunted them down and burned him alive in the boiler room of the power plant at which Krueger had worked. It is up to one of the teenagers, Nancy Thomposn (Heather Langenkmap) and her father, Police Lieutenant Don Thompson (John Saxon), to put an end to Krueger's killing spree.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) was written and directed by horror legend Wes Craven. By the time he made A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Mr. Craven had already made such movies as The Last House on the Left (1972), The Hills Have Eyes (1977), and Deadly Blessing (1981). Inspiration for A Nightmare on Elm Street came from multiple sources. One was a story he read in The Los Angeles Times regarding a child who was a refugee from the Cambodian genocide who refused to go to sleep for fear that he would not wake up. Sadly, he died not long after he finally went to sleep. This was not an isolated incident with regards to refugees from Southeast Asia, as several died due to mysterious circumstances. Most often they were young Hmong men who had fled Laos following the Vietnam War. In the October 15 2008 issue of Cinefantasique, Wes Craven commented, "t was a series of articles in the LA Times; three small articles about men from South East Asia, who were from immigrant families and had died in the middle of nightmares—and the paper never correlated them, never said, 'Hey, we've had another story like this."

Wes Craven also drew inspiration for A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) from Eastern religions and the 1975 song "Dream Weaver" by Gary Wright. The synthesizer riff used in the movie stems from that song. As to the villain, Freddy Krueger, his name was taken from a boy named Fred Krueger who had bullied him as a child. Inspiration for the character of Freddy Krueger was also taken from Wes Craven's childhood. Once when outside his home, young Wes Craven saw a man in a battered fedora who seemed to be looking right at him. The man frightened Wes Craven very badly.

Other elements of the character of Freddy Krueger stemmed from an effort to make him different from other antagonists in horror movie of the time. Wes Craven observed that many horror villains of the time, such as Michael Myers in the Halloween movies and Jason in the Friday the 13th movies, wore masks. Wes Craven thought Freddy should wear a mask, but he should also be able to talk and express himself. It was because of this that Freddy Krueger had a disfigured face. Wes Craven also observed the most villains in horror movies of the time used knives. Initially Wes Craven had considered having Krueger use a sickle, but then decided he use a glove with steak knives sewn into it.

Wes Craven would have some difficulty selling A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). As hard as it may be to believe, Walt Disney Productions was the first to show interest in the script, but they wanted Wes Craven to soften the movie's content so it could be rated PG-13 by the MPAA ratings board. Paramount Pictures turned down A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) because they thought it was too similar to Dreamscape (1984), which was already in pre-production. Universal Studios also turned him down.

Wes Craven was finally able to find a studio produce the film in the form of New Line Cinema. At this point New Line Cinema had only produced a few movies, most notably Polyester (1981), having primarily served as a distributor for films produced by others. New Line Cinema was unable to provide all of the financing for A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), but fortunately they were able to find other investors.

By far the most famous member of the cast of A Nightmare on Elm Street was John Saxon, who played Lt. Don Thompson. Although John Saxon had started his career as a teen idol in such movies as Rock Pretty Baby (1956) and The Restless Years (1958), he made a name for himself in a wide variety of movies from the Sixties into the Seventies, from Queen of Blood (1966) to Enter the Dragon (1973). Ten years before A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), John Saxon had played another police lieutenant in another horror movie, Kenneth Fuller in the early slasher movie Black Christmas (1974). Having played in a wide variety of movie genres and having played a number of heroes in movies, John Saxon was ideal as Don Thompson, the police lieutenant who initially fears for his daughter's sanity, but then helps her stop an undead killer.

As to the role of Freddy Krueger, David Warner was initially cast, but he had to drop out of the film due to conflicts in his schedule. Wes Craven considered several different actors before casting Robert Englund in the role. Robert Englund had made several guest appearances on television and appeared on such movies as Big Wednesday (1978) and Galaxy of Terror (1981). The roles of the teenagers in the film were filled by unknowns, although one would soon become famous. A Nightmare on Elm Street marked the film debut of Johnny Depp. Johnny Depp went with his friend Jackie Earle Haley to an audition. It was ultimately because of Wes Craven's daughters that Johnny Depp got the role. Wes Craven had pictured the role of Glen as  a jock, but it was Johnny Depp's headshot that Wes Craven's daughters chose out of the headshots he showed them.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) would run into trouble with the MPAA ratings board. Two cuts to the movie had to be made before they would give it an R-rating. Oddly enough, it was released in the United Kingdom, which is sometimes stricter on horror movies than the MPAA, uncut.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) went into limited release on November 6 1984 in the United States and then into wide release on November 16 1984 in United States and Canada. Most critics at the time gave A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) positive reviews. Paul Attanasio in The Washington Post wrote of the film, "The genre has built-in limitations--the immediate reaction is to say you've seen it all before last Friday the 13th, so that there's constant pressure on the director's inventiveness....But Wes Craven faces the challenge admirably. A Nightmare on Elm Street is halfway between an exploitation flick and classic surrealism." In The Monthly Film Bulletin, Kim Newman called A Nightmare on Elm Street, "...a superior example of an over-worked genre."

Audiences loved A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) as well. During its opening weekend in limited release, at only 165 theatres across the United States, it grossed $1,271,000." It eventually made $25,504,513 at the US and Canada and  $57 million worldwide. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) proved to be one of New Line Cinema's earliest successes, so much so that the studio was sometimes referred to as "the House that Freddy Built."

The success of A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) would lead to seven sequels. A remake,directed by Samuel Bayer, was released in 2010. There was also a TV series spun off from the film. Freddie's Nightmares was an anthology series with Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger serving as its narrator. It ran for two seasons in syndication. There have also been novels, comic books, video games, and other merchandise inspired by the movie.

The reasons for the success of A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) aren't hard to find. The movie has a particularly good cast. John Saxon, as Lt. Don Thompson, stands out as the father and police officer who finally realizes the threat of Freddy Krueger. It was Robert Englund's performance as Freddy Krueger that made the character one of the most famous movie monsters of all time. The younger cast, including Helen Langenkamp as Nancy Thompson and Johnny Depp as Glen, also deliver solid performances. The cast make the events of A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) all the more believable.

Of course, Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) also benefits from a very sophisticated script. In fact, the film works on multiple levels. In the above cited Cinefantastique article, Wes Craven said,"...the notion of the screenplay is that the sins of the parents are visited upon the children, but the fact that each child is not necessarily stuck with their lot is still there." Even at the time of its release, some critics saw A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) as a very Freudian work. In the February 1985 issue of Films in Review, Roy Frumkes saw Wes Craven's earlier works, such as The Hills Have Eyes, as Freudian, and wrote of A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), "...and, here, in its latest incarnation, John Saxon and Ronee Blakeley are the untending parent of a daughter, whose nightmares have red claws, and whose pleas for help go unanswered."

What might be the strongest theme in the film is one that Wes Craven's script and direction capitalize upon: the borderlines between reality and fantasy.In A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) the characters, and hence the audience,can often not distinguish between reality and dream. It can easily be argued that being able to determine what is and is not a dream is central to the defeat of Freddy Krueger in the movie.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) would have a lasting influence on the horror genre and launched a franchise that still sees merchandise between produced to this day. The movie often makes lists of the greatest horror films ever made. It can be safe to say audiences will be watching A Nightmre on Elm Street (1984) forty years from now.