A few teenagers around Elm Street are having the same nightmare about a creepy burned figure who wears a glove with knives on the finger tips. If he murders you in your dream you die for real.
Blaine: Slasher films were becoming very huge in the 1980s and Hollywood was looking for new ideas for films. Wes Craven was doing very well for himself by making hit horror features like “The Last House on the Left” and “The Hills Have Eyes”. Wes had an idea for a slasher film that would involve dreams, but studios didn’t want it because they didn’t think it was scary enough. For three years Wes tried to get the movie financed, but no one was interested in making it until he met Robert Shaye, the founder and CEO of New Line Cinema. At the time New Line Cinema wasn’t that big of a studio like it is today. Because slasher films were becoming a huge attraction for audiences, Robert and a few other members of New Line thought that if they did a low budget horror movie maybe they could make money out of it. Robert liked Wes Craven’s script for “A Nightmare on Elm Street” because it was original and it was based on fact that everyone has nightmares. Wes had sold the rights to “Nightmare on Elm Street” to New Line in order to get it made. He was scheduled to shoot the movie in 26 days.
The inspiration for “A Nightmare on Elm Street” came to Wes Craven after he read an article about this kid who died in his sleep. This kid kept having these terrible nightmares that felt real to him and he was afraid to fall asleep because of that. He would hide a coffee mug in his closet along with black coffee. He always would try to keep himself awake. He went down stairs to watch tv. His parents found him asleep on the coach and brought him to his bed. Then later in the middle of the night, the parents heard a scream coming from his room and when they got to his room he was dead. The cause of his death was unknown. Wes never heard of something so dramatic like that before and he thought it was terrifying.
Another inspiration for “A Nightmare on Elm Street” came from Wes’ childhood. He said that when he was seven years old he saw this weird guy walking down the street from his bedroom window and he noticed Wes was looking at him. He looked back at Wes with this creepy look on his face. Wes hid counting to ten hoping the guy would be gone. Wes took a peek and the guy was still there staring at him. The stranger then went to the front door of Wes’ apartment and might have wanted to break in. Wes woke up his family, his brother went down with a baseball bat and the guy was already gone by the time he got down there. It scares me just thinking about someone like that staring at you like that, but that stranger is who Freddy Krueger is based off of. Freddy Kruger was named after a bully from Wes’ childhood.
Wes didn’t want “A Nightmare on Elm Street” to be like other slasher films like “Friday the 13th” and “The Prowler” where it’s someone unknown and kills you when you least suspect it. The killer, Freddy Kruger, had to be no mystery to his victims of who was trying to kill them. The killers of the slasher movies were played by stuntmen, but Wes wanted an actor to play the villain of “A Nightmare on Elm Street”. Originally Wes had cast David Warner to play Freddy Kruger, but at the last minute, he said that he had a prior commitment that wouldn’t allow him to commit to their time frame. Robert Englund went in and Wes thought he was too young to play Freddy because he had written Freddy as an old man and Robert was in his 30s at the time. However there was something about Robert that Wes had liked. And then Robert would show these evil expressions on his face and this wide smile. It was Robert Englund who brought the character, Freddy Kruger, to life through his performance.
David Miller was the makeup artist in charge of Freddy Kruger’s look and Robert Englund felt he was in good hands after he found out that David did some of the zombie makeup in Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”. David had based Freddy’s burnt skin on pepperoni pizza. Dave Miller was having pizza for dinner at a restaurant and he was playing around with the cheese using his fork and putting it over the pepperoni.
Wes Craven was trying to figure out what Freddy’s weapon should be then he thought about a bear and how it has these big giant claws. So then Wes had thought about Freddy having these big finger nails. Jim Doyle, the special effects designer, did some sketches and made a test glove with these fake knives on the finger tips. It was annoying for everyone when Robert would use the glove in the boiler room scenes because he was always scratching those knives against the pipes and they would make a noise. That glove was heavy for Robert to wear. Whenever he put it on, his right shoulder would drop a bit and effect his movement. Freddy’s red and green sweater came from an article Wes had read on how the eye and the retina deal with color and how those two colors are hard to see side by side.
Nancy Thompson is the heroine of the movie and when Wes Craven saw Heather Langenkamp she looked like the legitimate girl next door to him. Wes told Heather to stay after the audition was over so that he could tell her in person he wants her to play Nancy. Usually after an actor auditions for a part they get a call later on the phone from their agent informing them if they got the job or not, but Heather experienced something I don’t think any other actor has had before. Heather was delighted that Wes had chosen her to play Nancy. Heather felt that she didn’t need to figure out how she was going perform as Nancy that much because she wanted to put some of her own personality into the character. At first Nancy doesn’t believe that the nightmares she is having about Freddy Kruger aren’t real and acts like it’s no big deal. But then she discovers both her and her friend, Tina, have dreamt about the same creep. Then Tina gets murdered in her sleep and things get serious for Nancy after that. Then another friend of her’s, Rod Lane, reveals that he dreamt about the same guy who wears a glove with knives where the finger tips are and she is starting to believe that this guy they’ve all dreamt about is real especially when she wakes up having a burn mark or scratches. A lot of fans like the line from the scene where Nancy is in the school hallway, bumps into the hall monitor and she asks “where’s your hall pass?!” and Nancy’s reply is “screw your pass”.
There’s a sequence in the film where Nancy is in the bathtub and Freddy’s glove is coming out of the water in between her legs as soon as she closes her eyes. And then when she falls asleep, Freddy drags her down like he is dragging her down this ocean of water. They built a bathtub on a soundstage that had a tank underneath it. Heather would set her back on Jim Doyle’s knees while her feet would rest on his shoulders. Jim would hold himself onto the bath so that Heather could rest herself on him because there wasn’t anything but a pool of water underneath them. The reason why he was in there was because someone needed to be Freddy’s hand for when it comes out of the bath.
Amanda Wyss felt sorry for her character, Tina Grey, when she read the script because she has no father and her mother is irresponsible. Tina is left to take care of herself. The first time I saw “A Nightmare on Elm Street” I thought Tina was the female lead because the film focussed on her for the first fifteen minutes, but then Freddy killed her and then it focussed more on Nancy after that.
Wes wanted to do something big for Tina’s death. Freddy slices Tina’s chest with his glove and her boyfriend is in the same room as her, but he can’t see Freddy because it is only Tina who is dreaming about him and so that makes him invisible. Tina starts floating in the air, then is dragged to the sealing, then drops to the bed and there is blood all over it. Jim Doyle had recommended that they use a rotating room for that scene. It was used for another film where Fred Astaire was going from wall to wall while dancing. All the objects in that room were nailed down and the camera man was buckled to a seat that was attached to one of the walls. Two people were on the outside of that room on the sides turning that room around. It wasn’t operated mechanically. Amanda Wyss was either crawling or being dragged around that room as is moved. At the end of a take, Amanda couldn’t move because she felt like she was falling so Wes went in to help her. Amanda would perform in a body bag in Nancy’s nightmares the rest of the film and she was all covered in fake blood. Amanda was brave enough to have a bunch of eels right next to her feet. She didn’t like shooting those scenes, but she was brave enough to do them.
Wes added in these three little girls wearing bright white playing jump rope while singing something that goes “One, Two Freddy’s coming for you.” Wes had written the rhyme, but he never knew how it could sound as a song. Heather had a boyfriend at the time and he was the one who figured out how to make that rhyme sound musically.
“A Nightmare on Elm Street” was also the first time Johnny Depp was introduced on the big screen. Johnny’s real passion was being a rock star and he was in a band, but they weren’t really going anywhere and weren’t so successful. Johnny was broke and he needed money and Nicholas Cage, who he was living with at the time, had recommended that he get a job of being in a slasher film because they were very popular in the 80s and made a lot of money. Wes was going through pictures of the guys who had auditioned for Nancy’s boyfriend and his daughter, who was thirteen at the time, was helping him choose. She recommended to her father that Johnny Depp get the part and her reason why was because he looked dreamy. Johnny was scared when he was on the set of “A Nightmare on Elm Street” because he had never acted before at the time, but he would push himself to do his best and he had a lot of energy.
Johnny Depp’s character, Glenn, falls asleep and Freddy pulls him down the bed, then lots and lots of his blood comes out of the bed. You don't see what terrible thing Freddy does to Johnny’s character. You just see his arm pulling him down and then blood splatters all over the room. They re-did the rotating room a bit to turn it into Glen’s room. The blood coming out of the bed and going up the ceiling was one take. The room and the camera were upside down. The bed was on the top so they could poor down the red water through the hole. There was a scene that was never used where Glenn’s body comes back up after the blood. His dead body is all covered in blood. They only did one or two takes of the other special effects shots because they were on a tight schedule.
The ending to “A Nightmare on Elm Street” was very confusing for me the first time because I couldn’t understand what it meant. I mean Nancy opens a door and on the other side it’s so peaceful. Her mother and friends are alive…..I think she is in a dream. Wes had a hard time figuring out how “A Nightmare on Elm Street” would end. He wanted Nancy to wake up to a bright and shining morning believing everything that happened through the whole movie was a dream. Robert Shaye, the New Line executive, wanted something that would lead to a sequel. Wes didn’t want that, but because he had sold the rights for “Nightmare on Elm Street” to New Line he had no choice. The ending was something Robert and Wes would argue a lot about. Wes decided that Nancy would get into a car with her friends in it and the car’s top would have Freddy’s stripes on it. There was three different endings that were shot. One would show Freddy driving the car.
New Line Cinema had bet on a lot of money on “Elm Street” when it was released on November of 1984. “A Nightmare on Elm Street” made $6,511,320 at the box office and helped make New Line become a successful company. It was also a critical success. I would say Wes Craven is the reason why “A Nightmare on Elm Street” became so successful because he was a genius. After the film became a success, people would call Wes “horror mister Wes Craven”. Robert Englund’s career changed as well. He became a horror star after playing Freddy Krueger.
My rating on “A Nightmare on Elm Street” is five out of five stars
Parodies
The Simpsons
Blaine: Robert Englund guest voiced as Freddy on “The Simpsons” Treehouse of Horror IX
Treehouse of Horror VI
Plot: The kids at Springfield Elementary are having nightmares involving the school janitor, Grounds Keeper Willie, who mysteriously disappeared. What they can’t explain is how the scratches and injuries that happen to them in the dream become real in the real world. Grounds Keeper Willie kills Martin Prince while he dozes off waiting for everyone else in class to finish their tests. When Lisa and Bart inform Homer and Marge that Martin died at school they act weird like they know something about Grounds Keeper Willie. Marge tells Lisa and Bart the truth that the parents accidentally killed Willie during a parent-teacher conference. Homer set off the broken boiler and Willie caught on fire. Willie burned to ashes, but before that he swore revenge against the parents by killing their children. Bart and Lisa fear that the next time they fall asleep Willie will kill them both. Bart, Lisa and Maggie try to stay awake during the night, but they keep dozing off. Bart comes up with a plan to face Willie in his dream and have Lisa be in charge of waking him up if anything goes wrong. In his dream, Bart sets up a trap for Willie. He lures Willie into quicksand and it becomes successful. Willie transforms himself into a spider like bagpipe and comes out of the sand. Bart is in trouble and Lisa tries to wake him up, but the problem is she has fallen asleep and is now in the dream with him. Willie grabs both Bart and Lisa and they are now doomed. Maggie sneaks herself on top of Willie and plugs her pacifier into the main pipe. All the air gets sucked into Willie and he explodes. Maggie has saved Bart and Lisa. Things are peaceful for now, but Lisa fears that Willie is still out there somewhere and he could attack at anytime.
South Park
Plot: Stan Marsh is hoarding stuff in his school locker and he can’t explain why. He is sent to the school counselor Mr. Mackey, but turns out he is hoarding as well. A hoarding specialist named Dr. Chinstrap attaches Stan, Mackey and a sheep herder to a machine to figure out their hoarding problems. They fall asleep and Mackey finds himself back in elementary school running from a bully. Problem is Stan and the sheep herder are in the memory as well. Dr. Chinstrap and his assistant Dr. Pinkerton can’t explain why Stan and the sheep herder are in Mackey’s subconscious. Dream experts (Cobb, Arthur, Eames, Saito and Yusuf) are called in to help.
They go into the dream to find Stan, Mackey and the sheep herder. An hour passes and everyone hasn’t woken up yet. The hoarding specialist knows there is only one person who can fix this. He goes to visit someone he used to work with in the Military, Freddy Kruger. Meanwhile in the dream, Mackey and the others believe his problem was that he was bullied while on a field trip, but once the dream experts kill the bullies nothing happens. Mackey, Stan, the sheep herder and the dream experts are still in the dream. Mackey then recalls running away from the bullies and then hiding out in a cabin. Mackey opens the door and sees himself being molested by Woodsy Owl.
Woodsy Owl goes all evil now that he is exposed as the bad memory and goes after everyone. The dream experts shoot at Woodsy, but he’s too powerful. Woodsy kills the sheep herder. Freddy Krueger saves the day by killing Woodsy Owl after being called in by Chinstrap. Everyone wakes up and Mr. Mackey is now cured. After what he has experienced, Stan doesn’t want to know his cause of hoarding so he just gets rid of the junk in his locker.
Rick and Morty
Plot: Rick invents a small device that allows him and Morty to go into other people’s dreams. Rick’s plan is to go into the dream of Morty’s math class teacher and plant an idea to give Morty an A in math. As they go deeper into the mind of the math teacher, Rick and Morty find themselves in a boiler room and are chased by a scary figure named Scary Terry. Rick and Morty are able to hide from Terry. Six dream hours go by and Terry can’t find Rick or Morty. Terry then decides to call it a night and goes home to his wife and son. Scary Terry looks like something is bothering him and Rick wants to incept him in order to know what the problem is. Scary Terry has a bad dream about his high school years where he was being pressured by the teacher and forgot to wear pants. Rick and Morty fix that problem by talking back at the teacher and giving Terry a brand new pare of pants. Terry’s nightmare is over. When he wakes up and sees Rick and Morty standing beside his bed and he is very happy to see them both. Terry then helps Rick and Morty deal with their problem by killing Morty’s math teacher in the dream and making sure he gets the message to give Morty better grades in math.
