A Nightmare On Elm Street Retrospective
He stalks and kills teenagers in their dreams. Welcome to Watchmojo.com, and today we’ll be taking a look at the Nightmare on Elm Street Franchise.
The series first began frightening audiences everywhere in 1984 when Wes Craven wrote and directed the original picture that introduced us to iconic horror villain Freddy Kreuger. Once a child killer, he is told to have been burned alive by the members of the town he terrified before returning to murder his victims in their sleep.
Over the years he has become instantly recognizable for his signature red and green striped shirt, clawed glove, burned face and fedora. Although initially envisioned by Wes Craven as incredibly dark and terrifying, Freddy was given a slightly comedic portrayal by series regular Robert Englund.
Plot-wise, the original entry ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ was meant to be a one-time horror flick following Freddy’s quest to murder teenager Nancy Thompson and her friends. In fact, at the end of the film, his weakness is discovered, namely that he draws his power from fear.
Oddly, the second film “Freddy’s Revenge” betrayed the premise of the original by having Freddy possess others in order to have him commit murders in the real world. The series creator Wes Craven protested the alteration and did not participate in the project.
Desiring to repair his creation, Craven returned to pen the story for the third installment “Dream Warriors” in 1987. In the film, Nancy discovers that Freddy is trying to kill the Elm Street children who he had previously forced into an insane asylum. In a twist, the children learn special dream powers that help fight Freddy, while they try to destroy him by burying his remains.
Incidentally, Wes Craven was not involved in the following sequel “The Dream Master”, a film that candidly revived Freddy and introduced a Child with the power to connect with the soul’s of Freddy’s enslaved victims. Ultimately, Alice defeated Freddy by casting a spell that released the souls of his victims.
Of course, the profitable franchise wasn’t laid to rest and Freddy reemerged in “The Dream Child” by using Alice’s unborn baby as a doorway back to the land of the living. The film was panned by critics, yet it spawned a sequel meant to end the franchise once and for all called ‘Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare.”
Needless to say, Freddy returned. However, no one could have guessed that Wes Craven would write and direct a meta-film. Interestingly, he discarded continuity in exchange for portraying Freddy as a fictitious movie character that escaped his celluloid in order to hunt down and kill all of the crew responsible for the previous films.
In 2003, the Elm Street and Friday the 13th franchises crossed-over in “Freddy Vs. Jason”. Interestingly, this film was the highest grossing entry in either of the two series and finally fulfilled the wishes of countless fans that wanted to see which villain would win in an all-out-brawl.
In 2010, against the wishes or involvement of Wes Craven, the original film was remade to refresh the series. Ironically, the original vision of Freddy was finally realized, with a new actor in the role of the iconic horror villain.
