Fresh
A highly imaginative horror film that provides the requisite shocks to keep fans of the genre happy.
Variety Staff, Variety
A Nightmare on Elm Street
If Nancy doesn't wake up screaming, she won't wake up at all.
1984 · 1h 31m · R
Horror
Directed by
Wes Craven
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A Nightmare on Elm Street
Overview
Teenagers in a small town are dropping like flies, apparently in the grip of mass hysteria causing their suicides. A cop's daughter, Nancy Thompson, traces the cause to child molester Fred Krueger, who was burned alive by angry parents many years before. Krueger has now come back in the dreams of his killers' children, claiming their lives as his revenge. Nancy and her boyfriend, Glen, must devise a plan to lure the monster out of the realm of nightmares and into the real world...
Director and cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
93%
Tomatometer
Fresh
Craven vitalizes the nightmare sequences with assorted surrealist novelties.
J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader
Fresh
It's all good scary fun.
Nicholas Royle, Time Out
Fresh
A Nightmare on Elm Street... puts more emphasis on bizarre special effects, which aren't at all bad.
Vincent Canby, New York Times
Fresh
Still stands on its own as an intriguing and chilling example of how horror works best when the characters and the audience don't have to be lobotomized.
James Berardinelli, ReelViews
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