A Nightmare on Elm Street is a 1984 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Wes Craven and produced by Robert Shaye. It is the first installment in the A Nightmare on Elm Street series and stars Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger, and Johnny Depp in his directorial debut. The film’s plot revolves around a group of teenagers who are targeted by Krueger, an immortal child killer who murders in their dreams, in revenge for their parents burning him alive. Teenager Tina Gray awakens from a terrifying nightmare in which a disfigured man wearing a glove with a blade attacks her in the boiler room. Her mother points out mysterious cuts on her nightgown. The next morning, Tina’s best friend Nancy Thompson and Nancy’s boyfriend, Glen Lantz, reveal that they also had nightmares about the same disfigured man. During a sleepover at Tina’s house, Tina’s boyfriend, Rod Lane, arrives and they have sex. As Tina falls asleep, she dreams of the disfigured man attacking her, while Rod sees her being slashed to death by an invisible force, causing him to run away. Nancy and Glen find Tina’s bloody corpse.
The next day, Nancy’s policeman father, Don Thompson, arrests Rod despite his pleas of innocence. At school, Nancy falls asleep in class and dreams of the man chasing her in the boiler room. She deliberately burns her arm with a pipe, causing her to wake up in class and leave a burn mark on her forearm. Nancy visits Rod at the police station, where he describes Tina’s death along with his own recent nightmares about the same man.
Back home, Nancy falls asleep in the bathtub and is nearly killed by the man. She then relies on caffeine to stay awake and asks Glen to watch over her while she sleeps. In a nightmare, Nancy sees the man preparing to kill Rod in his cell, but he turns his attention to her and attacks her. Nancy wakes up when her alarm clock goes off. The man kills Rod, staging it as a suicide. At his funeral, Nancy’s parents become concerned as she recounts her nightmares. Her mother, Marge, drives her to a sleep disorder clinic, where, in a nightmare, Nancy snatches the man’s fedora with the name “Fred Krueger” on it and pulls it into the real world.
After barricading the door, Marge reveals to Nancy that Krueger was a child murderer who killed 20 children but was released on a technicality. He is then burned alive by the parents of the victims, along with other Elm Street residents who seek spontaneous justice. Later, Marge shows Krueger’s bladed glove hidden in their fireplace, and Nancy realizes that Krueger targeted her and her friends because their parents were accomplices in his murders.
That night, Glen falls asleep and is killed by Krueger. Nancy asks Don, who is across the street investigating Glen’s murder scene, to break into their house within 20 minutes. She sets traps and lures Krueger out of his nightmares and into the real world. The traps allow her to set him on fire and trap him in the basement.
The police arrive and find Krueger has escaped from the basement. Nancy and Don find a burning Krueger strangling Marge in her bedroom. After Don puts out the fire, Krueger and Marge disappear into bed before Krueger emerges from behind Nancy. Realizing that Krueger is motivated by the victim’s fear, she calmly turns her back on him, and Krueger evaporates.
Nancy steps outside into a foggy morning where all her friends and mother are still alive. She gets into Glen’s convertible to go to school when the top suddenly drops (with green and red stripes), trapping them as the car speeds down the street and Marge waves goodbye to them outside her house. Three girls in white dresses play jump rope singing Krueger’s nursery rhyme while Marge is grabbed by Krueger through the front window.
