Misplaced Pages

A Nightmare on Elm Street: Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editNext edit →Content deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 21:08, 9 January 2007 edit203.167.191.74 (talk)No edit summary← Previous edit Revision as of 02:29, 11 January 2007 edit undo24.66.94.140 (talk) ←Replaced page with 'GO TO HELL A NIGHTMARE TO ELM STREET! FUCK OFF BITCHES RUNNING WILD MAN'Next edit →
Line 1: Line 1:
GO TO HELL A NIGHTMARE TO ELM STREET!
{{Infobox_Film |
| name = A Nightmare on Elm Street
| image = Nightmare01.jpg
| director = ]
| writer = ]
| starring =]<br>]<br>]<br>]<br>]<br>]<br>]
| producer = Robert Shaye
| music = ]|
| cinematography = Jacques Haitkin
| editing = ]<br>Rick Shaine
| country = {{USA}}
| distributor = ]
| released = November 9, 1984
| runtime = 91 min.
| language = ]
| budget = $1.8 million
| amg_id = 1:35364|
| imdb_id = 0087800
| followed_by = '']''
}}


FUCK OFF
'''''A Nightmare on Elm Street''''' is an ] ] set in the fictional ] town of Springwood, Ohio. Released in November 1984 by ], ] directed while the film stars ] as ] (subsequently known as "Freddy Krueger"), ] as ], ] as mother Marge Thompson, ] as father Lt. Donald Thompson, ] as ], ] as ] and ] as ] in his first motion picture.


BITCHES RUNNING WILD MAN
Written by Craven, a former English teacher, the film's premise is the question of where the line between ] and ] lies. The villain, ], thus exists in the "dream world" yet can kill in the "real world". Sequels to the original would continue to blur the distinction between dream and reality before finally challenging the line between '']'' and reality by showing ], playing a fictionalized version of herself, haunted by the villain of a series of films she has starred in.

Craven produced the film via a $1,800,000 estimated budget <ref>John Kenneth Muir, "Career Overview" in ''Wes Craven: The Art of Horror'' (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland and Company, 1998), p. 18, ISBN 0786419237.</ref>, yet grossed $1,271,000 at the ] ] in its opening weekend. <ref name="boxofficemojo">''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' at ; last accessed ], ].</ref> To date, its total domestic grossings has been calculated at $25,504,513. <ref name="boxofficemojo">''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' at last accessed ], ].</ref> Numerous critics praised the film's ability to rupture "the boundaries between the imaginary and real,"<ref>Ian Conrich, "Seducing the Subject: Freddy Krueger, Popular Culture and the ''Nightmare on Elm Street'' Films" in ''Trash Aesthetics: Popular Culture and its Audience'', ed. Deborah Cartmell, I. Q. Hunter, Heldi Kaye and Imelda Whelehan (London: Pluto Press, 2004), p. 119, ISBN 0745312020.</ref> toying with audience perceptions. <ref name="ReelViews">James Berardinelli, review of ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'', at ; last accessed ], ].</ref> Some movie historians interpreted this overriding theme as a social subtext, "the struggles of adolescents in American society" <ref>Kelly Bulkeley, ''Visions of the Night: Dreams, Religion, and Psychology'' (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999), p. 108; see also chap. 11: "Dreamily Deconstructing the Dream Factory: ''The Wizard of Oz'' and ''A Nightmare on Elm Street''," ISBN 0791442837.</ref>, and their overwhelming need to confront "the harsh realities of life".<ref name="channel4">'' Channel 4's 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' Review'' at ; last accessed ], ].</ref>

The film spawned a long-running ] of films, a television series, and a ] series currently being published by ]. Also, in the UK and Ireland, there was a book released entitled: ''The Nightmares On Elm Street: The Continuing Story: Parts 1, 2, 3''. This book was released to go along with the movie '']''. The book was written by Jeffrey Cooper, and was also based on screenplays written by '']'', David Chaskin and Bruce Wagner.

==Plot==
{{spoiler}}

A teenage girl, Tina Grey (]) has a disturbing nightmare in which she is stalked through a dark, neverending ] by a creepy, shadowy figure with a dirty red-and-green sweater, a battered hat, and a glove with razor-sharp knives for fingernails. Just as he catches her, however, she wakes up screaming, only to discover four razor cuts in her nightdress identical to the cuts in her dream. The next day, she finds out that her friend ] (]) had the same dream.

That night, Tina, Nancy and her boyfriend Glen Lantz (]) have a sleep-over to make a distraught Tina feel better. Tina's rebellious, on-and-off boyfriend Rod Lane (]) crashes the party and goes to bed with Tina. However, Tina has another nightmare, and this time the killer catches her and brutally murders her. Rod wakes up to find Tina being cut open by invisible knives and then dragged across the ceiling. Rod is of course suspected of the killing and is arrested the next day.

Nancy then has three sadistically creepy, violent nightmares, in school, in the bath, and in her bed, where she is viciously stalked then attacked by the same terrifying figure who attacked Tina. These nightmares lead her to talk to Rod in prison, who tells her what he saw in Tina's bedroom. She becomes increasingly convinced that the figure appearing in her dreams is the person responsible for the killing of Tina, much to the dismay of her mother (]). Nancy and a skeptical Glen rush to the police station late at night to talk to Rod, only to find that he's been strangled by his own bedsheets. It appears to everyone, except Nancy, to be a suicide.

Nancy's mother takes her to a Dream Therapy Clinic to ensure she gets some sleep. Once again, she has a horrendous nightmare. This time, her arm is badly cut, but she finds that she has brought something out from her dream: the killer's battered hat. It arouses concern, but also other feelings in Nancy's mother, who is clearly hiding a secret.

Eventually, Nancy's mother, increasingly drink-sodden, reveals to Nancy that the owner of the hat, and the killer, was a man called ], a child murderer who killed at least twenty children. Furious, vengeful parents burned him alive in his boiler room hideout when he was released from prison on a technicality. Now, it appears he is manipulating the dreams of their children to enact his revenge from beyond the grave. Nancy's mother, however, reassures Nancy that Krueger can't hurt anyone ("He's dead, honey, because Mommy killed him.")

Nancy devises a plan, with Glen, to catch Krueger, but Glen succumbs to sleep and is viciously killed by being sucked into his bed and shot back up in a fountain of blood and guts. Nancy faces Krueger on her own and succeeds in destroying him by turning her back on him and draining him of all energy.

==Cast==
]
{| class="wikitable"
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! Actor !! Role
|-
| ] || ]
|-
| ] || ]
|-
| ] || ]
|-
| ] || ]
|-
| ] || ]
|-
| ] || Donald Thompson
|-
| ] || Marge Thompson
|}

==Production==
Wes Craven wrote the screenplay around ]. He ] it to several studios, but all of them passed. Finally, the fledgling ] corporation - which had up to that point only distributed films, rather than making its own - gave the project the go-ahead.

During filming, New Line's distribution deal for the movie fell through and for two weeks it was unable to pay its cast and crew. They stayed with the project nevertheless, until New Line found another distributor<ref>http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087800/trivia</ref>. The film's success (US grosses $25 million for an estimated $1.8 million budget<ref>http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087800/business</ref>) and that of its sequels ended New Line's financial difficulties and set it on the way to becoming a major studio. While New Line films has since made much bigger and more profitable movies, ''Nightmare'' holds such an important place in the company's history that it is often referred to as 'The House That Freddy Built'.<ref>http://www.dvdreview.com/html/a_nightmare_on_elm_street_editor_s_day.html</ref>

Wes Craven originally planned for the film to have a happy ending: Nancy kills Freddy by ceasing to believe in him, then awakes to discover that everything that happened in the movie was an elongated nightmare. However, New Line leader Robert Shaye demanded a twist ending, in which Freddy disappears and the movie all appears to have been a dream, only for the audience to discover that they are watching a dream-within-a-dream-within-a-dream, where Freddy reappears as a car that "kidnaps" Nancy, followed by Freddy reaching through a window on the front door to pull Nancy's mother inside. {{fact}}Both a happy ending and a twist ending were filmed, but the final film used the twist ending. As a result, Craven (who never wanted the film to be an ongoing franchise), dropped out of working on the first sequel, '']''.{{fact}}

===Writing===
Wes Craven states that the film was inspired by several newspaper articles printed in the LA times on a group of ] refugees and their children, who, after fleeing to America from ] ] regime, were suffering horrific nightmares, after which they refused to sleep. Acting on medical advice, their parents encouraged them to do so. However, each of the children died in their sleep soon after, following the second dream. After Craven read the articles covering these events, he began writing the film.

By Craven's account, he had been bullied at school by a child named Fred Krueger, and named his villain accordingly. (He had done the same in his earlier film '']'', where the ] name was shortened to 'Krug'). He based Krueger's appearance on another childhood experience in which he had been scared by a ] man, with his distinctive red-and-green sweater chosen because Craven had read that those were the two hardest colours to visually process together.<ref>http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087800/trivia</ref>

== Cultural impact ==
The film was a phenomenal success. It spawned several sequels, as well as making a horror icon of the film's villain, ]. By the time of the film's second sequel, Freddy was a household name, appearing on t-shirts, masks, action figures, candy, magazines, trading cards and much more. The character remains, along with ] ], ] ], ] ], ], the ] and ], as one of the most popular and famous horror villains of all time.

In June 2003, Freddy Krueger was ranked #40 on The American Film Institute's list of the greatest 100 Heroes and Villains of all-time.

=="Infinifilm" DVD Release==
]
On ], ], ] re-released the movie as a Region 1 ] special edition DVD. Included on the disc are these features:
*Brand new, feature-length audio commentary with Wes Craven and actor Robert Englund
*Never Sleep Again: Making of documentary
*House That Freddy Built: Documentary that looks at the legacy of New Line horror
*Night Terrors: Documentary that looks at the origins of Wes Craven's nightmares
*Freddy’s Coming For You: Trivia challenge
*Exclusive Infinifilm interactive video clips
*Three endings for the film. The first is a happy ending. The second shows Nancy's mother watching them drive away, then getting pulled through the window by Freddy. The third one has the car Glen is driving taken over by Freddy, as Nancy watches her mother get taken away by him, then shows Freddy is now driving the car. The Second one is the most commonly used one.)
*All special features were produced by Automat Pictures.

You can view the special edition limited box art

A Region 2 disc, identical to the Infinifilm release, followed the month after.

==Memorabilia==
The Nightmare on Elm Street series spawned a huge merchandising collecting cult. Even 20 years after the first film was released, the mercandising is still ongoing, with sites like ebay listing hundreds of Nightmare on Elm Street memorabilia every day and new products rolling off the assembly line and in to toy stores around the world.

A private collector from New Zealand has established an online collection of Nightmare on Elm Street and Freddy Krueger memorabilia. This collection spans more than 20 years, and is one of the largest on the internet to date .

== References ==
<div class="references-small">
<references/>
</div>

==External links==
*{{imdb title|id=0087800|title=A Nightmare on Elm Street}}
* at
*
*
{{Nightmareseries}}

]
]
]
]
]
]
]

]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]

Revision as of 02:29, 11 January 2007

GO TO HELL A NIGHTMARE TO ELM STREET!

FUCK OFF

BITCHES RUNNING WILD MAN