Inspired by a mixture of his own childhood experiences and a random series of sudden deaths during nightmares that were reported by The LA Times in the 1970s, in 1984 Wes Craven brought us one of the most unique and thought-provoking horrors of its generation. A Nightmare On Elm Street not only brought a new dimension to the all-conquering slasher genre, but provided it with arguably its greatest antagonist yet.
In Robert Englund's brilliantly realised Freddy Krueger, Craven had created a horror icon that was instantly recognisable, legitimately scary and came armed with one-liners even sharper than his finger-knives. A box office smash upon release, Elm Street inevitably succumbed to the same franchise overkill that plagued most big horrors of its time, with five direct sequels, a meta-horror off-shoot, a franchise-crossing face-off, a remake and even a TV show all following in its wake.
