6. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Directed by Wes Craven
Starring Heather Lagenkamp, Robert Englund, John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Amanda Wyss, Jsu Garcia, Johnny Depp
Several people are hunted by a cruel serial killer who kills his victims in their dreams. When the survivors are trying to find the reason for being chosen, the murderer won’t lose any chance to kill them as soon as they fall asleep.
Celebrating its 30th anniversary (this week no less), Wes Craven’s original trip down Elm Street sits in sixth place on our list.
Based around a real-life story that Craven read in a newspaper about a young Brazilian boy terrified to go to sleep because he will die if he did, A Nightmare on Elm Street would not only scare the crap out of audiences in 1984, but it gave birth to an icon of horror in the form of Freddy Kruger. Five sequels, one meta-experiment, one crossover and one reboot later, Freddy’s popularity shows no signs of slowing down – and it’s easy to see why.
This original nightmare, which provided the platform for a debut performance from Johnny Depp, is a visceral experience that plays on everyone’s fears of the boogyman as a child molester, burnt alive by the residents of Elm Street after he evades imprisonment, returns to haunt the dreams of their children and take his revenge on those who took the law into their own hands. But while the kids pay for the sins of their parents, one decides to fight back using her smarts and strong will.
Something that the awful remake managed to miss by a huge margin. Seriously, that film was bloody awful.
Some might argue (and are well within their right to) that A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors is a superior movie as it gets the balance of scary Freddy and comedy Freddy perfectly, but there is no denying that the original A Nightmare on Elm Street is the worthy entry on this list.
Originally published October 31, 2014. Updated October 24, 2022.
