106 Fun Facts About A Nightmare on Elm Street

Who played Freddy Krueger in the original A Nightmare on Elm Street and every sequel through 2003?

Robert Englund won Craven over after other actors auditioning for Freddy seemed too quiet and too compassionate towards children.

Which actress played Nancy Thompson, the teenager who fights Freddy in the original?

Heather Langenkamp says Craven cast her because she really was like Nancy, an earnest student, and he wanted someone very non-Hollywood.

Which future star made his film debut in the original A Nightmare on Elm Street as Nancy's boyfriend Glen?

Johnny Depp bombed his audition and was crossed off, until Craven's daughter took a shine to him.

In the final shock of the original A Nightmare on Elm Street, what does Freddy pull Nancy's mother through?

The front-door window: at the same moment, the car Nancy has climbed into locks her inside and drives off.

In which real city is the private house used as Nancy's home?

Los Angeles: the film was shot on a shoestring, as one backer after another pulled out of funding it.

The fictional town of Springwood, where the A Nightmare on Elm Street films are set, is in which state?

Ohio: by Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, Freddy has killed nearly every child and teenager in Springwood.

What two colours are the stripes on Freddy's sweater?

Red and green: the same stripes cover the convertible roof in the final scene, Craven's compromise in a dispute over the ending.

Craven chose Freddy's sweater colours after reading an article in which magazine?

Scientific American: Craven said the 1982 article called the pairing the most clashing colours for the human retina.

What kind of hat does Freddy Krueger wear?

Fedora: in the original, Nancy pulls it out of her dream and finds the name Fred Krueger written inside.

Which real-world source did Wes Craven say sparked A Nightmare on Elm Street?

Newspaper reports of refugee deaths: one told of a young man who stayed awake for days to escape his nightmares, then died in the middle of one.

Which British actor was originally cast as Freddy before dropping out?

David Warner: make-up tests had already been shot when a scheduling conflict forced him to drop out of the role.

Which actor was considered for Glen but reportedly wanted too much money?

Charlie Sheen: he had actually been offered the role first, before it went to someone else.

Which rapper told of a run-in with Freddy on 'A Nightmare on My Street'?

Will Smith: the films' studio sued over the song, and the music video made for it was pulled.

In the original Nightmare on Elm Street, what does Nancy see Tina in after dozing off in class?

A body bag: Nancy follows its trail of blood to a boiler room, where she burns her arm on a pipe to wake up, and the burn is real.

What did Craven do with the rejection letter Universal sent him?

Framed it on his office wall: every major studio passed, and it took Craven about three years of shopping the script around to get it made.

Which independent studio agreed to make A Nightmare on Elm Street, becoming 'The House That Freddy Built'?

New Line Cinema: it started out distributing films like Reefer Madness to college campuses, and Freddy's success turned it into an industry powerhouse.

Which producer wanted the original Nightmare on Elm Street to end with Freddy driving off with the kids?

Robert Shaye: Craven refused to let Freddy drive, so as a compromise the convertible's roof came down striped like Freddy's sweater.

What let Freddy push through Nancy's bedroom wall in the original Nightmare on Elm Street?

Spandex: there was so little money for effects that the crew improvised the stretchy wall with Lycra.

Which director friend doubted audiences would buy Craven's dream-killer script?

Sean Cunningham: the same friend had launched Craven's horror career by producing The Last House on the Left.

How does Nancy finally make Freddy vanish at the end of the original Nightmare on Elm Street?

Turns her back on him: realising he feeds on his victims' fear, she tells him she's taking back every bit of energy she gave him.

Young Wes Craven saw the man who inspired Freddy from where?

His window: a man walking on the sidewalk outside stopped and looked up at the startled boy.

In Freddy's Revenge (1985), which teenager moves into Nancy's old house and is possessed by Freddy?

Jesse Walsh: after his gym coach is murdered, Jesse becomes convinced that he, not Freddy, was the killer.

What is Freddy driving in the opening nightmare of Freddy's Revenge?

A school bus: Craven had refused to put Freddy in the driver's seat in the first film, but this sequel was made without him.

Which actress played Kristen Parker, the girl who can pull others into her dreams, in Dream Warriors?

Patricia Arquette: Freddy's dream attack is mistaken for a suicide attempt, so Kristen is sent to a psychiatric hospital.

Dream Warriors is largely set in which psychiatric hospital?

Westin Hills: its young patients try group hypnosis there so they can share one dream and face Freddy together.

Which future Hollywood director co-wrote the screenplay for Dream Warriors?

Frank Darabont: he and director Chuck Russell rewrote the story that Wes Craven and Bruce Wagner had first drafted for the film.

Which heavy metal band wrote and performed the theme song for Dream Warriors?

Dokken: in the song's music video the band drives Freddy off, and he wakes up in bed asking who those guys were.

In Dream Warriors, Freddy catches Nancy off guard by coming to her disguised as whom?

Her father: Freddy stabs Nancy as she embraces him, and she dies, until the actress came back playing herself in New Nightmare.

In Dream Warriors, Freddy's mother Amanda Krueger is revealed to have been what?

A nun: as Sister Mary Helena, she was accidentally locked in with the asylum's patients over the holidays, and Freddy was the child born of her ordeal.

In The Dream Master (1988), who replaced the original actress as Kristen?

Tuesday Knight: her Kristen dies early in the film, but not before passing her dream power on to her friend Alice.

In The Dream Master, Freddy is resurrected when what urinates fire on his grave?

Director Renny Harlin explained the resurrection to a bemused James Cameron with the words 'a dog pisses fire'.

Which Die Hard series director also made A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master?

Renny Harlin: the sequel's box-office success quickly got him attached to direct Alien 3 for 20th Century Fox.

Which hip-hop group's song 'Are You Ready for Freddy' plays over the end credits of The Dream Master?

Freddy also appears in the song's music video, one of several times he crossed over into late-1980s pop music.

In The Dream Child (1989), Freddy reaches his victims through the dreams of whom?

Lisa Wilcox returned as Alice because director Stephen Hopkins felt her story from the previous film was unfinished.

In Freddy's Dead (1991), Lisa Zane's character Maggie discovers she is Freddy's what?

Daughter: she was born Katherine Krueger, then given a new name and identity once Freddy was arrested and killed.

Which gimmick did Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare use for its final minutes?

3-D glasses: the film sold itself as The Final Nightmare, yet Freddy was back on screens three years later in New Nightmare.

Which real disaster struck while Wes Craven's New Nightmare was in production?

An earthquake: the script already had one, but when a real quake struck mid-shoot, the crew worked footage of its damage into the film.

New Nightmare's self-referential style was pushed further in which later Craven film?

Scream: New Nightmare had its stars play themselves, and two years later Craven carried that self-aware streak into his 1996 hit.

In Freddy vs. Jason (2003), what dream-suppressing drug do Springwood's adults give to teenagers?

Hypnocil: with the town drugging dreamers and erasing his memory, Freddy is powerless, so he resurrects Jason to make people afraid again.

Which Canadian stuntman played Jason in Freddy vs. Jason instead of series regular Kane Hodder?

Director Ronny Yu wanted a taller, slower Jason; the crossover took over a decade to reach cinemas.

In Freddy vs. Jason, Freddy torments Jason in a dream by playing on his fear of what?

Drowning: the teens' plan is to drag Freddy out of the dream world and force him to fight Jason for real.

Who played Freddy in the 2010 remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street?

Jackie Earle Haley: the make-up team started from the look of real burn injuries, then pushed the scars into nightmare territory.

The remake's Freddy actor had played the masked vigilante Rorschach in which 2009 film?

Watchmen: the actor had spent years away from acting before a comeback that earned him an Oscar nomination for Little Children.

Which actress played Nancy in the 2010 remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street?

Rooney Mara: her Nancy uncovers that Freddy was once the gardener at the preschool she attended as a child.

Which blockbuster director's company Platinum Dunes produced the 2010 remake?

Michael Bay: his company had made its name remaking horror classics, and it set out to make Freddy darker and far less jokey.

What was the title of the syndicated TV anthology series that Krueger hosted from 1988 to 1990?

It ran 44 episodes, most of them split into two separate stories, and a young Brad Pitt turned up in one.

Which Texas Chain Saw Massacre director helmed the TV series pilot, which shows Freddy's trial?

The pilot opens with Krueger's prosecution on child-murder charges and shows how the parents took justice into their own hands.

Who played Nancy's police-officer father in the original Nightmare on Elm Street?

John Saxon: when Nancy says she'll bring Freddy out of her dream for him to catch, Lt. Thompson just has an officer watch the house.

Before his audition, what did the future Freddy actor dab under his eyes?

Cigarette ash: he called it an old theatre trick, and he greased his hair back too before walking in.

The original Nancy actress narrated which four-hour 2010 documentary about the series?

She also fronted I Am Nancy in 2011, a shorter film about what the character means to horror fans.

Before making films, Wes Craven worked as what?

A humanities professor: at Clarkson College in Potsdam, New York, he helped students make a short film shot along the town's own Elm Street.

Which weapon did Craven consider for Freddy before settling on the bladed glove?

A sickle: Craven wanted a weapon Freddy wore rather than one he could put down, and the glove won out around the third or fourth draft.

In the original Nightmare on Elm Street, which horror film plays on Nancy's TV?

The Evil Dead: Craven was answering Sam Raimi, who had torn up a Hills Have Eyes poster in it, and a Freddy glove later turned up in Evil Dead II.

In the original Nightmare on Elm Street, what sat hidden beneath Nancy's bathtub?

A deep water tank: an effects man in scuba gear waited inside it, raising Freddy's claws whenever Craven tapped on the tub.

Who is arrested after Freddy kills Tina in the original Nightmare on Elm Street?

Rod: Tina's boyfriend ends up in a jail cell, where his own bedsheet wraps around his neck and hangs him.

How does Nancy prepare her house before pulling Freddy out of her dream?

Booby-traps it: she studies a book on booby traps first, and one of her traps hits Freddy with a sledgehammer.

Which studio was first to show interest in Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street script but wanted it toned down?

Disney was the first studio to bite, but it wanted the story softened for children and preteens, and Wes Craven said no.

What erupts from Glen's bed after Freddy drags him under in the original A Nightmare on Elm Street?

A geyser of blood hits the ceiling, and it was really dyed water poured through an upside-down set, because stage blood did not look right.

How did the vigilante parents of Elm Street kill child murderer Fred Krueger after a court set him free?

Burned him alive is the secret Nancy's mother finally confesses, and it is why Freddy comes for the children of the parents who did it.

Which animated series spoofed Freddy Krueger in a Halloween segment titled Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace?

The Simpsons gave the Freddy role to school worker Willie, who attacks schoolchildren in their sleep in the special Treehouse of Horror VI.

Where do the teenagers of Freddy vs. Jason take the sedated Jason so the two killers will fight?

Camp Crystal Lake is where Jason's own film series is set, and the teens' plan is to pull Freddy out of a dream there and force the pair to fight.

In the final shot of Freddy vs. Jason, what does Freddy's severed head do as Jason carries it away?

Winks and laughs is the film's last word, leaving the winner ambiguous just after the heroine has beheaded Freddy with Jason's own machete.

Which star of a hit working-class sitcom cameoed as a childless Springwood woman in Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare?

Roseanne Barr appears alongside Tom Arnold, the pair playing a couple in a town where Freddy has killed nearly every child and teenager.

Which future star of The Matrix played hospital orderly Max in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors?

Laurence Fishburne was still billed as Larry when he played the kindly orderly, twelve years before he became Morpheus.

In Dream Warriors, which hospital fixture sprouts arms and Freddy's head to kill aspiring actress Jennifer?

A television set does it, and the crew built five fake ones for the scene, one with a rubber membrane for Freddy's head to push through.

How does Nancy wake herself from a boiler-room nightmare during class in the original A Nightmare on Elm Street?

Burns her arm on a pipe, and the pain startles her awake at her desk with the mark still on her forearm, proof the dream was real.

Child killer Fred Krueger walked free in A Nightmare on Elm Street because which document was signed in the wrong place?

A search warrant with a misplaced signature freed him on a technicality, which is why the parents took the law into their own hands.

Which creature crawls out of dead Tina's mouth in one of Nancy's nightmares in the original A Nightmare on Elm Street?

A centipede, and a real one: it crawled from a clay sculpture of the actress's face after a rubber one failed, then went missing on set for a while.

Where is Nancy sleeping when she pulls Freddy's hat out of a dream in the original A Nightmare on Elm Street?

A sleep disorder clinic is where her mother takes her, and the hat she wakes up holding has the name Fred Krueger written inside it.

Freddy's boiler room in the original A Nightmare on Elm Street was filmed inside which kind of disused building?

A jail, the Lincoln Heights Jail, had been closed since 1965 and also supplied the interior of the film's police station.

In Freddy's Revenge, which of Nancy's belongings does the teenager now living in her old home find?

Her diary describes nightmares strikingly like his own, the first sign that Freddy never left the building.

In Dream Warriors, which remains of Freddy Krueger must be found and purified to destroy him?

His bones had been hidden away after the parents killed him, and Dr. Neil Gordon purifies them while the patients fight Freddy in a shared dream.

In Dream Warriors, Nancy Thompson returns to help Freddy's young targets in which job at a psychiatric hospital?

Intern therapist is her post, six years after she survived Freddy's killing spree, and she calms a terrified new patient by reciting Freddy's rhyme.

In Dream Warriors, Freddy uses sleepwalker Phillip's own tendons to turn him into a living what?

Marionette strings made from the boy's own tendons let Freddy walk him to a high ledge in a tower, where he cuts them and lets the boy fall.

In The Dream Master, Freddy transforms bug-hating athlete Debbie into which creature before crushing her?

A cockroach, and Freddy finishes the job by trapping her inside a roach motel, playing on the athlete's dislike of bugs.

In The Dream Master, Freddy kills Dream Warriors survivor Joey by pulling him into what bedroom furniture?

His waterbed turns deadly when a model swimming inside it morphs into Freddy, a year after Joey survived the hospital killings.

Wes Craven gave Freddy Krueger a scarred face because rival slashers Leatherface, Michael Myers and Jason all wore what?

Masks hid every rival's face, and Craven wanted a killer who could talk, taunt and threaten his victims instead.

What does Nancy rely on to stay awake after the bathtub attack in the original A Nightmare on Elm Street?

Caffeine keeps her going, and when she does sleep she asks her boyfriend to watch over her and counts on an alarm clock to pull her out.

Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger's opponent in Freddy vs. Jason, was borrowed from which rival horror film series?

Friday the 13th had teased the meeting a decade earlier, when Freddy's gloved hand made a surprise appearance at the very end of Jason Goes to Hell.

In Freddy's Revenge, where does Freddy burst into the waking world and attack a crowd of teenagers?

A pool party is the setting, and it helped put Wes Craven off the sequel: he felt Freddy among bigger teenagers would lose his menace.

In The Dream Master, what does the heroine force Freddy to look at so the souls inside him revolt?

His own reflection does it: a rhyme tells her to show evil itself, and the souls he has taken tear him apart from within.

Which Brothers Grimm fairy tale is loved by the heroine's young son Dylan in Wes Craven's New Nightmare?

Hansel and Gretel shapes the ending: the film treats the tale's old witch as an earlier guise of the same evil, and Freddy meets her fiery end.

In Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, which weapon does Maggie use to finish Freddy once he is in the real world?

A pipe bomb thrust into his chest does it, after she has stabbed him with his own glove, and the dream demons that kept reviving him fly out.

The actress who played Nancy Thompson put her studies at which university on hold to pursue acting?

Stanford was where she was studying when she beat more than 200 actresses to the part of Nancy at an open audition.

Which earlier Wes Craven film has a villain called Krug, a shortened form of the name Krueger?

The Last House on the Left was Craven's directing debut, and its Krug leads a gang of escaped convicts who abduct two teenage girls.

Paramount passed on Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street script because it resembled which film from the same year?

Dreamscape was co-written by Chuck Russell, who three years later was directing Freddy himself in Dream Warriors.

The 2010 Nightmare on Elm Street remake's Nancy later earned an Oscar nomination for playing which heroine?

Lisbeth Salander, the hacker of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, arrived a year after the remake and is regarded as the actress's career breakthrough.

Which voice of SpongeBob's Mr. Krabs plays the parent of hero Quentin in the 2010 Nightmare on Elm Street remake?

Clancy Brown plays Alan, the parent who led the hunt for Freddy, and he is also remembered as the sadistic Kurgan in Highlander.

The 2010 Nightmare on Elm Street remake opens with Freddy's first victim, Dean, falling asleep in which setting?

A diner is the scene, and to the friends watching it looks as if the boy cuts his own throat, because only he can see his attacker.

In the last scare of the 2010 Nightmare on Elm Street remake, Freddy drags Nancy's mother through what?

A mirror in the family home is his way back, moments after police have failed to find his body in the room Nancy set alight.

In the 2010 Nightmare on Elm Street remake, Freddy Krueger held which job at Badham Preschool before his death?

Groundskeeper is the remake's new backstory, and it explains the mystery of the teenagers who cannot remember meeting: all were pupils there.

What does Quentin steal from a hospital to keep himself and Nancy awake in the 2010 Nightmare on Elm Street remake?

Adrenaline pays off in the finale, when he injects Nancy to wake her at the moment she has hold of Freddy, pulling him into the real world.

Which sleep phenomenon did the 2010 Nightmare on Elm Street remake add so Freddy could strike teenagers who seem awake?

Micro-naps were co-writer Eric Heisserer's idea, added because the usual switch between dream and reality risked becoming repetitive.

Which star of American Horror Story: Murder House plays Nancy's mother in the 2010 Nightmare on Elm Street remake?

Connie Britton plays Gwen, a doctor who only reluctantly tells Nancy what the parents did to Freddy years earlier.

Who directed the 2010 Nightmare on Elm Street remake after making Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit video?

Samuel Bayer turned the producers down twice before saying yes to what became his first feature film.

What colour was Nancy's front door in the original A Nightmare on Elm Street, before the sequels painted it red?

Blue it was, and Wes Craven had the door restored to that colour a decade later when he went back to the same house for New Nightmare.

Which house number on Elm Street belongs to Nancy Thompson's home, a number the real filming location shares?

1428 is also the number of the real house on its own street, and it has given its name to a horror blog and a documentary company.

Which comedian filmed a 2021 Netflix special alone in the guest house of the real Nightmare on Elm Street house?

Bo Burnham made Inside there during the pandemic, and the link only came out when a property listing for the house appeared.

In the original A Nightmare on Elm Street, where in the Thompson house has Freddy's bladed glove been hidden?

The basement furnace hides it until Nancy's mother reveals it, proof that her own family took part in his killing.

Freddy vs. Jason found a stand-in for Nancy's Elm Street house in which Canadian city, where the film was shot?

Vancouver made the hunt hard: nobody had kept accurate drawings of the earlier house, and the crew settled for one that was an 80 per cent match.

In Dream Warriors, Kristen Parker builds a model of the house from her nightmares out of which material?

Papier-mâché is her material, and the model gets the film's last shot, lighting up from inside to hint that Freddy is not finished.

The Dream Child's final chase runs through a dream labyrinth designed in the style of which artist?

M. C. Escher was the look director Stephen Hopkins asked for, telling his crew he wanted the whole sequence to resemble the artist's work.

What was stolen from the front of the real house used as Nancy's home in A Nightmare on Elm Street?

The address numbers could not be matched after the theft, because the original typeface was no longer being manufactured.

The 2010 remake's version of Freddy Krueger became a playable killer in which multiplayer horror game?

Dead by Daylight added him in 2017 with remake hero Quentin as a survivor and a Springwood map to hunt across.

Which Freddy vs. Jason heroine lives in Nancy's old house on Elm Street?

Lori Campbell lives there unaware that Freddy murdered her mother in the house, a truth she only learns inside a dream.

Which star of the original Alien plays the dream-controlling Doc in Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare?

Yaphet Kotto plays Doc, who discovers that dream demons keep reviving Freddy and that he can be killed if he is pulled into the real world.