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Franchise archive

A Nightmare on Elm Street

Start with Nancy Thompson on Elm Street, then follow Freddy Krueger through the sequels, the crossover with Jason and the 2010 remake. The archive brings together film stories, casts, production notes, home-video releases and galleries.

Franchise History

A Nightmare on Elm Street started with one man's script and a small distributor that had never produced a hit. Wes Craven began writing it around 1981, after Swamp Thing. He got the idea from Los Angeles Times stories about young men from Southeast Asian refugee families who had terrible nightmares, fought to stay awake, and died in their sleep. He added a killer named after a boy who bullied him at school, a look borrowed from a scary old man he saw from his window as a kid, and a red and green sweater picked because a 1982 Scientific American article said those two colors clash hardest for the human eye.

Nobody in town wanted the script. Disney wanted a tamer film. Paramount passed because it seemed too close to Dreamscape. Universal sent a rejection letter that Craven later framed. Robert Shaye's New Line Cinema, a New York company founded in 1967 that started out renting foreign and art films to colleges, finally took it. The money came from a patchwork of backers, including Media Home Entertainment, Heron Communications and Smart Egg Pictures. The first budget was $700,000. Reports of the final cost run from $1.1 million to $2.5 million, and $1.8 million is the figure The Numbers uses.

The film opened on November 9, 1984, in 165 theaters. It made $1,271,000 its first weekend. It went on to earn about $25.5 million in its first domestic run and roughly $57 million worldwide. Robert Englund, then best known for the TV miniseries V, played Fred Krueger. Heather Langenkamp played Nancy Thompson, and Johnny Depp made his film debut as Glen. The film saved New Line, and the company is still called The House That Freddy Built.

New Line moved fast. Freddy's Revenge came out one year later, in November 1985, without Craven. It turned a $3 million budget into about $30 million in the U.S. and left behind a long argument about its gay subtext. Craven came back as co-writer for Dream Warriors in February 1987, New Line's first national release. It opened at number one with $8.9 million, a record for an independent film at the time, and finished with $44.8 million. That film brought back Nancy, gave Freddy a mother named Amanda Krueger, and turned the teens into a team with dream powers.

By 1988 Freddy was a pop star. The Dream Master opened on 1,765 screens in August 1988 with the biggest opening yet for an independent release and made $49.4 million, the series record until 2003. The Fat Boys rapped with him. DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince made an unlicensed song about him, and New Line sued. A fan club, a board game, a talking doll and video games followed. In October 1988 Freddy started hosting his own syndicated TV show, Freddy's Nightmares, which ran 44 episodes over two seasons until March 1990.

The run cooled off with The Dream Child in August 1989. It was cut heavily for its R rating and dropped to $22.2 million domestic. New Line decided to end the story. Rachel Talalay, who had worked her way up through the crew of the earlier films, directed Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare in 1991. It opened on Friday, September 13, 1991, gave Freddy a daughter and a backstory, blew him up in 3-D, and had the best opening in the series to that point.

Freddy did not stay dead. New Line went back to Craven, and in October 1994 he released Wes Craven's New Nightmare, a film where Langenkamp, Englund and Craven play themselves and Freddy is an old evil wearing a movie character's face. Critics liked it much more than the late sequels, but it made only $18.1 million domestic, the lowest in the series. Its ideas about horror movies bleeding into real life led straight to Craven's Scream two years later.

The fight between Freddy and Jason Voorhees took about 16 years to reach theaters. New Line and Paramount first talked about it in 1987. New Line bought the Friday the 13th rights after Jason Takes Manhattan, then spent years and a reported $6 million on scripts from a long list of writers. Ronny Yu finally shot Freddy vs. Jason in and around Vancouver in late 2002. It opened August 15, 2003, at number one with $36.4 million and became the top domestic grosser of both franchises. It was Robert Englund's eighth and last film as Freddy.

In 2008 Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes made a deal with New Line to remake the 1984 film. New Line was folded into Warner Bros. later that year. The remake, directed by music video director Samuel Bayer with Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy, opened April 30, 2010. It won the weekend with $32.9 million and became the top worldwide grosser of the series, but critics tore it apart and the planned sequels never happened.

The years after 2010 were full of talk and no new films. New Line hired Orphan writer David Leslie Johnson for another remake in 2015, and it stalled. Wes Craven died on August 30, 2015. In September 2019 the U.S. rights to the 1984 film reverted to his estate, which began taking pitches for films and a possible HBO Max series that November. Mike Flanagan said publicly he had a pitch. Heather Langenkamp said in 2022 and 2024 that she would come back as Nancy, and Englund said in 2025 he would return as Freddy in an animated film.

Freddy kept working outside the films. He became a playable fighter in Mortal Kombat in 2011 and a killer in Dead by Daylight in 2017. Englund put the hat back on for The Goldbergs in 2018. Warner Bros. released the original film in 4K in October 2024 for its 40th anniversary and a seven-film 4K collection on September 30, 2025. The Library of Congress added the 1984 film to the National Film Registry in 2021, and Englund got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Halloween 2025.

In July 2026 the series came back to life. Paramount Pictures licensed U.S. rights to Craven's original screenplay from his estate. The untitled film is the first project for Paramount Primal, a new genre label run by J.D. Lifshitz and Raphael Margules, with Craven's widow Iya Labunka, his son Jonathan Craven and attorney Marc Toberoff producing. New Line and Warner Bros. still hold the international rights. At the end of July, Puck and Dread Central reported that Warner Bros. was developing its own version for overseas release, with Irish filmmaker Lee Cronin in talks to write and direct.

As of September 2026 there is no writer, director, cast or release date for the Paramount film. The series stands at nine theatrical films, one TV series, a long shelf of comics and novels, and about $490 million in worldwide box office by Wikipedia's count. Freddy has not been in a new theatrical release in more than 16 years, and two studios are now racing to be the one that brings him back.

Lore and rules

The basic rule is simple. Freddy kills you in your dreams, and you die for real. Wounds from a dream show up on the body. He is close to all-powerful in the dream world and can take any shape, but if someone holds on to him while waking up, he comes out into the real world with normal human weakness. Nancy works this out in 1984, and Maggie, Lori and Nancy Holbrook all use it later. Staying awake is the only other defense, which is why coffee, pills and the dream drug Hypnocil keep showing up.

His backstory was built in pieces. The first film says he was a child killer who went free when a search warrant was signed in the wrong place, and the Elm Street parents burned him alive. Dream Warriors adds his mother, Amanda Krueger, a nun raped by a hundred maniacs locked in an asylum tower, which makes him the bastard son of a hundred maniacs. Freddy's Dead adds his foster father Mr. Underwood, his wife Loretta, his daughter Katherine and the Dream Demons who gave him his power as he burned.

The sources of his strength shift across the films. Dream Warriors says the souls of his victims make him stronger. The Dream Master shows those souls trapped in his chest, and they tear him apart when Alice shows him his reflection. The Dream Child has him reach new victims through Alice's unborn son. Freddy vs. Jason says out loud what earlier films hint at: he needs to be remembered and feared. Springwood hid his name, locked up teens who dreamed of him and gave them Hypnocil, and he went powerless until Jason's killings made people afraid again.

The first four films keep Freddy's victims mostly to the Elm Street children, the kids of the parents who burned him. Once they are gone, he uses Alice as a doorway to other kids. Freddy's Nightmares and Freddy's Dead add the idea that he is trapped inside Springwood, which is why he needs his daughter to escape. The films do not apply these rules evenly, and Lori dreams of him on the road to Crystal Lake.

The Nightmare on Elm Street Companion's timeline puts the original films in this order: Freddy burned in 1968, the first film in 1981, Freddy's Revenge in 1986, Dream Warriors in 1987, The Dream Master in 1988, The Dream Child in 1989 (the graduation caps say 89), Freddy's Dead in 1999 (the film says ten years from now), and Freddy vs. Jason in late summer 2003. The Companion places Amanda Krueger's birth in 1907, the attack on Amanda in about 1940 and Katherine's birth in 1961.

Freddy's address is argued about. Freddy's Dead shows 1428 Elm Street as his old home, the house where he kept his gloves, which means the Thompsons moved into the killer's house. Nothing in the first film says so.

There are three film continuities. The original line runs from the 1984 film through Freddy's Revenge, Dream Warriors, The Dream Master, The Dream Child, Freddy's Dead and Freddy vs. Jason. Dream Warriors mostly skips Freddy's Revenge but does not erase it. Wes Craven's New Nightmare stands outside that line in a fictional version of the real world in 1994, where the films are movies and Freddy is the current mask of an ancient entity. The 2010 remake starts over, with Freddy as a preschool gardener who abused children and a glove made from garden tools.

Freddy's Nightmares is loosely canon. Its pilot changes the story of Freddy's release: he walks because Lt. Tim Blocker never read him his rights, not because of a bad warrant. The Companion's fan timeline also draws on the comics and the Black Flame novels.

Tie-in books do not always match the films. The Part 3 section of the 1987 novelization tells a different story from Dream Warriors, and its chapters on Freddy's past are no longer treated as canon. Marvel's 1989 comic and the later novels add details of their own.

The first film's ending is still debated. Craven wanted Nancy to walk into a bright morning with her friends, and Bob Shaye wanted a last scare. Wikipedia says five endings were considered and filmed. The release shows Freddy trapping the kids in a car and pulling Marge through a window. The sequels treat Nancy as a survivor. Freddy vs. Jason also ends open, with Freddy's head winking.

Timeline

  • June 18, 1967: Robert Shaye founds New Line Cinema in New York City as a distributor of foreign and art films for college campuses.
  • Circa 1981: Wes Craven starts writing A Nightmare on Elm Street after finishing Swamp Thing. It is his first spec script as a writer and director.
  • 1982: Craven reads a Scientific American article saying red and green clash hardest for the human eye, and picks those colors for Freddy's sweater.
  • January 1984: Craven tells Langenkamp she has the part of Nancy.
  • June 11, 1984: Principal photography on A Nightmare on Elm Street begins in Los Angeles. The 32-day shoot wraps at the end of July.
  • November 9, 1984: A Nightmare on Elm Street opens in 165 theaters and makes $1,271,000 its first weekend.
  • Early 1985: Media Home Entertainment puts the film on home video. It earns $8 million from video sales at first.
  • June 1985: Filming begins on Freddy's Revenge with Jack Sholder directing.
  • November 1, 1985: Freddy's Revenge opens on 522 screens. It finishes with $29,999,213 in the U.S.
  • 1986: New Line Cinema goes public.
  • 1987: St. Martin's publishes The Nightmares on Elm Street Parts 1, 2, & 3 by Jeffrey Cooper.
  • 1987: New Line and Paramount first try to put Freddy and Jason in one film. No deal is reached, and Paramount makes Jason Takes Manhattan instead.
  • February 18, 1987: Dokken releases the single Dream Warriors, written by George Lynch and Jeff Pilson for the film.
  • February 27, 1987: Dream Warriors opens in 1,343 theaters at number one with $8,880,555, a record for an independent film at the time. It is New Line's first national release.
  • 1988: New Line launches the Freddy Fan Club. The Freddy Game board game comes out.
  • March 18, 1988: The Fat Boys release Are You Ready for Freddy, with Robert Englund rapping as Freddy. It is the theme song for The Dream Master.
  • August 1988: New Line sues Jive and RCA Records over A Nightmare on My Street. The case settles out of court, and New Line makes Jive destroy the music video.
  • August 1, 1988: DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince release A Nightmare on My Street as a single. It reaches number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100.
  • August 19, 1988: A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master opens on 1,765 screens with $12,833,403, the biggest independent opening at the time.
  • October 8, 1988: Freddy's Nightmares premieres in first-run syndication with the pilot No More Mr. Nice Guy, directed by Tobe Hooper. Some listings give October 9.
  • 1989: Marvel publishes two issues of Freddy Krueger's A Nightmare on Elm Street, then cancels it. Monarch releases a Nightmare on Elm Street computer game for Commodore 64 and PC. Matchbox sells an 18-inch talking Freddy doll.
  • May 27, 1989: Season one of Freddy's Nightmares ends after 22 episodes with Safe Sex.
  • August 11, 1989: A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child opens on 1,902 screens with $8,115,176. Protesters picket the Los Angeles opening.
  • 1990: Steve Gerber writes that Marvel dropped its Freddy comic because it feared complaints from anti-violence groups, not because anyone had complained.
  • March 12, 1990: The last episode of Freddy's Nightmares airs. Some sources give March 10.
  • October 1990: Rare and LJN's A Nightmare on Elm Street game comes out on the NES. Some sources date it 1989.
  • 1991: Innovation Publishing gets the comic license and starts Nightmares on Elm Street, written by Andy Mangels. Impel releases a 144-card trading card set. MTV airs Slash & Burn: The Freddy Krueger Story.
  • September 1991: Warner Home Video releases five single-episode Freddy's Nightmares VHS tapes in the U.S.
  • September 13, 1991: Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare opens on Friday the 13th on 1,862 screens with $12,966,525, the best opening of the series until 2003.
  • 1992: Innovation goes bankrupt with A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Beginning unfinished. Trident reprints Freddy comics in the UK. Abdo & Daughters publishes Bob Italia's short adaptations of the first six films. Englund narrates the documentary Freddy Speaks.
  • 1993: Freddy's gloved hand pulls Jason's mask into the ground at the end of Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday. Kane Hodder plays the hand.
  • January 17, 1994: The Northridge earthquake hits Los Angeles during work on New Nightmare. The crew films real damage for the movie.
  • January 28, 1994: Turner Broadcasting System buys New Line Cinema for $500 million. Englund later says the Freddy prequel The First Kills got lost in this sale.
  • October 14, 1994: Wes Craven's New Nightmare opens in third place with $6,667,118.
  • October 1996: Turner merges with Time Warner. New Line becomes part of Time Warner but keeps running as its own studio. Warner now holds production and distribution rights to Freddy's Nightmares.
  • 1998: Freddy's glove sits in a police evidence room in Bride of Chucky. Englund voices Freddy in The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror IX.
  • 1999: McFarlane Toys releases a Freddy and Jason Movie Maniacs display case.
  • September 21, 1999: New Line Home Video releases the eight-disc Nightmare on Elm Street DVD box set with the Nightmare Series Encyclopedia disc.
  • Circa 2000: John McNaughton pitches a prequel set in Hell with writer R.J. Tsarov. New Line passes after Little Nicky, partly set in Hell, flops.
  • August 22, 2000: New Line releases The Nightmare on Elm Street Collection on seven VHS tapes.
  • May 2002: Ronny Yu signs to direct Freddy vs. Jason.
  • September 9, 2002: Filming begins on Freddy vs. Jason in Vancouver. It wraps December 10, 2002.
  • 2003: Warner releases Freddy's Nightmares Volume 1 on DVD in the UK and Ireland. Poor sales cancel the later volumes.
  • July 29, 2003: Black Flame publishes Stephen Hand's Freddy vs. Jason novelization, which includes an alternate Freddy ending.
  • August 15, 2003: Freddy vs. Jason opens in 3,014 theaters at number one with $36.4 million.
  • Late 2003: New Line executive Jeff Katz writes a treatment for a sequel called Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash.
  • 2004: Freddy vs. Jason is nominated for Best Horror Film at the Saturn Awards and for a Taurus World Stunt Award.
  • 2005: New Line says there is nothing going on with a Freddy vs. Jason sequel.
  • May 2005: Avatar Press publishes A Nightmare on Elm Street Special by Brian Pulido, Freddy's first new comic in 13 years. Black Flame releases the novels Suffer the Children and Dreamspawn.
  • 2006: John McNaughton talks with New Line about a realistic prequel about Freddy as a living killer.
  • 2006: Warner releases the 1984 film as an Infinifilm special edition DVD.
  • October 2006: WildStorm starts its A Nightmare on Elm Street comic, written by Chuck Dixon. It ends in September 2007 after eight issues.
  • November 2007: WildStorm and Dynamite start the six-issue comic Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash, based on Jeff Katz's unmade film treatment.
  • January 29, 2008: Variety reports that Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes and New Line will remake A Nightmare on Elm Street.
  • February 28, 2008: Time Warner announces New Line Cinema will stop running as a separate studio and become part of Warner Bros. Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne leave.
  • 2009: Jackie Earle Haley is cast as Freddy and signs for three films.
  • 2009: Wes Craven says he is unhappy that the remake's makers never consulted him.
  • February 2009: Samuel Bayer, a music video director, is hired to direct the remake, his first feature.
  • May 5, 2009: Filming begins on the remake in Illinois. It wraps July 10, 2009.
  • June 24, 2009: DC lists the first issue of Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash: The Nightmare Warriors on sale. Wikipedia gives August 2009.
  • October 13, 2009: Pocket Books publishes Robert Englund's memoir Hollywood Monster.
  • 2010: The Independent Film and Television Alliance names the 1984 film one of the 30 most significant independent films of the past 30 years. Never Sleep Again wins the Saturn Award for Best DVD Release.
  • April 13, 2010: Warner Home Video releases the 1984 film on Blu-ray. New Line also puts out an eight-film DVD collection that includes Freddy vs. Jason.
  • April 30, 2010: The remake opens in 3,332 theaters. Midnight shows earn $1.6 million, a horror record at the time, and it wins the weekend with $32,902,299.
  • May 4, 2010: The four-hour documentary Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy is released on DVD.
  • 2011: Warner releases a Blu-ray collection of the first seven films with a bonus disc in the UK on October 17. The U.S. gets it in 2013.
  • January 5, 2011: The remake wins the People's Choice Award for Favorite Horror Movie.
  • July 1, 2011: Heather Langenkamp's documentary I Am Nancy premieres at the Days of the Dead festival.
  • August 9, 2011: Freddy Krueger joins Mortal Kombat as a downloadable fighter.
  • 2015: Varese Sarabande releases an eight-CD box of the series scores. Universal's Halloween Horror Nights 25 in Orlando runs a Freddy vs. Jason maze.
  • August 2015: Warner Bros. and New Line hire David Leslie Johnson to write a new remake, with Toby Emmerich, Walter Hamada and Dave Neustadter producing.
  • August 30, 2015: Wes Craven dies at 76.
  • June 2016: Producer Brad Fuller says the new remake is in development hell.
  • 2017: Death Waltz and Mondo release Box of Souls, an eight-LP set of the first seven scores remastered by James Plotkin.
  • October 26, 2017: Dead by Daylight adds its A Nightmare on Elm Street chapter, with the 2010 Freddy, Quentin Smith and the Badham Preschool map.
  • October 2018: Englund plays Freddy in The Goldbergs episode Mister Knifey-Hands.
  • April 5, 2019: Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street premieres at the Cleveland International Film Festival.
  • September 2019: U.S. rights to A Nightmare on Elm Street revert to Wes Craven's estate.
  • November 2019: The Craven estate begins taking pitches for new films and a possible HBO Max series, hoping to bring back Englund.
  • November 22, 2019: Mike Flanagan posts that he has a Nightmare on Elm Street pitch.
  • February 27, 2020: Scream, Queen! gets a limited theatrical release.
  • July 25, 2020: John Saxon, who played Lt. Donald Thompson, dies.
  • March 15, 2021: Yaphet Kotto, Doc in Freddy's Dead, dies.
  • December 14, 2021: The Library of Congress adds A Nightmare on Elm Street to the National Film Registry.
  • 2022: Heather Langenkamp says she would return as Nancy in a legacy sequel.
  • August 5, 2022: Clu Gulager, Jesse's father in Freddy's Revenge, dies.
  • December 11, 2022: Angelo Badalamenti, composer of Dream Warriors, dies.
  • 2023: The documentary Hollywood Dreams & Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story premieres on Screambox on June 6.
  • January 20, 2023: Popcorn Frights screens the fan documentary FredHeads in Fort Lauderdale to raise money for Mark Patton's medical care.
  • August 17, 2024: Popcorn Frights holds Up All Night with Freddy at the Classic Gateway Theater in Fort Lauderdale for the 40th anniversary.
  • October 4, 2024: AMC's FearFest runs a 40th anniversary Nightmare marathon.
  • October 15, 2024: Warner releases the 1984 film on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray.
  • November 9, 2024: The first film turns 40. Cinema Arts Centre runs a 35mm double feature of the first and third films.
  • 2025: Englund says he would return as Freddy in an animated film.
  • September 30, 2025: Warner releases the A Nightmare on Elm Street 7-Film Collection on 4K, with uncut versions of the first film and The Dream Child.
  • October 31, 2025: Robert Englund receives the 2,826th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6644 Hollywood Boulevard.
  • January 2026: Rachel Talalay says in a video that a filmed Freddy's Dead ending, where the dream demons enter another boy, is lost.
  • April 17, 2026: Lee Cronin tells Variety he would find it hard not to take a swing at Freddy someday.
  • May 12, 2026: Dread Central runs an interview with producer Sara Risher, who says the Freddy's Revenge subtext was not intended by the producers.
  • July 13, 2026: Word breaks that Paramount has licensed U.S. rights to Craven's original screenplay for a new film at its Paramount Primal label.
  • July 22, 2026: Chuck Russell, director of Dream Warriors, dies at 74 at his home in the San Diego area.
  • July 30, 2026: Dread Central, citing Kim Masters at Puck, reports Warner Bros. is developing its own Nightmare film for international release, with Lee Cronin in talks to write, direct and produce.
  • September 2026: Neither the Paramount film nor the Warner film has a named cast or a release date.

Franchise records

Franchise overview

Screen span
Nine feature films released between 1984 and 2010, plus the Freddy’s Nightmares television series.
Continuity shape
The original Elm Street cycle leads into Wes Craven's New Nightmare as a meta branch, Freddy vs. Jason as the crossover, and the 2010 film as a remake continuity.
Signature elements
Freddy Krueger, the bladed glove, red-and-green sweater, fedora, Elm Street, dream logic, boiler-room imagery, and practical dream-effects set pieces.

Untitled Paramount Primal Nightmare project

Announced July 13–14, 2026

Status
Priority development at Paramount Primal
Details
Paramount closed a deal for U.S. rights to adapt Wes Craven's original screenplay through Paramount Primal. Iya Labunka and Jonathan Craven are producing with Marc Toberoff.
Rights note
Paramount's deal covers U.S. rights licensed from the Wes Craven estate; Variety reports New Line retains international rights.
Release date
The July 2026 announcement did not name a writer, director, cast or release date.
Rights detail source
https://au.variety.com/2026/film/news/nightmare-on-elm-street-reboot-paramount-38502/

A Nightmare on Elm Street 7-Film Collection

4K Ultra HD

Release date
2025-09-30

Untitled Paramount / Paramount Primal A Nightmare on Elm Street adaptation

Status
Priority development
Announced
2026-07-13
Rights
Paramount acquired U.S. rights to adapt Wes Craven's original screenplay from the Wes Craven estate.
Producers
Iya Labunka; Jonathan Craven; Marc Toberoff
Executive producers
J.D. Lifshitz; Raphael Margules
Placement
Development/news archive only; not a movie shelf case.

Suffer the Children

2005 · Novel

Author
David Bishop
Publisher
Black Flame

Protege

2005 · Novel

Author
Tim Waggoner
Publisher
Black Flame

Perchance to Dream

2006 · Novel

Author
Natasha Rhodes
Publisher
Black Flame

The Dream Dealers

2006 · Novel

Author
Jeffrey Thomas
Publisher
Black Flame

Freddy Krueger's A Nightmare on Elm Street

1989 · black-and-white comic magazine series

Publisher
Marvel Comics
Issues
2
Writer
Steve Gerber
Artists
Rich Buckler; Tony DeZuniga; Alfredo Alcala
Covers
Joe Jusko
Notes
Canceled after issue #2; the specialist archive cites concern about anti-violence pressure.
Archive
Comic bibliography
Readers
Label: READ #1, Scan pages: 47; Label: READ #2, Scan pages: 49

Nightmares on Elm Street

1991–1992 · comic series

Publisher
Innovation
Issues
6
Writer
Andy Mangels
Notes
Continuation using surviving film protagonists, including Nancy Thompson and Alice Johnson.
Archive
Comic bibliography
Readers
Label: READ #1, Scan pages: 28; Label: READ #2, Scan pages: 25; Label: READ #3, Scan pages: 28; Label: READ #4, Scan pages: 24; Label: READ #5, Scan pages: 28; Label: READ #6, Scan pages: 28

A Nightmare on Elm Street: Paranoid

2005–2006 · comic limited series

Publisher
Avatar Press
Issues
3
Writer
Brian Pulido
Artist
Juan Jose Ryp
Archive
Comic bibliography
Readers
Label: READ #1, Scan pages: 28; Label: READ #2, Scan pages: 28; Label: READ #3, Scan pages: 39

A Nightmare on Elm Street

2006–2007 · comic series

Publisher
WildStorm / DC
Issues
8
Writer
Chuck Dixon
Archive
Comic bibliography
Readers
Label: READ #1, Scan pages: 37; Label: READ #2, Scan pages: 36; Label: READ #3, Scan pages: 37; Label: READ #4, Scan pages: 36; Label: READ #5, Scan pages: 35; Label: READ #6, Scan pages: 38; Label: READ #7, Scan pages: 37; Label: READ #8, Scan pages: 37

Talking Freddy Krueger 18-inch Doll

Matchbox · talking doll

Notes
Released in 1989 with removable hat and multiple voice phrases.
Status
historical
License status
officially licensed

A Nightmare on Elm Street Collector Card Set

Impel Marketing · trading cards

Notes
1991 144-card set covering the series through Freddy's Dead; coffin box and four hologram cards; special edition included collector box and Freddy T-shirt.
Status
historical
License status
officially licensed

A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Freddy Game

Cardinal / Victory Games · board game

Notes
1988 board game with Freddy's house board, player pieces, Nightmare cards and dice.
Status
historical
License status
officially licensed

Freddy Fan Club Membership Kit

New Line Cinema · fan-club kit

Notes
1988 kit included pocket folder, welcome letter, membership/wallet cards, three photos, life-story booklet, storyboard reproduction and Freddy Times materials.
Status
historical
License status
officially licensed

Freddy Grab Bag Catalog

New Line Cinema · mail-order catalog

Notes
1987 mail-order merchandise catalog preserved by the Nightmare companion archive.
Status
historical
License status
officially licensed

1989 Elm Street Catalog

New Line Cinema · mail-order catalog

Notes
High-resolution historical merchandise catalog preserved online and as a PDF/ZIP reference.
Status
historical
License status
officially licensed

Scary Movie Halloween Village Collection

Hawthorne Village · village/display set

Notes
2005 collection includes 1428 Elm Street, Camp Crystal Lake Cabin and the Hewitt house.
Status
historical
License status
officially licensed

Hypnocil — Prop Replica Mints

Fright-Rags · replica candy / novelty collectible

Sku
16941
Notes
Candy in a replica prescription-style bottle, with Nancy Thompson printed on the label. Consumer merchandise; the contents are candy, not medication. Retained at franchise level because the product description does not explicitly assign a film.
License status
Manufacturer product listing; separate franchise licensing statement not given on the product page

Freddy Fan Club

1988

Contents
Pocket folder; welcome letter; membership card; wallet card; adverts; storyboard reproduction; Freddy Times #1; #2; Freddy life-story booklet; three color photos

The Nightmare on Elm Street Collection

DVD box set

Contents
Original seven films; bonus eighth Nightmare Series Encyclopedia disc; movie scripts as DVD-ROM files; Freddy's Dead 3-D finale with glasses; commemorative booklet

Freddy vs. Jason: The Battle Continues

2015 · Halloween Horror Nights 25 haunted house

Location
Universal Orlando Resort
Features
Freddy and Jason iconography; Kills from both film series; Crossover finale

Box of Souls - A Nightmare on Elm Street Collection

2017 · 8xLP vinyl box set

Label
Death Waltz Recording Co. / Mondo
Films
A Nightmare on Elm Street; Freddy's Revenge; Dream Warriors; The Dream Master; The Dream Child; Freddy's Dead; Wes Craven's New Nightmare
Features
All original-series scores; remastered for vinyl by James Plotkin; Mike Saputo artwork; 12-page booklet; liner notes/interviews with composers and cast

A Nightmare on Elm Street DVD Box Set

1999 · 1999-09-07 · 8-disc DVD

Label
New Line Home Video
Catalog no
N4788
Runtime
671 min
Contents
7 films; Nightmare Series Encyclopedia disc; 2 pairs of 3D glasses; 36-page booklet; DVD-ROM screenplays; trivia game; interactive Freddy; screen savers

The Nightmare on Elm Street Collection

2000 · 7-VHS box set

Label
New Line Home Video
Release date
2000-08-22
Runtime
764 min
Contents
Nightmare 1–5; Freddy's Dead; Wes Craven's New Nightmare
Per tape
digitally remastered; full screen; theatrical trailer; director interview

A Nightmare on Elm Street 7-Film Collection

2025 · 7-disc 4K UHD

Label
Warner Bros. / New Line
Release date
2025-09-30
Films
A Nightmare on Elm Street; Freddy's Revenge; Dream Warriors; The Dream Master; The Dream Child; Freddy's Dead; Wes Craven's New Nightmare
Versions
A Nightmare on Elm Street: theatrical + uncut; The Dream Child: theatrical + uncut; Freddy's Dead: alternate ending in anaglyph 3D
Pack in
3D glasses

A Nightmare on Elm Street

1990 · video game

Platform
Nintendo Entertainment System
Developer
Rare
Publisher
LJN
Product id
NES-ES-USA
Release date
1990-10
Players
1–4 simultaneous
Accessories
NES Four Score; NES Satellite
Status
released

Freddy Krueger — Mortal Kombat

2011 · licensed playable-character DLC

Platform
Mortal Kombat (2011)
Developer
NetherRealm Studios
Publisher
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Release date
2011-08-09
Price at release
$4.99 USD
Included in
Mortal Kombat Season Pass / DLC Warrior Bundle
Status
released

1428 Elm Street house production lineage

1984–2003 · location / set lineage

Records
Nightmare 1: 1428 Genesee Avenue exterior; two-story interior set; Nightmare 2: same Genesee Avenue exterior; new interior set; Nightmare 3 through Freddy's Dead: constructed exterior and interior sets; New Nightmare: real Genesee Avenue exterior reused; Freddy vs. Jason: different house in Vancouver, Canada

Freddy glove design lineage

1984–1994 · prop lineage

Records
1984: Jim Doyle boiler-room construction concept; 1 copper/stainless hero + 2 stunt gloves; original hero later reported stolen; 1994: Lou Carlucci organic hand redesign

Freddy Fan Club

1988 · direct-to-fan promotion

Kit
pocket folder; welcome letter; membership card; wallet card; adverts; storyboard reproduction; Freddy Times #1; #2; life-story booklet; 3 color photos

Original sequel cycle

Details
The sequels continually expand Freddy's dream powers, mythology, visual transformations and survivor ensemble.

Freddy MTV promotion

1988 · television / music-channel promotion

Asset
Freddy-hosted summertime MTV video special

Fright Facts Trading Cards — Series 8

Fright-Rags · trading cards

Sku
16924
Notes
A complete ten-card series packaged in a wax wrapper and printed on chip-back stock. Designed and developed by Joe Guy Allard and Ben Scrivens. The two acquired photos show the retail pack, not the individual film cards.
License status
Fright-Rags original trivia product; franchise licensing is not separately stated by the maker
Films represented
Halloween II; Child’s Play II; Motel Hell; Pumpkinhead; Jaws; Teen Wolf; Trick ’r Treat; Legend; Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare; Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood

Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash

2007–2008 · comic crossover limited series

Publisher
WildStorm / Dynamite
Issues
6
Writer
James Kuhoric
Artist
Jason Craig
Story basis
Jeff Katz's unproduced film treatment
Archive
Comic bibliography
On sale start
2007-11-07
On sale end
2008-03-26
Cover dates
January–May 2008
Sources
Label: GCD series publication and on-sale table; Label: GCD final issue #6
Readers
Label: READ #1, Scan pages: 27; Label: READ #2, Scan pages: 25; Label: READ #3, Scan pages: 26; Label: READ #4, Scan pages: 25; Label: READ #5, Scan pages: 25; Label: READ #6, Scan pages: 23

Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash: The Nightmare Warriors

2009 · comic crossover limited series

Publisher
WildStorm / Dynamite
Writer
Jeff Katz and James Kuhoric
Artist
Jason Craig
Archive
Comic bibliography
Issues
6
On sale start
2009-06-24
On sale end
2009-12-23
Collected edition
Year: 2010; On sale date: 2010-07-14; Pages: 144
Sources
Label: DC issue #1, on sale June 24, 2009; Label: DC issue #6, on sale December 23, 2009; Label: DC collected edition, July 14, 2010
Readers
Label: READ #1, Scan pages: 27; Label: READ #2, Scan pages: 25; Label: READ #3, Scan pages: 24; Label: READ #4, Scan pages: 24; Label: READ #5, Scan pages: 24; Label: READ #6, Scan pages: 35

Characters

The killers

Freddy Krueger

Played by
Robert Englund
Appears in
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984); Freddy's Revenge; Dream Warriors; The Dream Master; The Dream Child; Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare; Freddy vs. Jason; Freddy's Nightmares
Motive
Revenge on the Elm Street parents who burned him alive, carried out by killing their children in their dreams. Later films add that he grows stronger from the souls he takes and from the town's fear, and that he wants to break out of Springwood.
Fate
Beaten and brought back again and again. Nancy turns her back on him (1984). Lisa's love burns him out of Jesse (1985). Neil buries his bones and Nancy stabs him with his glove (1987). The souls in his body tear him apart (1988). Amanda absorbs him (1989). Maggie blows him up (1991). Lori beheads him, but his head winks (2003).

Jesse Walsh (possessed by Freddy)

Played by
Mark Patton; Robert Englund
Appears in
Freddy's Revenge
Motive
None of his own. Freddy uses his body to cross into the real world.
Fate
Freed at the power plant by Lisa. The bus ending leaves his fate open.

The Entity

Played by
Robert Englund
Appears in
Wes Craven's New Nightmare
Motive
An ancient evil kept caged by the stories. With the films over, it takes Freddy's form and tries to cross into the real world through Heather Langenkamp, the actress who gave Nancy her strength.
Fate
Heather and Dylan push it into a furnace in the dream boiler room. Craven's finished script holds it again.

Jason Voorhees

Played by
Ken Kirzinger; Douglas Tait
Appears in
Freddy vs. Jason
Motive
Woken by Freddy posing as his mother and sent to kill in Springwood. Once there he kills anyone in his way, including Freddy's intended victims.
Fate
He sinks into Crystal Lake after the dock explodes and walks out holding Freddy's head.

The Dream Demons

Appears in
Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
Motive
They roam looking for the most evil soul they can find and offer it the power to kill in dreams.
Fate
They leave Freddy's body when Maggie kills him and fly away.

Freddy Krueger (2010)

Played by
Jackie Earle Haley
Appears in
A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
Motive
Revenge on the children who told their parents he abused them, and on the parents who burned him.
Fate
Nancy cuts off his gloved hand, slits his throat and burns the room with his body. He comes back through a mirror and kills her mother.

The Elm Street parents

Played by
John Saxon; Ronee Blakley; Clancy Brown; Connie Britton
Appears in
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984); Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare; Freddy vs. Jason; A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010); Freddy's Nightmares
Motive
Rage after the man who killed or abused their children walked free.
Fate
They burn Freddy alive and cover it up. Their children pay for it. In 1984 Marge hides the glove in the furnace, and in 2010 the parents lie to their kids for years.

Lt. Tim Blocker

Played by
Ian Patrick Williams
Appears in
Freddy's Nightmares
Motive
In the TV pilot he is the officer whose mistake lets Freddy walk free, and he joins the parents who burn him.
Fate
Killed by Freddy in a dream while under anesthesia at the dentist.

Characters

Freddy Krueger (Frederick Charles Krueger)

Played by
Robert Englund; Tobe Sexton (teenage Freddy); Chason Schirmer (young Freddy); Michael Bailey Smith (Super Freddy)
Appears in
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984); Freddy's Revenge; Dream Warriors; The Dream Master; The Dream Child; Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare; Wes Craven's New Nightmare; Freddy vs. Jason; Freddy's Nightmares
Bio
The Springwood Slasher. The son of a nun raped by a hundred maniacs, raised by an abusive foster father, he killed children in a boiler room and was burned alive by Elm Street parents after getting off on a technicality. Dream demons gave him the power to kill in dreams. He wears a dirty red and green sweater, a brown fedora and a bladed glove he made himself. Englund played him in eight films and 44 TV episodes. AFI ranked him the 40th greatest screen villain.

Freddy Krueger (2010 remake)

Played by
Jackie Earle Haley
Appears in
A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
Bio
A gardener at Badham Preschool who abused the children in a hidden room he called his magic cave. The parents burned him alive. He comes back in the dreams of the children who told, now teenagers, and saves Nancy Holbrook for last. His glove is built from garden tools. This version is also a playable killer in Dead by Daylight.

Nancy Thompson

Played by
Heather Langenkamp
Appears in
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984); Dream Warriors; Wes Craven's New Nightmare
Bio
The first hero of the series. She figures out Freddy is real, plans to pull him into the real world and defeats him by turning her back on him. Six years later she returns as an intern at Westin Hills, teaches the Dream Warriors to fight, and dies after stabbing Freddy with his own glove. Lisa finds her diary in Freddy's Revenge.

Lt. Donald Thompson

Played by
John Saxon
Appears in
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984); Dream Warriors; Wes Craven's New Nightmare
Bio
Nancy's father, a Springwood police lieutenant who helped burn Krueger and hid his bones in a junkyard. He uses Nancy to catch Rod. In Dream Warriors Freddy's skeleton impales him on a Cadillac fin. Saxon plays himself in New Nightmare.

Marge Thompson

Played by
Ronee Blakley
Appears in
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Bio
Nancy's alcoholic mother. She tells Nancy the truth about Krueger and shows her his glove hidden in the furnace. She bars the windows to keep Nancy in. Freddy drags her through the door window at the end. Dream Warriors says she died in her sleep.

Tina Gray

Played by
Amanda Wyss
Appears in
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984); Wes Craven's New Nightmare
Bio
Nancy's best friend and the first victim, dragged across her ceiling by an unseen Freddy while Rod watches. Her death is recreated with Julie in New Nightmare and with Kris in the 2010 remake.

Glen Lantz

Played by
Johnny Depp
Appears in
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Bio
Nancy's boyfriend. He falls asleep while guarding her, and Freddy pulls him into his bed and shoots a geyser of blood to the ceiling. Depp's first film role. Depp came back for a cameo in Freddy's Dead as a man in an anti-drug TV ad, credited as Oprah Noodlemantra.

Rod Lane

Played by
Nick Corri (Jsu Garcia)
Appears in
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984); Wes Craven's New Nightmare
Bio
Tina's boyfriend, a tough kid with a record. Arrested for Tina's murder, he is hanged in his cell with his bedsheet by Freddy. Corri makes a cameo as himself in New Nightmare.

Jesse Walsh

Played by
Mark Patton
Appears in
Freddy's Revenge
Bio
The new boy living in Nancy's old house. Freddy tries to use his body to kill in the real world, murdering his coach and his friend Ron. Lisa's love frees him, but the bus ending leaves his fate open. Often called a male final girl.

Lisa Webber

Played by
Kim Myers
Appears in
Freddy's Revenge
Bio
Jesse's girlfriend across the street. She finds Nancy's diary and learns about Krueger. Her kiss breaks Freddy's hold on Jesse at the power plant.

Ron Grady

Played by
Robert Rusler
Appears in
Freddy's Revenge
Bio
Jesse's classmate, first a rival and then a friend. Jesse asks him to watch over him while he sleeps. Ron dozes off and Freddy, coming out of Jesse, kills him.

Coach Schneider

Played by
Marshall Bell
Appears in
Freddy's Revenge
Bio
Jesse's abusive gym coach. He catches Jesse at a leather bar and makes him run laps, then is tied up with jump ropes in the showers and slashed by Freddy.

Ken and Cheryl Walsh

Played by
Clu Gulager; Hope Lange
Appears in
Freddy's Revenge
Bio
Jesse's parents, who move the family into 1428 Elm Street.

Angela Walsh

Played by
Christie Clark
Appears in
Freddy's Revenge
Bio
Jesse's 11-year-old sister. Freddy, inside Jesse, creeps into her room, but Jesse stops himself.

Kerry Hellman

Played by
Sydney Walsh
Appears in
Freddy's Revenge
Bio
Lisa's best friend. Freddy's claws burst through her on the school bus in the final scene.

Amanda Krueger (Sister Mary Helena)

Played by
Nan Martin; Beatrice Boepple
Appears in
Dream Warriors; The Dream Child
Bio
Freddy's mother, known as Sister Mary Helena. A young nun at the asylum, she was accidentally locked in with the patients over the holidays and raped again and again. Her ghost tells Neil Gordon how to stop Freddy, and in The Dream Child she takes Freddy back into herself.

Kristen Parker

Played by
Patricia Arquette; Tuesday Knight
Appears in
Dream Warriors; The Dream Master
Bio
A Westin Hills patient who can pull other people into her dreams. She leads the Dream Warriors. In The Dream Master she is out of the hospital, loses Kincaid and Joey, and passes her power to Alice as Freddy throws her into the boiler room furnace. Arquette's first film role. Sources differ on whether Arquette turned down the sequel or was never asked.

Dr. Neil Gordon

Played by
Craig Wasson
Appears in
Dream Warriors
Bio
A doctor at Westin Hills who comes to believe the kids. A nun who turns out to be Amanda Krueger's ghost tells him to bury Freddy's bones in hallowed ground, and he does it with holy water and a crucifix. He turns up again in Innovation's Nightmares on Elm Street comics and the story collection Freddy Krueger's Seven Sweetest Dreams.

Roland Kincaid

Played by
Ken Sagoes
Appears in
Dream Warriors; The Dream Master
Bio
A tough Westin Hills patient with super strength in dreams. He survives Dream Warriors. In The Dream Master his dog brings Freddy back to life in a junkyard dream, and Freddy kills Kincaid first.

Joey Crusel

Played by
Rodney Eastman
Appears in
Dream Warriors; The Dream Master
Bio
A mute patient whose dream power is a deafening voice. Freddy uses him as bait in Dream Warriors. In The Dream Master Freddy drowns him in his waterbed.

Taryn White

Played by
Jennifer Rubin
Appears in
Dream Warriors
Bio
A former addict who becomes a punk fighter with switchblades in dreams. Freddy turns his blades into needles and kills her with an overdose.

Will Stanton

Played by
Ira Heiden
Appears in
Dream Warriors
Bio
A patient in a wheelchair after a suicide attempt who loves fantasy games. In dreams he can walk and cast magic attacks. Freddy kills him.

Phillip Anderson

Played by
Bradley Gregg
Appears in
Dream Warriors
Bio
A Westin Hills patient who sleepwalks. Freddy slices open his arms and legs, pulls out his tendons like puppet strings and walks him off a tower ledge.

Jennifer Caulfield

Played by
Penelope Sudrow
Appears in
Dream Warriors
Bio
A patient who wants to be on TV. Freddy grows out of a hospital television and smashes her head through the screen.

Max Daniels

Played by
Laurence Fishburne
Appears in
Dream Warriors
Bio
A kind orderly at Westin Hills who looks the other way when Jennifer stays up late.

Alice Johnson

Played by
Lisa Wilcox
Appears in
The Dream Master; The Dream Child
Bio
A shy daydreamer who takes Kristen's power and absorbs the traits of her dead friends to become the Dream Master. She makes Freddy face his reflection and the souls inside him tear him apart. In The Dream Child she is pregnant with Jacob and beats Freddy again with Amanda's help.

Dan Jordan

Played by
Danny Hassel
Appears in
The Dream Master; The Dream Child
Bio
A football player and Alice's boyfriend. He survives The Dream Master. In The Dream Child Freddy fuses him with a motorcycle in a dream and he dies in a truck crash, never knowing Alice is pregnant.

Rick Johnson

Played by
Andras Jones
Appears in
The Dream Master
Bio
Alice's twin brother and Kristen's boyfriend, a self-taught martial artist. Freddy kills him in a dojo dream.

Debbie Stevens

Played by
Brooke Theiss
Appears in
The Dream Master
Bio
Alice's tough friend who hates bugs. Freddy turns her into a cockroach and crushes her in a roach motel.

Sheila Kopecky

Played by
Toy Newkirk
Appears in
The Dream Master
Bio
Alice's brainy friend with asthma. Freddy sucks the air out of her in a dream at school.

Jacob Johnson

Played by
Whit Hertford
Appears in
The Dream Child
Bio
Alice and Dan's son, seen as a boy in his mother's dreams before he is born. Freddy feeds him souls to make him his vessel. He releases the souls and helps Amanda contain Freddy. An early Freddy's Dead draft made a teenage Jacob the lead. He returns in comics and the novel Perchance to Dream.

Yvonne Miller

Played by
Kelly Jo Minter
Appears in
The Dream Child
Bio
Alice's friend, a competitive diver. Alice sends her to the old asylum to free Amanda Krueger's spirit. She returns as a police officer in the Innovation comics.

Greta Gibson

Played by
Erika Anderson
Appears in
The Dream Child
Bio
An aspiring model pushed by her mother Racine. She falls asleep at a dinner party in her honor. Freddy kills her in the dream while the guests watch her choke.

Mark Gray

Played by
Joe Seely
Appears in
The Dream Child
Bio
A comic book artist in love with Greta who knows his mythology and helps Alice. Freddy, as Super Freddy, turns him into paper and slices him apart inside his own comic, where Mark is his hero the Phantom Prowler.

Maggie Burroughs (Katherine Krueger)

Played by
Lisa Zane; Cassandra Rachel Freil (child)
Appears in
Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
Bio
A shelter counselor who learns she is Freddy's daughter, adopted after his arrest with her records sealed. She pulls Freddy into the real world, stabs him with his glove and kills him with a pipe bomb. Her story continues in the unfinished Innovation comic A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Beginning.

John Doe

Played by
Shon Greenblatt
Appears in
Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
Bio
The last teenager in Springwood, knocked past the town line with no memory. Freddy uses him to find his child. He thinks he is Freddy's son until Freddy kills him on a bed of spikes.

Tracy Swan

Played by
Lezlie Deane
Appears in
Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
Bio
A tough teen at Maggie's shelter who was abused by her father. She fights Freddy in a dream and hands Maggie the pipe bomb.

Carlos Rodriguez

Played by
Ricky Dean Logan
Appears in
Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
Bio
A shelter kid left with a hearing loss by abusive parents. Freddy magnifies his hearing aid and scrapes a chalkboard until his head explodes.

Spencer Lewis

Played by
Breckin Meyer
Appears in
Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
Bio
A shelter kid who smokes pot to escape his strict father. Freddy pulls him into a video game, plays him with a Power Glove and drops him to his death.

Doc

Played by
Yaphet Kotto
Appears in
Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
Bio
A dream therapist at the shelter who can control his dreams. He works out that Freddy must be pulled out of the dream world to be killed.

Loretta Krueger

Played by
Lindsey Fields
Appears in
Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
Bio
Freddy's wife. She finds his hidden room of gloves and clippings, and he strangles her in front of their young daughter.

Mr. Edward Underwood

Played by
Alice Cooper
Appears in
Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
Bio
Freddy's abusive, alcoholic foster father. The teenage Freddy kills him with a straight razor.

The Dream Demons

Appears in
Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
Bio
Spirits who offer the dying Freddy the power to live forever in dreams. They leave his body when he is killed.

Heather Langenkamp (fictional)

Played by
Heather Langenkamp
Appears in
Wes Craven's New Nightmare
Bio
The actress who played Nancy, now a mother in Los Angeles, stalked by a caller who sounds like Freddy. Wes Craven tells her she must play Nancy one more time to trap the entity.

Dylan Porter

Played by
Miko Hughes
Appears in
Wes Craven's New Nightmare
Bio
Heather's young son, who starts acting like Freddy and is taken to the dream world. He and his mother push Freddy into a furnace.

Chase Porter

Played by
David Newsom
Appears in
Wes Craven's New Nightmare
Bio
Heather's husband, an effects artist who hides that he is working on a new Nightmare film. He dies in a car crash after falling asleep at the wheel with claw marks on his chest.

Julie

Played by
Tracy Middendorf
Appears in
Wes Craven's New Nightmare
Bio
Dylan's babysitter. Freddy drags her up a hospital wall and across the ceiling, the same way Tina died in 1984.

Robert Englund (fictional)

Played by
Robert Englund
Appears in
Wes Craven's New Nightmare
Bio
The actor who plays Freddy, who paints a dark portrait of Freddy and disappears when his nightmares get too bad.

Wes Craven (fictional)

Played by
Wes Craven
Appears in
Wes Craven's New Nightmare
Bio
The filmmaker, writing a new Nightmare script from his own dreams. He explains the entity and that the films kept it caged.

Dr. Christine Heffner

Played by
Fran Bennett
Appears in
Wes Craven's New Nightmare
Bio
The doctor who tries to take Dylan away from Heather. Named after former MPAA ratings chief Richard Heffner.

Lori Campbell

Played by
Monica Keena
Appears in
Freddy vs. Jason
Bio
A Springwood teen living at 1428 Elm Street. She learns Freddy killed her mother, pulls Freddy into the real world at Crystal Lake and beheads him.

Will Rollins

Played by
Jason Ritter
Appears in
Freddy vs. Jason
Bio
Lori's ex-boyfriend, locked in Westin Hills after seeing her mother's murder. He escapes to help her.

Kia Waterson

Played by
Kelly Rowland
Appears in
Freddy vs. Jason
Bio
Lori's best friend. She taunts Freddy to save Lori and is killed by Jason.

Charlie Linderman

Played by
Chris Marquette
Appears in
Freddy vs. Jason
Bio
A nerdy teen with a crush on Kia. Fatally hurt at Crystal Lake.

Gibb Smith

Played by
Katharine Isabelle
Appears in
Freddy vs. Jason
Bio
Lori's friend. She passes out at a cornfield rave and dreams of Freddy, but Jason kills her in the real world first.

Bill Freeburg

Played by
Kyle Labine
Appears in
Freddy vs. Jason
Bio
A stoner. Freddy possesses him to destroy the Hypnocil and sedate Jason. Jason kills him.

Mark Davis

Played by
Brendan Fletcher
Appears in
Freddy vs. Jason
Bio
A Westin Hills patient whose brother Bobby killed himself because of Freddy. He tells the teens what Springwood hid. Freddy burns a message into his back.

Deputy Scott Stubbs

Played by
Lochlyn Munro
Appears in
Freddy vs. Jason
Bio
A new deputy who suspects the town is hiding something. Jason kills him at Westin Hills.

Jason Voorhees

Played by
Ken Kirzinger; Douglas Tait (reshot lake ending); Spencer Stump (young Jason)
Appears in
Freddy vs. Jason
Bio
The Friday the 13th killer. Freddy wakes him and sends him to Springwood. He ends up fighting Freddy in dreams and at Crystal Lake and walks out of the lake holding Freddy's head.

Pamela Voorhees

Played by
Paula Shaw
Appears in
Freddy vs. Jason
Bio
Jason's mother, mostly seen as the disguise Freddy wears to control Jason. Betsy Palmer turned down the part over money.

Principal Shaye

Played by
Robert Shaye (as L.E. Moko)
Appears in
Freddy vs. Jason
Bio
School principal played by New Line's founder, part of his long run of cameos in the series.

Nancy Holbrook

Played by
Rooney Mara
Appears in
A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
Bio
A lonely waitress who was Freddy's favorite victim as a preschooler. She stays awake so long she risks a coma, then pulls Freddy out, cuts off his hand and slits his throat. Freddy takes her mother at the end.

Quentin Smith

Played by
Kyle Gallner
Appears in
A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
Bio
Nancy's classmate who pops pills to stay awake. He first thinks the parents killed an innocent man. He wakes Nancy with adrenaline so she can bring Freddy out. A playable survivor in Dead by Daylight.

Kris Fowles

Played by
Katie Cassidy
Appears in
A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
Bio
Nancy's best friend and the remake's version of Tina. She asks Jesse to watch over her, he falls asleep, and Freddy kills her.

Jesse Braun

Played by
Thomas Dekker
Appears in
A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
Bio
Kris's ex-boyfriend, arrested for her death like Rod in 1984. Freddy kills him in his cell.

Dean Russell

Played by
Kellan Lutz
Appears in
A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
Bio
The first victim. Short on sleep, he grabs a knife at the Springwood Diner to defend himself, and Freddy uses it to cut his throat in a dream.

Gwen Holbrook

Played by
Connie Britton
Appears in
A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
Bio
Nancy's mother, the remake's version of Marge. She finally tells Nancy about Freddy. Freddy pulls her through a mirror in the last scene.

Alan Smith

Played by
Clancy Brown
Appears in
A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
Bio
Quentin's father, who led the parents who hunted Freddy down and burned him.

Lt. Tim Blocker

Played by
Ian Patrick Williams
Appears in
Freddy's Nightmares
Bio
The officer who arrests Freddy in the pilot. Freddy goes free because Blocker never read him his rights. Blocker joins the burning, and Freddy later kills him in a dream while he is under anesthesia at the dentist.

Merit and Lisa Blocker

Appears in
Freddy's Nightmares
Bio
Tim Blocker's twin daughters, at the center of the episode Sister's Keeper.

Dr. Elizabeth Simms

Played by
Priscilla Pointer
Appears in
Dream Warriors
Bio
The head doctor at Westin Hills. She refuses to believe the kids and blocks Nancy and Neil at every turn.

Elaine Parker

Played by
Brooke Bundy
Appears in
Dream Warriors; The Dream Master
Bio
Kristen's self-absorbed mother, who has her daughter committed to Westin Hills and is no help when Freddy comes back.

Places

1428 Elm Street

Appears in
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984); Freddy's Revenge; Dream Warriors; The Dream Master; The Dream Child; Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare; Wes Craven's New Nightmare; Freddy vs. Jason
About
The Thompson house, later the Walsh and Campbell house, and in Freddy's Dead shown as Freddy's own former home. The real house used in the first film is at 1428 North Genesee Avenue in Los Angeles.

Springwood, Ohio

Appears in
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984); Freddy's Revenge; Dream Warriors; The Dream Master; The Dream Child; Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare; Freddy vs. Jason; A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010); Freddy's Nightmares
About
Freddy's hometown. The first film never names a state. Later films and the fan timeline place it in Ohio.

Freddy's boiler room

Appears in
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984); Freddy's Revenge; Dream Warriors; The Dream Master; The Dream Child; Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare; Wes Craven's New Nightmare; A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
About
Where Freddy took and killed children and where the parents burned him. The 1984 film shot boiler room scenes at the old Lincoln Heights Jail. In Freddy's Revenge it is part of a power plant. Dream Warriors built its boiler room in a converted warehouse near the Los Angeles County Jail.

Westin Hills Psychiatric Hospital

Appears in
Dream Warriors; Freddy vs. Jason
About
The psychiatric hospital where Amanda Krueger was attacked and where the last Elm Street children are sent. UCLA's Royce Hall stood in for the outside in Dream Warriors. In Freddy vs. Jason teens who dream of Freddy are locked up there on Hypnocil.

The junkyard

Appears in
Dream Warriors; The Dream Master
About
Where Don Thompson hid Freddy's bones in an old car. Neil tries to bury them there in Dream Warriors, and Kincaid's dog brings Freddy back there in The Dream Master.

Springwood High School

Appears in
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
About
The school Nancy, Tina, Glen and Rod attend. John Marshall High School in Los Angeles stood in for it.

The Crave Inn diner

Appears in
The Dream Master
About
The diner where Alice works and where Freddy traps her and Dan in a time loop. The name is a nod to Wes Craven.

The church

Appears in
The Dream Master
About
The old church where Alice makes Freddy face his reflection and the souls inside him tear him apart.

Camp Crystal Lake

Appears in
Freddy vs. Jason
About
Jason's home. The teens drag both killers there so Jason can fight Freddy on home ground. The fight ends on the dock that Lori blows up.

Badham Preschool

Appears in
A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
About
The preschool where the 2010 Freddy worked as a gardener and abused children in a hidden room. It is also a map in Dead by Daylight.

Springwood Diner

Appears in
A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
About
Where Nancy Holbrook waits tables and where Dean dies in the remake's opening.

Heather Langenkamp's Los Angeles

Appears in
Wes Craven's New Nightmare
About
The real-world settings of New Nightmare, rocked by earthquakes. Real damage from the January 1994 Northridge earthquake was filmed and cut into the movie.

The school bus

Appears in
Freddy's Revenge
About
Freddy takes over Jesse's school bus in the opening nightmare and returns on a bus in the last scene.

Lisa Webber's pool party

Appears in
Freddy's Revenge
About
Freddy bursts out of Jesse and attacks teens in the backyard, the first big scene of him walking in the real world.

Maggie's youth shelter

Appears in
Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
About
The home for troubled teens outside Springwood where Maggie, Doc and Tracy work and where John Doe is brought.

Kristen's model house

Appears in
Dream Warriors
About
A light going on inside Kristen's model house at the end of Dream Warriors hints Freddy will return.

Cast & Filmmakers

Wes Craven

Creator; writer and director of the 1984 film and New Nightmare; co-writer and co-producer of Dream Warriors; plays himself in New Nightmare; died August 30, 2015

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Dream Warriors, Wes Craven's New Nightmare

Robert Shaye

Founder of New Line Cinema; producer or executive producer across the series; executive producer of Freddy's Nightmares; cameos in most films, sometimes as L.E. Moko

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Freddy's Revenge, Dream Warriors, The Dream Master, The Dream Child, Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, Wes Craven's New Nightmare, Freddy vs. Jason, Freddy's Nightmares

Robert Englund

Freddy Krueger in eight films and host of all 44 episodes of Freddy's Nightmares; himself in New Nightmare; directed the episodes Cabin Fever and Monkey Dreams; Hollywood Walk of Fame star October 31, 2025

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Freddy's Revenge, Dream Warriors, The Dream Master, The Dream Child, Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, Wes Craven's New Nightmare, Freddy vs. Jason, Freddy's Nightmares

Heather Langenkamp

Nancy Thompson and herself; narrator and executive producer of Never Sleep Again; producer of I Am Nancy

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Dream Warriors, Wes Craven's New Nightmare, Never Sleep Again, I Am Nancy

Jackie Earle Haley

Freddy Krueger in the remake; came with Johnny Depp to his 1984 audition

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

Sara Risher

New Line executive and producer on the original series

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Freddy's Revenge, Dream Warriors, The Dream Master, The Dream Child, Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, Wes Craven's New Nightmare

Rachel Talalay

Worked on the crew of the early films, producer of The Dream Master, director and story writer of Freddy's Dead

The Dream Master, Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

Michael De Luca

Writer on Freddy's Nightmares; screenwriter of Freddy's Dead; later co-chair of Warner Bros. Pictures with Pam Abdy

Freddy's Nightmares, Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

Jack Sholder

Director of Freddy's Revenge

Freddy's Revenge

David Chaskin

Writer of Freddy's Revenge; admitted in 2010 he wrote in the gay subtext on purpose

Freddy's Revenge

Chuck Russell

Director and co-writer of Dream Warriors, his first feature; later directed The Blob, The Mask, Eraser and The Scorpion King; died July 22, 2026

Dream Warriors

Bruce Wagner

Co-writer of the Dream Warriors story and script

Dream Warriors

Frank Darabont

Co-writer of Dream Warriors with Chuck Russell

Dream Warriors

Renny Harlin

Finnish director of The Dream Master

The Dream Master

Brian Helgeland

Co-writer of The Dream Master; co-wrote Englund's 976-EVIL; later won an Oscar for L.A. Confidential

The Dream Master

Jim Wheat and Ken Wheat

Polished The Dream Master under the name Scott Pierce

The Dream Master

William Kotzwinkle

Story credit on The Dream Master

The Dream Master

Stephen Hopkins

Director of The Dream Child

The Dream Child

Leslie Bohem

Screenwriter of The Dream Child; pitched the pregnancy idea during Freddy's Revenge

The Dream Child

John Skipp and Craig Spector

Share story credit on The Dream Child with Leslie Bohem

The Dream Child

David J. Schow

Wrote the Freddy's Nightmares episode Safe Sex; wrote an early Freddy vs. Jason draft

Freddy vs. Jason, Freddy's Nightmares

Rupert Harvey

Producer of The Dream Child

The Dream Child

Aron Warner

Producer of Freddy's Dead

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

Marianne Maddalena

Producer of New Nightmare; plays herself in it

Wes Craven's New Nightmare

Ronny Yu

Director of Freddy vs. Jason

Freddy vs. Jason

Damian Shannon and Mark Swift

Writers of Freddy vs. Jason

Freddy vs. Jason

Sean S. Cunningham

Producer of Freddy vs. Jason; headed a second unit on the dream scenes of the 1984 film

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Freddy vs. Jason

David S. Goyer

Wrote a Freddy vs. Jason draft with James Dale Robinson

Freddy vs. Jason

Jeff Katz

New Line executive; wrote the Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash treatment in 2003

Freddy vs. Jason, Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash (comic)

Samuel Bayer

Director of the remake, his first feature

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

Wesley Strick

Co-writer and story credit on the remake

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

Eric Heisserer

Co-writer of the remake; came up with micro-naps

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

Michael Bay, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form

Producers of the remake through Platinum Dunes

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

Toby Emmerich

New Line production chief; producer attached to the stalled 2015 remake

David Leslie Johnson

Writer hired in 2015 for a second remake that never got made

Walter Hamada and Dave Neustadter

Producers attached to the 2015 remake

Iya Labunka

Wes Craven's widow; producer of the Paramount Primal film

Untitled Paramount Primal film

Jonathan Craven

Wes Craven's son; producer of the Paramount Primal film

Untitled Paramount Primal film

Marc Toberoff

Attorney who helped the Craven family regain ownership of the 1984 film; producer of the Paramount Primal film

Untitled Paramount Primal film

J.D. Lifshitz and Raphael Margules

Heads of Paramount Primal and executive producers of the new film; producers of Barbarian and Weapons

Untitled Paramount Primal film

Lee Cronin

Reported in talks to write, direct and produce Warner Bros.' international Nightmare film

Untitled Warner Bros. film

Charles Bernstein

Composer of the 1984 score and the Never Sleep Again title music

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Never Sleep Again

Christopher Young

Composer of Freddy's Revenge

Freddy's Revenge

Angelo Badalamenti

Composer of Dream Warriors; died December 11, 2022

Dream Warriors

Craig Safan

Composer of The Dream Master

The Dream Master

Jay Ferguson

Composer of The Dream Child

The Dream Child

Brian May

Composer of Freddy's Dead

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

J. Peter Robinson

Composer of New Nightmare

Wes Craven's New Nightmare

Graeme Revell

Composer of Freddy vs. Jason

Freddy vs. Jason

Steve Jablonsky

Composer of the remake

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

Jacques Haitkin

Cinematographer of the first two films

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Freddy's Revenge

Roy H. Wagner

Cinematographer of Dream Warriors, brought in to replace an earlier hire

Dream Warriors

Steven Fierberg

Cinematographer of The Dream Master

The Dream Master

Peter Levy

Cinematographer of The Dream Child

The Dream Child

Declan Quinn

Cinematographer of Freddy's Dead

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

Mark Irwin

Cinematographer of New Nightmare

Wes Craven's New Nightmare

Fred Murphy

Cinematographer of Freddy vs. Jason

Freddy vs. Jason

Jeff Cutter

Cinematographer of the remake

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

Rick Shaine

Editor of the 1984 film

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Patrick Lussier

Editor of New Nightmare; went on to edit Scream

Wes Craven's New Nightmare

Gregg Fonseca

Production designer of the 1984 film; New Nightmare is dedicated to him

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Wes Craven's New Nightmare

Mick Strawn and C.J. Strawn

Production designers on Dream Warriors and The Dream Master; C.J. Strawn also designed The Dream Child

Dream Warriors, The Dream Master, The Dream Child

David B. Miller

Designed Freddy's makeup in 1984

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Kevin Yagher

Freddy's makeup on Freddy's Revenge, Dream Warriors and The Dream Master

Freddy's Revenge, Dream Warriors, The Dream Master

John Carl Buechler

Makeup effects on The Dream Master, covered in the making-of Elm Street U.S.A.

The Dream Master

Jim Doyle

Built Freddy's original glove

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Matthew Joseph Peak

Poster artist for the original series; painted the Never Sleep Again cover

The Dream Child, Never Sleep Again

Tobe Hooper

Directed the Freddy's Nightmares pilot, No More Mr. Nice Guy; died August 26, 2017

Freddy's Nightmares

Tom McLoughlin

Directed the Freddy's Nightmares episode It's a Miserable Life

Freddy's Nightmares

Mick Garris, Ken Wiederhorn, Dwight Little and William Malone

Episode directors on Freddy's Nightmares

Freddy's Nightmares

John McNaughton

Director linked to the unmade prequels

Daniel Farrands, Andrew Kasch and Thommy Hutson

Makers of Never Sleep Again; Hutson also wrote a book on the making of the first film

Never Sleep Again

Arlene Marechal

Director of I Am Nancy

I Am Nancy

Roman Chimienti and Tyler Jensen

Directors of Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street

Scream, Queen!

Andy Mangels

Writer of all three Innovation comic series

Nightmares on Elm Street (comic)

Steve Gerber

Writer of Marvel's 1989 Freddy comic

Freddy Krueger's A Nightmare on Elm Street (comic)

Chuck Dixon

Writer of WildStorm's 2006 to 2007 series

A Nightmare on Elm Street (WildStorm comic)

Brian Pulido

Writer of the Avatar Press comics

A Nightmare on Elm Street Special, Paranoid, Fearbook

James Kuhoric and Jason Craig

Writer and artist of the Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash comics

Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash (comic)

David Bishop, Christa Faust, Tim Waggoner, Natasha Rhodes and Jeffrey Thomas

Authors of the Black Flame novels, 2005 to 2006

Black Flame novels

Jeffrey Cooper

Author of the 1987 novelization of the first three films

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Freddy's Revenge, Dream Warriors

John Saxon

Lt. Donald Thompson and himself; died July 25, 2020

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Dream Warriors, Wes Craven's New Nightmare

Ronee Blakley

Marge Thompson

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Johnny Depp

Glen Lantz, his film debut; cameo in Freddy's Dead as Oprah Noodlemantra

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

Amanda Wyss

Tina Gray

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Nick Corri (Jsu Garcia)

Rod Lane; cameo in New Nightmare

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Wes Craven's New Nightmare

Lin Shaye

Teacher in the 1984 film; a nurse in New Nightmare

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Wes Craven's New Nightmare

Mark Patton

Jesse Walsh; subject of Scream, Queen!

Freddy's Revenge, Scream, Queen!

Kim Myers

Lisa Webber

Freddy's Revenge

Robert Rusler

Ron Grady

Freddy's Revenge

Clu Gulager

Ken Walsh; died August 5, 2022

Freddy's Revenge

Patricia Arquette

Kristen Parker, her film debut

Dream Warriors

Tuesday Knight

Kristen Parker in The Dream Master and singer of its title song Nightmare; cameo in New Nightmare

The Dream Master, Wes Craven's New Nightmare

Craig Wasson

Dr. Neil Gordon

Dream Warriors

Ken Sagoes

Roland Kincaid

Dream Warriors, The Dream Master

Rodney Eastman

Joey Crusel

Dream Warriors, The Dream Master

Laurence Fishburne

Max Daniels

Dream Warriors

Nan Martin

Amanda Krueger in Dream Warriors; died March 4, 2010

Dream Warriors

Lisa Wilcox

Alice Johnson

The Dream Master, The Dream Child

Danny Hassel

Dan Jordan

The Dream Master, The Dream Child

Whit Hertford

Jacob Johnson; won a Young Artist Award

The Dream Child

Lisa Zane

Maggie Burroughs

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

Yaphet Kotto

Doc; died March 15, 2021

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

Lezlie Deane

Tracy Swan

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

Breckin Meyer

Spencer Lewis

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

Alice Cooper

Mr. Underwood

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

Miko Hughes

Dylan Porter

Wes Craven's New Nightmare

Ken Kirzinger

Jason Voorhees

Freddy vs. Jason

Monica Keena

Lori Campbell

Freddy vs. Jason

Kelly Rowland

Kia Waterson

Freddy vs. Jason

Jason Ritter

Will Rollins

Freddy vs. Jason

Rooney Mara

Nancy Holbrook

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

Kyle Gallner

Quentin Smith

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

Kane Hodder

Talked with Craven about playing Freddy in 1984; played Freddy's gloved hand in Jason Goes to Hell; replaced as Jason for Freddy vs. Jason

Freddy vs. Jason

David Warner

Craven's first choice for Freddy; did makeup tests and dropped out over scheduling

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Fran Bennett

Dr. Heffner in New Nightmare

Wes Craven's New Nightmare

Lorene Scafaria

Director who owned the real Elm Street house from 2013 until it sold in January 2022

Production & Box Office

Box office

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Budget
$1.8 million (The Numbers and Wikipedia's franchise table); $1.1 million (Wikipedia's film article). The Library of Congress says under $2 million.
Domestic
$25,504,513 original run; $25,624,448 with re-releases (Box Office Mojo); $25,804,893 (The Numbers)
Worldwide
$57,185,134 (Wikipedia); $59,240,066 (The Numbers)

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985)

Budget
$3 million
Domestic
$29,999,213 (Box Office Mojo, The Numbers)
Worldwide
$29,999,213 (only U.S. figures reported)

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)

Budget
$4.3 million to $4.6 million (Wikipedia, trade reports); The Numbers lists $5 million
Domestic
$44,793,222
Worldwide
$44,793,222 (only U.S. figures reported)

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)

Budget
$6.5 million (Wikipedia); The Numbers lists $13 million
Domestic
$49,369,899
Worldwide
$49,369,899 (only U.S. figures reported)

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989)

Budget
$8 million (Wikipedia, AFI); The Numbers lists $6 million
Domestic
$22,168,359
Worldwide
$22,168,359 (only U.S. figures reported)

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)

Budget
$9 million to $11 million (Wikipedia); The Numbers lists $5 million
Domestic
$34,872,033
Worldwide
$34,872,033 (only U.S. figures reported)

Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)

Budget
$8 million
Domestic
$18,090,181
Worldwide
$19,721,741 (The Numbers); Wikipedia's film article says $19.8 million

Freddy vs. Jason (2003)

Budget
$30 million (Wikipedia, Box Office Mojo); $25 million (The Numbers)
Domestic
$82,633,448 (Box Office Mojo); $82,622,655 (The Numbers)
Worldwide
$116,643,421 (Box Office Mojo); $114,576,403 (The Numbers)

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

Budget
$35 million
Domestic
$63,075,011
Worldwide
$117,729,618 (The Numbers, and $117.7 million in Wikipedia's film article); $115,695,182 in Wikipedia's franchise table

Wikipedia's franchise table gives $370,625,814 in the United States, $119,822,390 in other territories and $490,448,204 worldwide for the nine films, on combined budgets of $105.6 million to $105.9 million. Adding The Numbers' per-film figures gives $370,795,466 domestic and $492,470,554 worldwide. Most of the gap comes from the first film, Freddy vs. Jason and the remake, where the two sources differ. Foreign grosses for Freddy's Revenge through Freddy's Dead were never reported, so every worldwide total undercounts. The top domestic grosser is Freddy vs. Jason. The top worldwide grosser is the 2010 remake by The Numbers, or Freddy vs. Jason by Wikipedia's franchise table. New Nightmare is the lowest on both counts.

Rights and business

New Line Cinema produced and released the first film. Robert Shaye had founded the company on June 18, 1967, to supply foreign and art films to colleges. The money came from outside. Two English investors put in 40 and 30 percent, a Texas Chain Saw Massacre producer 10 percent, and Media Home Entertainment 20 percent. When one of the English investors pulled out, Media Home raised its share to 40 percent. Heron Communications and Smart Egg Pictures also backed the film.

Media Home Entertainment released the first film on video in early 1985, where it earned about $8 million. Dream Warriors was New Line's first national release. New Line went public in 1986.

Freddy's Nightmares was made by New Line Television and Stone Television and first sold by Lorimar-Telepictures. Warner Bros. took over after buying Lorimar in 1989. Only one DVD volume ever came out, in the UK and Ireland in 2003. The show now streams on Tubi but not on Warner's own Max.

New Line guarded the brand. In 1988 it sued Jive and RCA Records over DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince's A Nightmare on My Street. The case settled out of court, and New Line made Jive destroy the music video. Vinyl copies carry a disclaimer saying the song is not authorized by or tied to the Nightmare films. New Line went instead with The Fat Boys' Are You Ready for Freddy.

Merchandise was a big business by 1988. New Line ran the Freddy Fan Club and licensed board games from Victory Games, a Matchbox talking doll and video games from LJN and Rare on the NES and Monarch on Commodore 64 and PC. The Companion credits the computer game to ShareData and Wikipedia credits Westwood Associates as developer. Impel made a 144-card set in 1991. Later licensees include McFarlane Toys, Mezco, NECA, Sideshow, Funko and Fright-Rags. Marvel held the comic license in 1989, Innovation from 1991 to its bankruptcy in 1992, Trident for UK reprints in 1992, Avatar Press in 2005 and 2006, and DC's WildStorm from 2006.

On January 28, 1994, Turner Broadcasting System bought New Line for $500 million. Turner merged with Time Warner in October 1996, and New Line kept running as its own studio inside the company. Englund has said the prequel The First Kills got lost in the Turner sale.

The crossover needed Jason. Paramount owned the Friday the 13th films and made Jason Takes Manhattan in 1989 after crossover talks failed. New Line got the Friday rights in 1992. Jason Goes to Hell (1993), which ends with Freddy's glove grabbing Jason's mask, and Jason X (2001) came out before Freddy vs. Jason finally arrived in 2003. A planned sequel with Ash from The Evil Dead died over money and creative control.

On January 29, 2008, Variety reported a deal for Platinum Dunes to remake the first film with New Line. A month later, on February 28, 2008, Time Warner folded New Line into Warner Bros., and Shaye and co-chairman Michael Lynne left. Warner Bros. Pictures released the remake in 2010. Warner wanted it converted to 3-D, and the producers talked the studio out of it.

In August 2015 Warner and New Line hired David Leslie Johnson for a new remake, but it stalled. In September 2019 the U.S. rights to A Nightmare on Elm Street reverted to Wes Craven's estate. New Line and Warner kept the international rights. The estate began taking pitches for films and a possible HBO Max series that November. Variety later credited attorney Marc Toberoff with helping the family regain ownership of the original film.

In July 2026 Paramount Pictures licensed the U.S. rights to Craven's original screenplay from the estate for the first film at its new genre label, Paramount Primal. On July 30, 2026, Dread Central, citing Kim Masters at Puck, reported that Warner Bros. had tried to make its own deal with the estate but would not agree to a very aggressive back-end split. Warner executives Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy then started their own film for international release only, with Lee Cronin in talks to write, direct and produce. Paramount said its domestic rights deal was negotiated on its own and was not based on any pending merger. Neither studio controls worldwide rights by itself.

Home video has moved through several hands. Media Home released the early tapes. New Line Home Video released the 1999 eight-disc DVD box set and the 2000 VHS collection, New Line's Infinifilm line put out a 2006 special edition of the first film, and Warner handled the 2010 Blu-ray of the original, the 2011 Blu-ray collection, the 2024 4K of the first film and the 2025 seven-film 4K collection. Varese Sarabande put the scores in an eight-CD box in 2015, and Death Waltz and Mondo released the eight-LP Box of Souls in 2017.

Freddy has been licensed well beyond film. NetherRealm added him to Mortal Kombat in 2011 as downloadable content, and he was later playable in the Mortal Kombat X mobile game. Behaviour added the 2010 Freddy and Quentin Smith to Dead by Daylight on October 26, 2017. Universal has used Freddy in Halloween Horror Nights mazes in Orlando and Hollywood.

Reception

Critics liked the first film from the start. Rotten Tomatoes has it at 93 percent from 71 reviews, and Metacritic gives it 76. Empire ranked it 162nd on its 2008 list of the 500 greatest movies, and in 2021 the Library of Congress put it in the National Film Registry.

The sequels got rougher treatment. Rotten Tomatoes scores run from 68 percent for Dream Warriors and 56 percent for The Dream Master down to 49 percent for Freddy's Revenge, 31 percent for The Dream Child and 23 percent for Freddy's Dead. Roger Ebert gave Dream Warriors one and a half stars. Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times praised The Dream Master and Lisa Wilcox. New Nightmare turned things around with 76 percent and three stars from Ebert, though Gene Siskel gave it a thumbs down. Freddy vs. Jason sits at 41 percent with a B+ CinemaScore, and the remake at 14 percent with a C+.

Freddy changed the slasher villain. Jason and Michael Myers were silent men in masks. Freddy talked, joked and showed his face, and by the late 1980s he was more of a star than the heroes. Wizard ranked him the 14th greatest villain of all time, Sky2 ranked him 8th, and AFI put him 40th on its heroes and villains list. The 2010 remake set out to make him dark again.

Freddy was controversial in real life too. Protesters picketed The Dream Child when it opened in 1989. Queensland in Australia banned Dream Warriors over its drug scenes. Marvel dropped its Freddy comic because it feared anti-violence groups.

Freddy's Revenge found a second life as a gay cult film. Its gay subtext was argued about for decades before writer David Chaskin admitted in 2010 that he put it there on purpose. Mark Patton, who was gay and not out at the time, said the film hurt his career. The 2019 documentary Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street told his story, and critics now often call Jesse a male final girl.

Nancy Thompson became one of horror's model heroines. She studies her enemy, makes a plan and fights back. Heather Langenkamp's 2011 documentary I Am Nancy asked why fans love the villain more than the hero.

Dream Warriors shaped later films and games. Josh Boone named it a big influence on The New Mutants (2020). The NES game let players turn into Dream Warriors, and the computer game used Dream Warriors characters. Dokken's Dream Warriors video topped VH1's 2015 list of killer 1980s metal horror videos, and Riverdale covered the song in 2018.

New Nightmare's idea of a horror movie that knows it is a horror movie led straight to Craven's Scream in 1996. Critics still call New Nightmare the warm-up for Scream.

The films opened doors for young actors. Johnny Depp made his debut in the first film, Patricia Arquette in Dream Warriors, and Laurence Fishburne had an early role there. Brad Pitt tried out for Jesse and was turned down as too nice. He later appeared in an episode of Freddy's Nightmares, along with Mariska Hargitay, Kyle Chandler, Lori Petty and Morris Chestnut. Brian Helgeland, who co-wrote The Dream Master, later won an Oscar. Chuck Russell went on to The Blob, The Mask, Eraser and The Scorpion King.

Behind the scenes, the series built a studio. New Line went from a small distributor to a public company on Freddy's money, and it is still called The House That Freddy Built. The 2010 documentary Never Sleep Again, with 106 interviews and four hours of footage, won the Saturn Award for Best DVD Release, and Bloody Disgusting gave it a perfect score.

Freddy's Nightmares had a harder time. John Kenneth Muir's book Terror Television ranked it low among horror series of 1970 to 1999. It still found new audiences in reruns and on Tubi, and it gave early work to a long list of future stars.

The films were copied around the world. India made Khooni Murda (1989) and Mahakaal (1993). A Belarusian children's film, Keshka i Fredi (1992), used Freddy without a license.

Fans keep the series going. The Nightmare on Elm Street Companion website archives scripts, press kits, comics and merchandise. Cast members from every film appear at conventions. Anniversary screenings for the 40th in 2024 ran at Popcorn Frights in Fort Lauderdale, Cinema Arts Centre, the Union County Performing Arts Center in Rahway and on AMC's FearFest.

Awards

  • 1985 Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival: Critics Award (Wes Craven, A Nightmare on Elm Street); special mention for Heather Langenkamp
  • 1988 Fantasporto: Critics Award special mention for Chuck Russell (Dream Warriors)
  • 1990 Fantasporto: Critics Award for Stephen Hopkins (The Dream Child)
  • Golden Raspberry Awards: Worst Original Song win for Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter, and a nomination for Let's Go by Kool Moe Dee (The Dream Child)
  • Young Artist Awards: Best Young Actor in a Supporting Role win for Whit Hertford (The Dream Child)
  • 12th Golden Raspberry Awards: Worst Original Song nomination for Why Was I Born? (Freddy's Dead) by Iggy Pop
  • Fangoria Chainsaw Awards: Best Actress win for Heather Langenkamp (Wes Craven's New Nightmare)
  • Saturn Awards: Best Horror Film nomination (Freddy vs. Jason)
  • 2004 Taurus World Stunt Awards: nomination for Freddy vs. Jason
  • AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains ranks Freddy Krueger the 40th greatest villain
  • 2008: Empire ranks A Nightmare on Elm Street 162nd on its 500 greatest movies list
  • 2010: The Independent Film and Television Alliance names A Nightmare on Elm Street one of the 30 most significant independent films of the past 30 years
  • January 5, 2011: People's Choice Award for Favorite Horror Movie (A Nightmare on Elm Street, 2010)
  • December 14, 2021: A Nightmare on Elm Street selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress
  • Wizard magazine ranks Freddy the 14th greatest villain of all time; Sky2 ranks him 8th
  • 2015: VH1 ranks Dokken's Dream Warriors the number one killer 1980s heavy metal horror movie video
  • October 31, 2025: Robert Englund receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
  • 2010 Saturn Awards: Best DVD Release for Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy
  • 2010 Reaper Awards: Best Direct-to-Video Title and Best in Show for Never Sleep Again
  • Saturn Awards: Guest Performance in a Streaming Series nomination for Robert Englund as Victor Creel in Stranger Things

Parodies and references

  • A Nightmare on My Street (1988), DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince's unlicensed Freddy song, which samples Charles Bernstein's theme and reached number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100
  • Are You Ready for Freddy (1988), The Fat Boys with Robert Englund rapping as Freddy in the video
  • Dream Warriors (1987), Dokken's theme for the third film, with a video starring Patricia Arquette and Englund
  • Nightmare, Tuesday Knight's title song for The Dream Master, left off the soundtrack album
  • Evil Dead II (1987): Freddy's glove hangs in the tool shed, Sam Raimi's answer to The Evil Dead playing on Nancy's TV in 1984
  • Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993): Freddy's gloved hand, played by Kane Hodder, drags Jason's mask into the ground
  • Bride of Chucky (1998): Freddy's glove sits in a police evidence room next to Leatherface's chainsaw and the masks of Michael Myers and Jason
  • The Simpsons, Treehouse of Horror VI: A Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace, with Groundskeeper Willie in the Freddy role
  • The Simpsons, Treehouse of Horror IX (1998): Robert Englund voices Freddy
  • The Goldbergs (2018): Englund returns as Freddy in Mister Knifey-Hands
  • Ready Player One (2018): Freddy appears as an OASIS avatar
  • Riverdale (2018): the cast covers Dream Warriors in Chapter Thirty-Nine: The Midnight Club
  • Keshka i Fredi (1992): unlicensed Belarusian children's film with a Freddy character
  • Khooni Murda (1989) and Mahakaal (1993): Indian horror films modeled on the first film
  • The New Mutants (2020): director Josh Boone named Dream Warriors a big influence
  • Scream (1996): Craven's meta slasher, which grew out of New Nightmare's ideas
  • Mortal Kombat (2011): Freddy as a downloadable guest fighter, with Englund's voice
  • Mortal Kombat X mobile: Freddy playable alongside Jason
  • Dead by Daylight (2017): the 2010 Freddy as The Nightmare, with Quentin Smith and the Badham Preschool map
  • Halloween Horror Nights: Freddy is an icon at HHN 17 in Orlando in 2007 with Jack the Clown, Leatherface and Jason, and at Hollywood's event in 2007 and 2008; Freddy vs. Jason mazes run in Orlando in 2015 and Hollywood in 2016
  • Hawthorne Village Scary Movie Halloween Village (2005): includes a 1428 Elm Street house
  • Mezco Cinema of Fear Mez-Itz (2002): Freddy, Jason and Leatherface with a boiler room stand
  • Stranger Things (2022): Englund plays Victor Creel in season 4 and earns a Saturn nomination
  • Fright-Rags Hypnocil mints: candy in a prescription-style bottle based on the dream drug from Dream Warriors
  • Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash (2007 to 2009): crossover comics with The Evil Dead's Ash Williams, based on an unmade film treatment

Fandom

The Nightmare on Elm Street Companion is the biggest fan archive for the series. It collects scripts, storyboards, press kits, home video scans and comic and book bibliographies for all nine films and Freddy's Nightmares. Its forum ran from 2004 until a June 2019 database crash wiped out fifteen years of posts. Fans voted 95 percent in favor of a new one, and it relaunched in May 2020. The site also keeps a fan-built in-universe timeline, from Amanda Krueger's birth in 1907 through the comics and Black Flame novels, placing Freddy's trial and burning in 1968 and the first film in 1981.

A fan documentary called FredHeads covers the fan base. Popcorn Frights screened it in Fort Lauderdale on January 20, 2023 and gave all proceeds to Mark Patton, who was going through a serious medical emergency.

Heather Langenkamp's I Am Nancy (2011) is really about the fans. She went to horror conventions asking fans why Freddy got famous and Nancy didn't, and talked it over with Englund and Craven.

Mark Patton became a convention favorite after Never Sleep Again. He is often called the first male scream king. He gives most of his appearance fees to HIV groups and LGBTQ youth charities like The Trevor Project. Freddy's Revenge now has a strong LGBTQ cult following, which Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street documents.

Fans have spent years pitching who should make the next film. Mike Flanagan had a pitch in 2019 when the Craven estate opened up. Lee Cronin told Variety in April 2026 he would find it hard not to take a swing at Freddy someday.

The real house at 1428 North Genesee Avenue in Los Angeles is a fan landmark and a stop for tour buses. Its owner, director Lorene Scafaria, bought it in 2013 for $2.1 million, and Bo Burnham's Netflix special Inside was shot inside. It sold in January 2022 for $2.8 million after listing at $3.25 million.

Fan-made collectibles keep appearing. In April 2026 Jack's Attic sold custom 1984-style cards with real glove slash marks, only 20 sets.

Rachel Talalay has asked fans about lost material. In her January 2026 video she says the cut Freddy's Dead coda and some Dream Master scenes cannot be found.

Books & Comics

Books

The Nightmares on Elm Street Parts 1, 2, & 3: The Continuing Story

1987 · novelization

Author
Jeffrey Cooper
About
St. Martin's Mass Market Press, February 1987, 216 pages. Parts 1 and 2 follow the scripts closely. The Part 3 section tells a different story from the film. Its backstory chapters on Freddy are no longer treated as canon.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (audiobook)

1989 · novelization

Author
Joseph Locke (adapter)
About
Simon & Schuster Audioworks cassette. Robert Englund voices Freddy.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 1: Nachte der Angst (German audio play)

1990 · novelization

Author
Andre Minninger (script)
About
EUROPA cassette audio play. First of six German audio plays that adapt films 1 through 6.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Die Traum-Falle (German audio play)

1990 · novelization

Author
Andre Minninger (script)
About
EUROPA cassette audio play adapting Freddy's Revenge.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Freddy's Rache (German audio play)

1990 · novelization

Author
Andre Minninger (script)
About
EUROPA cassette audio play adapting Dream Warriors.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: Party des Schreckens (German audio play)

1990 · novelization

Author
Andre Minninger (script)
About
EUROPA cassette audio play adapting The Dream Master.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: Freddy Kruger lebt! (German audio play)

1990 · novelization

Author
Andre Minninger (script)
About
EUROPA cassette audio play adapting The Dream Child.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 6: Die Kralle des Bosen (German audio play)

1990 · novelization

Author
Andre Minninger (script)
About
EUROPA cassette audio play adapting Freddy's Dead.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (Tales of Terror series)

1991 · novelization

Author
E.L. Flood
About
Crestwood House/Macmillan hardcover, May 1991, 48 pages. Part of a Tales of Terror line for young readers. Explains some of the special effects.

A Nightmare on Elm Street

1992 · novelization

Author
Bob Italia
About
Abdo & Daughters hardcover, September 1992, 64 pages. Young reader adaptation with the swearing taken out and color film photos.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge

1992 · novelization

Author
Bob Italia
About
Abdo & Daughters hardcover, September 1992, 64 pages, with film photos.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors

1992 · novelization

Author
Bob Italia
About
Abdo & Daughters hardcover, September 1992, 64 pages, with film stills.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master

1992 · novelization

Author
Bob Italia
About
Abdo & Daughters hardcover, September 1992, 64 pages, with color photos.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child

1992 · novelization

Author
Bob Italia
About
Abdo & Daughters hardcover, September 1992, 64 pages, with film images.

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

1992 · novelization

Author
Bob Italia
About
Abdo & Daughters hardcover, September 1992, 64 pages. Last of the six Italia adaptations.

Koshmar na ulitse Vyazov (Russian, films 1 to 4)

1993 · novelization

Author
M. Shyback and V. Adamchik
About
Valev, 432 pages. Russian collection adapting the first four films.

Koshmar na ulitse Vyazov (Russian, films 1 to 6)

1993 · novelization

Author
Bob Italia, translated by V. Shavrov
About
Crime-Press, 416 pages. Russian translation of all six Italia adaptations.

Koshmar na ulitse Vyazov (Russian, with The Silence of the Lambs)

1993 · novelization

Author
Arch Stanton
About
Gvido, 480 pages. Pairs an adaptation of the first film with The Silence of the Lambs.

Wes Craven's New Nightmare

1994 · novelization

Author
David Bergantino
About
Tor Books, November 1994, 216 pages. Adds short chapter segues with extra story material.

Freddy vs. Jason

2003 · novelization

Author
Stephen Hand
About
Black Flame, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, July 29, 2003, 270 pages. Includes an alternate Freddy ending.

Freddy Krueger's Tales of Terror #1: Blind Date

1994 · novel

Author
Bruce Richards
About
Tor Books young adult series hosted by Freddy, in the style of Freddy's Nightmares. November 1994, 156 pages. A popular girl befriends an outcast boy while her friends vanish.

Freddy Krueger's Tales of Terror #2: Fatal Games

1995 · novel

Author
Bruce Richards
About
Tor Books, February 1995, 187 pages. A teen acts out his violent visions in real life.

Freddy Krueger's Tales of Terror #3: Virtual Terror

1995 · novel

Author
David Bergantino
About
Tor Books, April 1995, 150 pages. A cursed poster warns of disasters no one can stop.

Freddy Krueger's Tales of Terror #4: Twice Burned

1995 · novel

Author
David Bergantino
About
Tor Books, June 1995, 154 pages. A girl's reincarnation dreams tie into her history report.

Freddy Krueger's Tales of Terror #5: Help Wanted

1995 · novel

Author
David Bergantino
About
Tor Books, August 1995, 150 pages. A hospital job with a strange new classmate turns deadly.

Freddy Krueger's Tales of Terror #6: Deadly Disguise

1995 · novel

Author
David Bergantino
About
Tor Books, October 1995, 116 pages. A celebrity comes home for a Halloween party at a mansion.

A Nightmare on Elm Street: Suffer the Children

2005 · novel

Author
David Bishop
About
Black Flame, May 2005, 404 pages. Six volunteers testing an anti-insomnia drug end up in Freddy's dream world. Black Flame's five novels pick up after Freddy vs. Jason.

A Nightmare on Elm Street: Dreamspawn

2005 · novel

Author
Christa Faust
About
Black Flame, May 2005, 407 pages. Freddy hunts Elm Street residents so they never wake up.

A Nightmare on Elm Street: Protege

2005 · novel

Author
Tim Waggoner
About
Black Flame, September 2005, 409 pages. Freddy looks for a young apprentice.

A Nightmare on Elm Street: Perchance to Dream

2006 · novel

Author
Natasha Rhodes
About
Black Flame, February 2006, 412 pages. A boy who can stop dreams leaves Freddy powerless.

A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Dealers

2006 · novel

Author
Jeffrey Thomas
About
Black Flame, July 2006, 398 pages. Freddy uses a dream-recording gadget called the TranceBox to spread.

A Nightmare on Elm Street: Ripped from a Dream

2006 · novel

Author
David Bishop, Christa Faust, Tim Waggoner
About
Black Flame omnibus, October 2006, 768 pages. Collects the first three Black Flame novels.

Freddy Krueger's Seven Sweetest Dreams

1991 · novel

Author
Martin Harry Greenberg (editor)
About
Futura paperback anthology of seven original Freddy short stories.

The Nightmare on Elm Street Companion

1987 · guide

Author
Jeffrey Cooper
About
St. Martin's Press paperback. Covers Freddy's backstory, effects, cast interviews and plot summaries through Dream Warriors.

Monsterland's The Freddy Krueger Story

1988 · non-fiction

Author
James Van Hise
About
Pop Cult, Inc. paperback on how Freddy went from a turned-down idea to a hit series in five years.

The Nightmare Never Ends: The Official History of Freddy Krueger and the Nightmare on Elm Street Films

1992 · non-fiction

Author
William Schoell and James Spencer
About
Citadel Press paperback authorized by New Line, with photos, charts and behind-the-scenes material.

Screams & Nightmares: The Films of Wes Craven

1999 · non-fiction

Author
Brian J. Robb
About
Overlook Press. Career study of Craven with interviews and more than 200 photos.

Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th

2005 · non-fiction

Author
Peter Bracke
About
Sparkplug Press hardcover oral history with more than 200 alumni. Includes a detailed Freddy vs. Jason chapter.

Hollywood Monster: A Walk Down Elm Street with the Man of Your Dreams

2009 · non-fiction

Author
Robert Englund with Alan Goldsher
About
Pocket Books hardcover memoir. Englund covers his audition for Wes Craven and where Freddy's personality came from.

Freddy Krueger Forever: All About A Nightmare on Elm Street

2010 · guide

Author
Dana Rasmussen
About
Webster's Digital Services / 6 Degree Books paperback covering the series from 1984 through the 2010 remake.

Wes Craven: The Man and His Nightmares

2011 · non-fiction

Author
John Wooley
About
Wiley paperback biography. Looks at Craven's childhood, his academic years and the real events behind Freddy.

Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy: The Making of Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street

2014 · non-fiction

Author
Thommy Hutson
About
Red Rover Books. Production history of the 1984 film with interviews, storyboards and rare photos. Hutson also wrote the 2010 documentary Never Sleep Again.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child Official Movie Magazine

1989 · guide

Author
Fangoria
About
Fangoria one-off magazine sold at the film's opening. Story in pictures, cast and crew interviews, effects secrets, series overview and two fold-out posters.

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare Official Movie Magazine

1991 · guide

Author
Fangoria
About
Fangoria tie-in magazine released with the film, same format as the Dream Child issue.

Wes Craven's New Nightmare Official Movie Magazine

1994 · guide

Author
Fangoria
About
Fangoria tie-in magazine released with the film.

Freddy vs. Jason Official Movie Magazine

2003 · guide

Author
Fangoria
About
Fangoria tie-in magazine released with the film.

The Freddy Times #1 and #2

1988 · guide

Author
New Line Cinema
About
Newsletters sent to Freddy Fan Club members.

Comics

Freddy Krueger's A Nightmare on Elm Street

Publisher
Marvel Comics
Years
1989
Issues
2
About
Black-and-white magazine written by Steve Gerber, art by Rich Buckler and Tony DeZuniga, finishes by Alfredo Alcala, covers by Joe Jusko. Psychiatrist Dr. Juliann Quinn looks into teen deaths in Springwood and teams with Allison Hayes, who survived Freddy. Five issues were solicited, but Marvel stopped after issue 2. Jusko painted a cover for an unpublished issue 3. Gerber wrote in Reading for Pleasure #8 (January 1990) that Marvel killed it because it feared criticism, not because anyone had complained.

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

Publisher
Innovation Publishing
Years
1991
Issues
3, plus a 3-D version of #3
About
Film adaptation by Andy Mangels from Michael De Luca's screenplay and Rachel Talalay's story. Art by Mike Witherby and Robb Phipps with Barb Kaalberg. Issue 3 also came in a 3-D version with 3-D work by Ray Zone to match the film's ending. A 76-page full-color trade paperback collected it.

Nightmares on Elm Street

Publisher
Innovation Publishing
Years
1991 to 1992
Issues
6
About
Original series by Andy Mangels billed as the official lead-in to Freddy's Dead. Tony Harris drew issues 1 and 2. Patrick Rolo, Ray Kryssing and Thomas F. O'Connor drew issues 3 to 6. Brings together survivors from the first five films, including Nancy Thompson, Dr. Neil Gordon, Alice Johnson, Jacob and Yvonne.

A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Beginning

Publisher
Innovation Publishing
Years
1992
Issues
2 published
About
Andy Mangels story set after Freddy's Dead, art by David Day and Dan Day, covers by Cliff Hayes. Innovation shut down before issue 3 came out. Mangels later posted outlines for the unpublished issues on his own site.

Freddy's Nightmares (UK reprint magazine)

Publisher
Trident Comics
Years
1992
Issues
4
About
UK-only magazine that reprinted the Marvel and Innovation comics.

A Nightmare on Elm Street Special

Publisher
Avatar Press
Years
2005
Issues
1
About
Brian Pulido one-shot with art by Juan Jose Ryp and Greg Waller. After Freddy vs. Jason, Springwood hides the truth about Freddy. Teen reporter Emily digs into it at Westin Hills. Variant covers included Glow, Gore, Terror, Wraparound, Blood, Gold, Platinum, Carcass, Head of the Class, Painted and Waiting.

A Nightmare on Elm Street: Paranoid

Publisher
Avatar Press
Years
2005 to 2006
Issues
3
About
Brian Pulido writes and Juan Jose Ryp draws. Kids take Hypnocil to keep Freddy out, so Freddy goes after the town's drug shipments. Each issue had many variants, including Leather and Die-Cut covers.

A Nightmare on Elm Street: Fearbook

Publisher
Avatar Press
Years
2006
Issues
1
About
Brian Pulido one-shot with art by Juan Jose Ryp and Dheeraj Verma. A pharmacy robbery breaks the Hypnocil supply and Freddy gets back in. Variants included Body Count and Leather.

A Nightmare on Elm Street

Publisher
WildStorm (DC Comics)
Years
2006 to 2007
Issues
8
About
Chuck Dixon series launched in October 2006 and ended with issue 8 in September 2007. Art by Kevin West, Joel Gomez and others. Covers by Tony Harris and Ben Oliver, with a Tim Bradstreet variant. A later arc brings in Aztec mythology and an ancient sleep demon that could stop Freddy. The trade paperback collects issues 1 to 3 and 5 to 7 with a sketch gallery.

New Line Cinema's Tales of Horror

Publisher
WildStorm
Years
2007
Issues
1
About
September 2007 anthology one-shot with a Nightmare on Elm Street story and a Texas Chainsaw Massacre story. Writers Christos Gage and Peter Milligan, art by Stefano Raffaele and Tom Feister, cover by Darick Robertson.

Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash

Publisher
WildStorm and Dynamite Entertainment
Years
2007 to 2008
Issues
6
About
James Kuhoric script from Jeff Katz's unmade film treatment, art by Jason Craig. Covers by J. Scott Campbell, Eric Powell and Richard Friend. Freddy and Jason go after the Necronomicon, and Ash Williams from Evil Dead fights them at an S-Mart. The trade paperback adds an alternate ending, sketches and creator commentary.

Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash: The Nightmare Warriors

Publisher
WildStorm and Dynamite Entertainment
Years
2009
Issues
6
About
Jeff Katz and James Kuhoric write, Jason Craig draws. Covers by Arthur Suydam, Shane Davis and Jock. A government group lets Freddy loose with the Necronomicon, Tommy Jarvis returns to face Jason, and the dead march on Washington, D.C. Issue 1 went on sale June 24, 2009. DC's collection came out July 14, 2010.

Publishing

Comic archive

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

1991 · comic adaptation

Publisher
Innovation
Issues
3
Adaptation
Andy Mangels
Notes
Three-issue film adaptation.
Archive
Comic bibliography
Readers
Label: READ #1, Scan pages: 31; Label: READ #2, Scan pages: 29; Label: READ #3, Scan pages: 29

A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Beginning

1992 · comic limited series

Publisher
Innovation
Issues published
2
Planned issues
3
Writer
Andy Mangels
Notes
Two issues published; planned third issue remained unpublished. Andy Mangels's site preserves the original four-issue plot from before Maggie and Tracy were added as a framing sequence, plus scripts for issues #1–3.
Archive
Comic bibliography
Original plot issues
4
Dates
Summer–Fall 1992
Sources
Label: Andy Mangels's own bibliography; Label: Michigan State University Comic Art Collection catalog
Readers
Label: READ #1, Scan pages: 27; Label: READ #2, Scan pages: 28

Games

A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Game

1987

Platforms
Board game
About
Victory Games board game with cards, board, dice, pieces and markers.

A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Freddy Game

1988

Platforms
Board game
About
Cardinal / Victory Games. Freddy's house game board, player pieces, Nightmare cards and dice.

A Nightmare on Elm Street

1990

Platforms
NES
About
Developed by Rare, published by LJN. Up to four players at once with the NES Four Score or NES Satellite. You hunt through Elm Street for Freddy's bones and burn them in the high school furnace. Coffee keeps you awake, and falling asleep sends you into the dream world, where you can turn into a Dream Warrior. Released in 1990; some sources say 1989.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (computer game)

1989

Platforms
Commodore 64, IBM PC
About
Top-down action game in the style of Gauntlet. You find Freddy's house, rescue friends and fight him. Wikipedia credits Monarch Software as publisher and Westwood Associates as developer. The Companion credits ShareData.

Freddy: A Nightmare on Elm Street (pinball)

1994

Platforms
Arcade pinball
About
Gottlieb pinball table. Wikipedia dates it 1994. The Companion lists it as 1991.

Friday the 13th & A Nightmare on Elm Street Killer Trivia

2005

Platforms
Board game
About
USAOPOLY trivia game covering both series.

Freddy vs. Jason: Hell Unbound (canceled)

Unreleased

Platforms
Multiplatform (planned)
About
Planned game from David Bergantino for up to four players, with Freddy or Jason fighting through levels set in Hell. The film's long delays killed it.

The Nightmare Series Encyclopedia

1999

Platforms
DVD-ROM / DVD interactive
About
Bonus disc in the 1999 DVD box set. You move through a maze with Freddy haunting the halls and solve puzzles to unlock extras, along with cast and crew interviews.

Mortal Kombat: Freddy Krueger DLC

2011

Platforms
PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, later PC
About
NetherRealm Studios, Warner Bros. Interactive. Released August 9, 2011 as one of four DLC fighters, with Skarlet, Kenshi and Rain. Englund voices him. Later included in the Komplete Edition.

Mortal Kombat X Mobile

Platforms
iOS, Android
About
Freddy was added to the free-to-play mobile version of Mortal Kombat X.

Dead by Daylight: A Nightmare on Elm Street

2017

Platforms
PC, consoles
About
Behaviour Digital chapter released October 26, 2017. Freddy is The Nightmare, modeled on Jackie Earle Haley's 2010 version. No Robert Englund skin exists. Voiced by Filip Ivanovic, then a Behaviour art director. New survivor Quentin Smith and the Badham Preschool map. Perks: Fire Up, Remember Me and Blood Warden. He was the first killer to get a major power rework; patch 8.5.0 added Dream Snares and Dream Pallets.

Games and interactive

Dead by Daylight: A Nightmare on Elm Street

2017 · licensed game chapter

Platform
Dead by Daylight
Developer
Behaviour Digital
Publisher
Behaviour Digital
Release date
2017-10-26
Killer
The Nightmare / Freddy Krueger
Survivor
Quentin Smith
Map
Springwood — Badham Preschool
Power
Dream Demon
Perks
Fire Up; Remember Me; Blood Warden
Status
released

Home Media

Documentaries and retrospectives

Elm Street U.S.A.: The Making of A Nightmare on Elm Street 4

1989

About
Behind-the-scenes look at the making of The Dream Master with Robert Englund, Lisa Wilcox, Tuesday Knight and Renny Harlin.

The Making of Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

1991

About
Promotional making-of listed in the franchise's Wikipedia page.

Slash & Burn: The Freddy Krueger Story

1991

About
MTV promotional special.

Freddy Speaks

1992

About
Special narrated by Robert Englund.

The Nightmare Series Encyclopedia

1999

About
Bonus disc in New Line's 1999 DVD box set with cast and crew interviews and a puzzle game that unlocks extras.

Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy

2010

About
Four-hour documentary from 1428 Films. Directed by Daniel Farrands and Andrew Kasch, written and produced by Thommy Hutson, narrated and executive produced by Heather Langenkamp. 106 interviewees including Wes Craven, Robert Englund and Robert Shaye. DVD May 4, 2010. Won the 2010 Saturn Award for Best DVD Release and two Reaper Awards. Farrands also made the Friday the 13th documentary His Name Was Jason.

I Am Nancy

2011

About
Directed by Arlene Marechal and produced with Heather Langenkamp. Premiered July 1, 2011 at the Days of the Dead festival. Langenkamp visits horror conventions and asks why fans love Freddy and not Nancy, with longer talks with Englund and Craven.

Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street

2019

About
Directed by Roman Chimienti and Tyler Jensen, 99 minutes. Mark Patton revisits Freddy's Revenge, its gay subtext and what it did to his career. Premiered April 5, 2019 at the Cleveland International Film Festival. Virgil Films opened it February 27, 2020 and put it on digital and DVD March 3, 2020. Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome and Enjoy the Ride Records.

FredHeads

About
Documentary about the franchise's fans. Popcorn Frights screened it in Fort Lauderdale on January 20, 2023, with all proceeds going to Mark Patton during a serious medical emergency.

Hollywood Dreams & Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story

2023

About
Career portrait of Robert Englund. Premiered on Screambox on June 6, 2023. Interviews include Nancy Englund, Lin Shaye, Eli Roth, Tony Todd and Heather Langenkamp. Released on Blu-ray and SteelBook.

Freddy's Dead missing footage video with Rachel Talalay

2026

About
Video covered by the Companion on January 11, 2026. Talalay describes a filmed coda where Freddy's demons enter another boy. It was cut early and never tested, and she says no one can find the footage. She also talks about lost Dream Master scenes.

JoBlo Horror: Nightmare 4 deleted scenes breakdown

2026

About
YouTube video from April 2026 that surveys deleted, alternate and lost footage from The Dream Master.

Sara Risher interview (Dread Central)

2026

About
May 12, 2026. Producer on the original films talks with Matthew Rozsa. She says the series is about the sins of parents falling on their kids, the Freddy's Revenge subtext was not intended, and Freddy's Dead was the weakest because the team was tired.

Music

A Nightmare on Elm Street (Original Motion Picture Score)

1984

Artist or composer
Charles Bernstein
Label
Varese Sarabande
About
Charles Bernstein's score album.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge

1985

Artist or composer
Christopher Young
Label
Varese Sarabande
About
Christopher Young's score album.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors

1987

Artist or composer
Angelo Badalamenti
Label
Varese Sarabande
About
Angelo Badalamenti's score album.

Dream Warriors

1987

Artist or composer
Dokken
Label
Elektra
About
Theme for Dream Warriors, written by George Lynch and Jeff Pilson, released February 18, 1987 and the closing track on Back for the Attack. Reached #22 on Billboard Album Rock Tracks. The video mixes in film footage with Patricia Arquette and Robert Englund.

Are You Ready for Freddy

1988

Artist or composer
The Fat Boys featuring Robert Englund
Label
Tin Pan Apple / Mercury
About
Released March 18, 1988 as the theme for The Dream Master, on Coming Back Hard Again. Written by Donald Lamont. Englund raps as Freddy and chases the group through the Elm Street house in the video.

A Nightmare on My Street

1988

Artist or composer
DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince
Label
Jive / RCA
About
Released August 1, 1988 from He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper. Hit #15 on the Hot 100 and #9 on Hot Black Singles. Samples Bernstein's theme. It was considered for The Dream Master and turned down. New Line sued, the video was destroyed, and later vinyl carries a disclaimer that the song is not tied to the films.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (soundtrack)

1988

Artist or composer
Various artists
Label
Chrysalis
About
Song soundtrack for The Dream Master, with Sea Hags, The Angels, Go West, Divinyls, Vinnie Vincent Invasion, Blondie, Love/Hate and others.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (score)

1988

Artist or composer
Craig Safan
Label
Varese Sarabande
About
Craig Safan's score album.

Nightmare

1988

Artist or composer
Tuesday Knight
Label
Unreleased on the 1988 soundtrack
About
Opening song of The Dream Master, sung by the actress who played Kristen. It was left off the album.

Love Kills

1988

Artist or composer
Vinnie Vincent Invasion
Label
Chrysalis
About
Dream Master song with a video built from film scenes.

Freddy's Greatest Hits

1987

Artist or composer
The Elm Street Group featuring Robert Englund
About
Novelty album with Englund as Freddy.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (soundtrack)

1989

Artist or composer
Various artists
Label
Jive
About
Ten songs, rock on side one and hip hop on side two. Bruce Dickinson, W.A.S.P., Romeo's Daughter, Mammoth, Slave Raider, Whodini, Samantha Fox, Kool Moe Dee, Doctor Ice and Schoolly D.

Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter

1989

Artist or composer
Bruce Dickinson
Label
Jive
About
Written for The Dream Child. Won the Golden Raspberry for Worst Original Song. Iron Maiden's version reached #1 in the UK in January 1991, the band's only UK #1 single.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (score)

1989

Artist or composer
Jay Ferguson
Label
Varese Sarabande
About
Jay Ferguson's score album. Later expanded in the Varese eight-CD box.

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (score)

1991

Artist or composer
Brian May
Label
Varese Sarabande
About
Score by the Australian composer Brian May, not the Queen guitarist.

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (soundtrack)

1991

Artist or composer
Various artists
About
Song album. Iggy Pop sings Why Was I Born (Freddy's Dead). Also Goo Goo Dolls, Fates Warning and Chubb Rock.

Freddy's Favorites: Best of A Nightmare on Elm Street

1993

Artist or composer
Bernstein, Young, Badalamenti, Safan, Ferguson, May
Label
Varese Sarabande
About
Compilation CD of cues from the first six scores.

Wes Craven's New Nightmare

1994

Artist or composer
J. Peter Robinson
About
J. Peter Robinson's score album.

Freddy vs. Jason (soundtrack)

2003

Artist or composer
Various artists
Label
Roadrunner Records
About
Released August 12, 2003. Twenty metal tracks, fourteen unreleased. Peaked at #25 on the Billboard 200 and #4 on Soundtrack Albums. Ill Nino's How Can I Live reached #26 on Mainstream Rock. Also Killswitch Engage, Slipknot, Sevendust, Type O Negative and In Flames.

Freddy vs. Jason (score)

2003

Artist or composer
Graeme Revell
Label
Varese Sarabande
About
Graeme Revell's score CD.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

2010

Artist or composer
Steve Jablonsky
Label
WaterTower Music
About
Steve Jablonsky's score album.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 8 CD Box Set

2015

Artist or composer
All original-series composers
Label
Varese Sarabande
About
Eight-CD collection of the original series scores.

Box of Souls: A Nightmare on Elm Street Collection

2017

Artist or composer
Bernstein, Young, Badalamenti, Safan, Ferguson, May, Robinson
Label
Death Waltz Recording Co. / Mondo
About
8xLP box, $250 at Mondo. Scores for the first seven films remastered for vinyl by James Plotkin, Mike Saputo art, 12-page booklet with composer and cast interviews.

Riverdale cast cover of Dream Warriors

2018

Artist or composer
K.J. Apa, Ashleigh Murray, Camila Mendes, Lili Reinhart
About
Cover version recorded by Riverdale cast members.

Music and video promotions

Dokken - Dream Warriors

music-video / soundtrack promotion

Film
Dream Warriors
Notes
The song/music video became a signature cross-promotional element for Nightmare 3; disc releases preserve the video.

Events

Freddy Fan Club

Where
Mail-order, New Line Cinema
Years
1988
About
Kit with a pocket folder, membership card, a wallet photo, a storyboard reproduction, three color photos, the Freddy life-story booklet It's My Life and a subscription to The Freddy Times.

Halloween Horror Nights 17: A Nightmare on Elm Street: Dreamwalkers

Where
Universal Studios Florida, Orlando
Years
2007
About
Haunted house at HHN 17: Carnival of Carnage. Freddy was one of that year's icons with Jack the Clown, Leatherface and Jason.

Halloween Horror Nights: A Nightmare on Elm Street: Freddy's Nightmare

Where
Universal Studios Hollywood
Years
2007
About
Maze. Freddy was one of the event's icons.

Halloween Horror Nights icon

Where
Universal Studios Hollywood
Years
2008
About
Freddy returned as one of the event's icons.

Halloween Horror Nights: A Nightmare on Elm Street: Never Sleep Again

Where
Universal Studios Hollywood
Years
2010
About
Maze based on the 2010 remake.

Halloween Horror Nights 25: Freddy vs. Jason

Where
Universal Studios Florida, Orlando
Years
2015
About
Haunted house based on Freddy vs. Jason.

Halloween Horror Nights: Freddy vs. Jason

Where
Universal Studios Hollywood
Years
2016
About
Maze based on Freddy vs. Jason.

Dream Warriors 30th anniversary event

Years
2017
About
Don Dokken played an acoustic Dream Warriors at the film's 30th anniversary event.

FredHeads fundraiser screening

Where
Popcorn Frights, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Years
2023
About
January 20, 2023. Screening of the fan documentary FredHeads, with all proceeds going to Mark Patton's medical fund.

Up All Night with Freddy

Where
Classic Gateway Theater, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Years
2024
About
Free Popcorn Frights marathon on August 17, 2024 for the 40th anniversary. Seven films from 10:00 p.m. to morning, ending with New Nightmare at 8:40 a.m.

AMC FearFest: A Nightmare of Freddy Marathon

Where
AMC
Years
2024
About
40th anniversary marathons on October 4 and October 29, 2024, plus a night of Freddy vs. Jason, the remake and New Nightmare on October 14.

A Nightmare on Elm Street in 35mm, 40th Anniversary

Where
Union County Performing Arts Center, Rahway, New Jersey
Years
2024
About
October 24, 2024 40th anniversary screening on 35mm.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 1 & 3 35mm double feature

Where
Cinema Arts Centre
Years
2024
About
November 9, 2024 40th anniversary screening of the original and Dream Warriors.

AMC FearFest 2025

Where
AMC and AMC+
Years
2025
About
October 5 marathon of the original films ending with Freddy vs. Jason. October 8 The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs showing the 1984 film. October 14 A Nightmare of Freddy Marathon. More airings October 20 and 29.

Robert Englund's Hollywood Walk of Fame star

Where
6644 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles
Years
2025
About
October 31, 2025. The 2,826th star, in Motion Pictures, in front of Larry Edmunds Bookshop. Eli Roth and Heather Langenkamp spoke.

Events and experiences

A Nightmare on Elm Street in 35mm - 40th Anniversary

2024 · 2024-10-24 · anniversary theatrical event

Location
Union County Performing Arts Center, Rahway, New Jersey
Features
35mm screening; Wurlitzer organ pre-show; spooky vendors; themed drinks; photo-op area; chance to win Heather Langenkamp-signed movie poster

Merchandise

Merchandise lines

New Line Cinema (Freddy Fan Club)

Years
1988
Items
Fan club kit with photos, a membership card, a storyboard reproduction and The Freddy Times newsletter.

Screamin' Models

Years
1987
Items
Freddy Krueger Collector's Edition model kit to build and paint. A yellow version came out in Germany.

Warner Bros. U.K.

Years
1988
Items
Dream Warriors promotional alarm clock.

Cardinal / Victory Games

Years
1987 to 1988
Items
A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Game (1987) and The Freddy Game (1988) board games.

Matchbox

Years
1989 to 1999
Items
18-inch Talking Freddy doll with removable hat and five phrases (1989). MAXX FX Freddy, the only figure released from a planned monster line, set up before or after the burns (1989). Freddy yo-yo. 1999 Matchbox Freddy with a Boiler Maintenance van.

Impel Marketing

Years
1991
Items
144-card collector set covering the films through Freddy's Dead.

Comic Images

Items
Sticker album that holds 264 color stickers.

Gottlieb

Years
1994
Items
Freddy: A Nightmare on Elm Street pinball machine.

McFarlane Toys

Years
1998 to 2001
Items
Movie Maniacs Freddy with hat, glove, Freddy puppet and poster stand (1998). Freddy and Jason display case (1999). 18-inch Freddy with motion-activated sound (2000). Movie Maniacs 4 Freddy (2001).

NECA

Years
2004 to 2006
Items
18-inch talking Freddy with demon head (2004). Freddy vs. Jason two-pack with burning floor stand (2004). Fred Krueger: The Springwood Slasher exclusive (2004). New Nightmare 18-inch Freddy that plays the jump rope song and Cult Classics New Nightmare Freddy (2005). Cult Classics Hall of Fame Freddy (2006).

Mezco Toyz

Years
2002 to 2009, plus One:12 Collective
Items
Cinema of Fear sets with Freddy, Jason and Leatherface (2002, 2005). Cinema of Fear series 1 to 4 (2007 to 2009): 14-inch plush Freddys, Dream Warriors and 1984 Freddys, Screen Grabs dioramas, Nancy in the bathtub, Dream Child Freddy with baby Freddy and chef hat, surgeon Freddy with pizza and bone saw, Debbie with bug hotel. 25th anniversary 12-inch Freddy with chest of souls and marionette (2009). One:12 Collective Freddy.

Sideshow Collectibles

Years
2003 to 2006
Items
Modern Horror Classics Classic Freddy (2003). Freddy vs. Jason Fred Krueger with battle-damaged Jason mask, exclusive with Camp Crystal Lake shirt (2004). 1/4 scale 18-inch Fred Krueger (2004). New Nightmare 12-inch Freddy with tongue phone (2004). Springwood Slasher with newspaper and cigarette (2005). Demon Freddy Premium Format (2005). Dream Warriors 12-inch Freddy with Chest of Souls and syringe fingers (2006). Freddy vs. Jason Scream Scene polystone diorama over 15 inches, exclusive with Freddypillar (2006).

Hawthorne Village

Years
2005
Items
Scary Movie Halloween Village with 1428 Elm Street, the Camp Crystal Lake cabin and the Hewitt house.

USAOPOLY

Years
2005
Items
Friday the 13th & A Nightmare on Elm Street Killer Trivia game.

SEGA Toys

Years
2007
Items
Japan-only Freddy vs. Jason Freddy figure.

The Horror Collection

Years
2007
Items
House of Horror hand-painted Freddy approved by New Line.

Gemmy Industries

Years
2008
Items
14-inch animated talking Freddy with moving head and glove and five film lines.

Kotobukiya

Items
Bishoujo Freddy Krueger statue.

Funko

Years
2010 to present
Items
Freddy bobblehead (2010). Pop! Freddy Krueger #2.

Trick or Treat Studios

Years
Current
Items
Officially licensed Freddy masks and gloves from several films.

Vans

Years
2021
Items
October 2021 Horror collection high-top in Freddy's red and green sweater stripes, alongside IT, Friday the 13th and The Shining shoes.

Fright-Rags

Years
Current
Items
Hypnocil replica mints.

Jack's Attic

Years
2026
Items
Custom four-card set with real glove slash marks. First two cards (Nancy's bathtub and the phone call) went on preorder April 17, 2026, limited to 20 sets.

Home media collections

A Nightmare on Elm Street Collection

1989 · 3-tape VHS (Media Home Entertainment)

Contents
Films 1 to 3, 275 minutes, with two 3-D viewers promoting The Dream Child.

Freddy's Nightmares VHS

1991 · VHS (Warner Home Video)

Contents
Five single-episode tapes.

A Nightmare on Elm Street Trilogy (UK)

1998 · 3-tape PAL VHS (Entertainment in Video)

Contents
Films 1 to 3.

Cultissime Freddy (France)

1998 · 3-tape PAL VHS (Metropolitan)

Contents
Films 1 to 3.

The Nightmare on Elm Street Collection

1999 · 8-disc DVD (New Line Home Video, N4788)

Contents
Seven films plus the Nightmare Series Encyclopedia disc, released September 21, 1999, 764 minutes.

The Nightmare on Elm Street Collection

2000 · 7-tape VHS (New Line Home Video)

Contents
Nightmare 1 to 5, Freddy's Dead and New Nightmare, released August 22, 2000, 764 minutes, with trailers and director interviews.

The Nightmare on Elm Street 1-5 DVD Collection (UK)

2001 · 5-disc Region 2 DVD (Entertainment in Video)

Contents
Films 1 to 5, released June 25, 2001.

Freddy: L'integrale (France)

2002, 2005 · 7-disc Region 2 DVD (Metropolitan)

Contents
Films 1 to 7, issued October 17, 2002 and again October 27, 2005.

Freddy's Nightmares Volume 1

2003 · Region 2 DVD (Warner Home Video)

Contents
The only volume released. Poor sales cancelled the rest.

Freddy vs. Jason Platinum Series

2004 · DVD and VHS (New Line)

Contents
January 2004 special edition.

The Nightmare on Elm Street 1-6 DVD Collection and Ultimate Collector's Edition (UK)

2004 · 6-disc and 7-disc Region 2 DVD (Entertainment in Video)

Contents
Films 1 to 6 (June 28, 2004), and films 1 to 7 in the Ultimate Collector's Edition (October 25, 2004).

The Nightmare on Elm Street Collection (Germany, Denmark, Netherlands)

2005 · 7-disc Region 2 DVD (Warner, Sandrew Metronome, RCV)

Contents
Films 1 to 7 in each country.

A Nightmare on Elm Street: The First 3 Nightmares / The Second 3 Nightmares (Australia)

2005 · 3-disc Region 4 DVD sets (Roadshow)

Contents
Films 1 to 3, and films 4 to 6.

Pesadilla la Coleccion (Argentina)

2005 · 7-disc Region 4 DVD (New Line)

Contents
Films 1 to 7.

A Hora do Pesadelo Colecao (Brazil)

2005 · 3-disc and 4-disc Region 4 DVD (Play Arte)

Contents
Films 1 to 3, and films 4 to 7.

A Nightmare on Elm Street Collection (Australia)

2007, 2011 · Region 4 DVD (Roadshow)

Contents
2007: films 1 to 7. October 5, 2011: films 1 to 7 plus the documentary Fear Himself.

Koshmar na ulitse Vyazov (Russia)

2008 · Region 5 DVD (Central Partnership Digital)

Contents
Complete 7-disc set, plus separate sets of films 1 to 3 and 4 to 7.

Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy

2010 · DVD

Contents
Two-disc set released May 4, 2010.

Nightmare on Elm Street Collection (US)

2010 · 8-disc Region 1 DVD (New Line)

Contents
Films 1 to 8 including Freddy vs. Jason, released April 13, 2010, 702 minutes.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

2010 · DVD and Blu-ray

Contents
October 5, 2010.

A Nightmare on Elm Street Collection

2011 (UK), 2012 (Best Buy), 2013 (US) · 5-disc Blu-ray (Warner Home Video)

Contents
Films 1 to 7 plus a bonus disc, region free, 764 minutes. UK October 17, 2011. Best Buy exclusive October 2, 2012. U.S. March 5, 2013. France got its own Freddy: L'integrale Blu-ray from Metropolitan on December 1, 2011.

I Am Nancy

2011 · DVD

Contents
Langenkamp's documentary about Nancy and the fans.

Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street

2020 · DVD, digital, Blu-ray

Contents
Virgil Films DVD and digital March 3, 2020. Blu-ray by Vinegar Syndrome and Enjoy the Ride Records.

Hollywood Dreams & Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story

2023 · Blu-ray and SteelBook

Contents
Physical release of the Englund documentary after its Screambox debut.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 40th Anniversary

2024 · 4K UHD, standard and SteelBook

Contents
October 15, 2024. First 4K release of the 1984 film. The uncut version had its first U.S. digital release the same year.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 7-Film Collection

2025 · 7-disc 4K UHD (Warner Bros.)

Contents
U.S. release September 30, 2025. Films 1 to 7, with uncut versions of the original and The Dream Child. Freddy's Dead ending in anaglyph 3-D with glasses. New featurettes include Boiler Room Confessional and Freddy's Footnotes. Also sold as a SteelBook.

Merchandise catalog

One:12 Collective Freddy Krueger

Mezco Toyz · 1:12 figure

Notes
Four head portraits, removable skull faceplate, striped sweater, claw gloves and Tina-nightmare trash-can lid.
License status
officially licensed

News

News in 2026

  • 2025-09-30: Warner Bros. released the A Nightmare on Elm Street 7-Film Collection on 4K UHD in the U.S.
  • 2025-10: AMC FearFest 2025 ran Nightmare marathons on October 5 and 14, with more airings through October 29 on AMC and AMC+.
  • 2025-10-31: Robert Englund got the 2,826th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, with Eli Roth and Heather Langenkamp speaking.
  • 2026-01-11: The Companion posted Rachel Talalay's video about the lost Freddy's Dead coda, missing Dream Master footage and changes in the home video cut of Freddy's Dead.
  • 2026-04-05: The Companion shared JoBlo Horror's video on The Dream Master's deleted and alternate scenes.
  • 2026-04-17: Lee Cronin, with The Mummy in theaters, told Variety he dreams of making a Nightmare film but his next movie probably won't be a franchise one.
  • 2026-04-17: Jack's Attic opened preorders on custom slashed Nightmare trading cards, 20 sets.
  • 2026-05-12: Dread Central published producer Sara Risher's interview on the series' themes.
  • 2026-07-13: Paramount closed a deal for U.S. rights to adapt Wes Craven's original screenplay. It is the first project for the new Paramount Primal genre label, in priority development. Producers are Iya Labunka, Jonathan Craven and Marc Toberoff. J.D. Lifshitz and Raphael Margules executive produce. New Line keeps international rights. ABC News dates it July 13 and Variety July 14.
  • 2026-07-30: Dread Central, citing Kim Masters at Puck, reported that Warner Bros. is developing its own Nightmare film for international release only, with Lee Cronin in talks to write, direct and produce.
  • 2026-07-22: Dream Warriors director and co-writer Chuck Russell died at home in the San Diego area at 74, per Variety and People (reported July 24).
  • 2026-09: No writer, director, cast or release date has been named for the Paramount Primal film.
  • 2026: Heather Langenkamp is listed for the horror films Last Chance Motel and Dirt.

Related

Freddy's Nightmares

tv

Years
1988–1990
Notes
Anthology television series hosted by Freddy Krueger.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 7-Movie Collection

2025 · home_media

Notes
Warner Bros. promoted the seven-film collection in 4K Ultra HD/digital.

Franchise landmarks

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Details
Wes Craven establishes Freddy Krueger as a killer who attacks teenagers through their dreams and introduces Nancy Thompson as the defining original survivor.

Dream Warriors

Details
The third film's ensemble and individualized dream abilities become one of the franchise's most influential expansions of Elm Street mythology.

Wes Craven's New Nightmare

Details
The 1994 film turns the property inward, using a meta-fictional reality in which the Nightmare movies and their creators exist.

Freddy vs. Jason

Details
The 2003 crossover links the Nightmare and Friday the 13th screen mythologies.

2010 remake

Details
A new cast and continuity rework the original film's premise while retaining Freddy's core visual iconography.

Original cycle

  • A Nightmare on Elm Street
  • Freddy's Revenge
  • Dream Warriors
  • The Dream Master
  • The Dream Child
  • Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

Meta branch

  • Wes Craven's New Nightmare

Crossover

  • Freddy vs. Jason

Remake

  • A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

Promotional campaigns

Press kit archive

Television press kits

Trivia

  • Wes Craven got the idea from Los Angeles Times stories about Hmong refugees who died in their sleep during nightmares.
  • Freddy's name comes from a bully who picked on Craven as a kid.
  • Jim Doyle built Freddy's original glove. He made a sharp hero glove and a safer stunt glove.
  • Robert Englund pushed for the fedora after a hat test showed how strong the silhouette was.
  • Johnny Depp made his film debut in the original. He bombed the audition, but Craven's daughters picked his headshot.
  • The 1984 film was named to the National Film Registry on December 14, 2021. The Library of Congress said it was made for under $2 million and helped build New Line Cinema.
  • Budgets disagree for the original. The Numbers says $1.8 million, Wikipedia's film article says $1.1 million, and the Library of Congress says under $2 million.
  • The Numbers lists franchise totals of $370,795,466 domestic and $492,470,554 worldwide for the nine films. Wikipedia gives $370.6 million and $490.4 million.
  • The Numbers lists Freddy vs. Jason's budget as $25 million. Wikipedia says $30 million.
  • The 2010 remake is the top grosser worldwide at $117.7 million by The Numbers. It opened to $32.9 million.
  • Freddy vs. Jason opened to $36.4 million in 3,014 theaters and is the top-grossing Friday the 13th film.
  • New Line spent about $6 million on Freddy vs. Jason scripts over years of development from 1987 to 2003.
  • Ronny Yu replaced Kane Hodder with the 6-foot-5 Ken Kirzinger as Jason because he wanted a taller, slower Jason who would tower over the 5-foot-9 Englund.
  • The Dream Master opened to $12.8 million, the biggest opening for an independent release at the time.
  • Wikipedia calls Dream Warriors New Line's first nationally distributed film and says it set an independent opening record. It made $44.8 million domestic.
  • Frank Darabont co-wrote Dream Warriors with Craven, Bruce Wagner and Chuck Russell.
  • Zsa Zsa Gabor's reactions in her Dream Warriors cameo were improvised, reportedly because she didn't know the films.
  • Dream Warriors reveals that Freddy's mother, Amanda Krueger, was a young nun accidentally locked in the asylum with hundreds of patients over the holidays.
  • Freddy's Revenge writer David Chaskin admitted in Never Sleep Again that he put in the gay subtext on purpose.
  • Sara Risher said in 2026 that the Freddy's Revenge subtext was not intended by the producers, which differs from Chaskin's account.
  • Freddy's Dead has cameos from Johnny Depp (credited as Oprah Noodlemantra), Roseanne Barr and Tom Arnold, and Alice Cooper plays Edward Underwood.
  • The last ten minutes of Freddy's Dead were in 3-D, and theaters handed out glasses. The 2025 4K set includes glasses for the 3-D ending.
  • New Nightmare was once titled A Nightmare on Elm Street 7: The Ascension. It used real footage from the 1994 Northridge earthquake and is dedicated to production designer Gregg Fonseca.
  • Craven wanted Johnny Depp in New Nightmare but was too timid to ask.
  • Heather Langenkamp won the Fangoria Chainsaw Award for Best Actress for New Nightmare.
  • Platinum Dunes hinted at a 3-D sequel to the 2010 remake after its opening weekend. It was never made.
  • Freddy's Nightmares ran 44 episodes over two seasons. Freddy is the main villain in only 8 of them.
  • Tobe Hooper directed the Freddy's Nightmares pilot, No More Mr. Nice Guy, which shows Freddy's trial and death.
  • Brad Pitt, Mariska Hargitay, Kyle Chandler, Lori Petty and Morris Chestnut guest-starred on Freddy's Nightmares. Pitt had tried out for Jesse in Freddy's Revenge and was turned down as too nice.
  • Freddy's Nightmares started under Lorimar-Telepictures and moved to Warner Bros. Television after the 1989 buyout.
  • Iron Maiden's Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter began as a Bruce Dickinson solo song for The Dream Child and became the band's only UK #1.
  • New Line made Jive destroy the video for A Nightmare on My Street. A copy survived online.
  • A Nightmare on My Street was considered for The Dream Master and turned down.
  • VH1 named Dokken's Dream Warriors the #1 killer '80s heavy metal horror movie video in 2015. Don Dokken played it acoustic at the film's 30th anniversary event.
  • Marvel canceled its 1989 magazine after two issues even though no group had complained.
  • The Freddy vs. Jason novelization includes the alternate Freddy ending.
  • Dead by Daylight's Freddy is based on Jackie Earle Haley, not Englund, and was the first killer in the game to get a major power rework.
  • Freddy turns up as cameos elsewhere. His glove is in the toolshed in Evil Dead II (1987), grabs Jason's mask at the end of Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993), and sits in an evidence locker in Bride of Chucky (1998).
  • An unlicensed Freddy appears in the 1992 Belarusian kids' film Keshka i Fredi.
  • Freddy ranked #40 on AFI's 100 Heroes & Villains, #14 on Wizard magazine's villain list and #8 on Sky2's.
  • Englund reprised Freddy in a 2018 episode of The Goldbergs, Mister Knifey-Hands.
  • Englund played Victor Creel in Stranger Things season 4 and got a Saturn nomination for it.
  • Director Lorene Scafaria bought the real Elm Street house in 2013 for $2.1 million and sold it in January 2022 for $2.8 million.
  • U.S. rights to the franchise went back to the Wes Craven estate in September 2019. The estate took pitches for a film and a possible HBO Max series and hoped Englund would return.
  • Heather Langenkamp said in 2022 and 2024 that she would return as Nancy in a legacy sequel. Englund said in 2025 he would return as Freddy in animation.
  • Langenkamp and her husband David LeRoy Anderson run AFX Studio, a makeup effects company where she has worked as a coordinator.
  • Never Sleep Again won the 2010 Saturn Award for Best DVD Release and the Reaper Awards for Best Direct-to-Video Title and Best in Show.
  • The Dream Child's gorier unrated cut came out on VHS and LaserDisc.
  • The Dream Child's Whit Hertford won a Young Artist Award, and Stephen Hopkins won the Critics Award at Fantasporto 1990.
  • Kool Moe Dee's Let's Go from The Dream Child was nominated for a Golden Raspberry.
  • Robert Englund's Walk of Fame star is in front of Larry Edmunds Bookshop at 6644 Hollywood Boulevard.
  • The Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash comic came from Jeff Katz's treatment for a film sequel that was never made.
  • Paramount Primal's heads J.D. Lifshitz and Raphael Margules produced Barbarian, Companion and Weapons.
  • Chuck Russell was born May 9, 1952. His other films include The Blob, The Mask, Eraser and The Scorpion King.
  • Kane Hodder talked with Craven about playing Freddy in 1984. Years later he played the gloved hand that grabs Jason's mask in Jason Goes to Hell.
  • Patricia Arquette was nearly recast early in Dream Warriors, but Chuck Russell stepped in to keep her.
  • Sean S. Cunningham, who made the first Friday the 13th, headed a second unit on the dream scenes of the 1984 film, long before he produced Freddy vs. Jason.

Online

  • Nightmare on Elm Street Companion (nightmareonelmstreetfilms.com): fan archive of scripts, storyboards, posters, home video, comics, books, merchandise and news.
  • Nightmare on Elm Street Companion forum: opened in 2004, lost its whole database in a June 2019 crash, and came back in May 2020 after 95 percent of poll voters asked for it.
  • Wes Craven's official site (wescraven.com).
  • Warner Bros. Pictures International 2010 remake microsite (wbpinewmedia.warnerbros.com/noes), still online as a marketing archive.
  • Rachel Talalay's video on Freddy's Dead missing footage, covered by the Companion on January 11, 2026.
  • JoBlo Horror YouTube breakdown of The Dream Master's deleted scenes, covered by the Companion on April 5, 2026.
  • True Terror with Robert Englund on Travel Channel since 2020, true scary stories hosted by Englund.
  • Hollywood Dreams & Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story streams on Screambox, where it premiered June 6, 2023.
  • Freddy's Nightmares streams on Tubi.
  • AMC+ carries the AMC FearFest Nightmare airings each October.
  • Bloody Disgusting broke the news in September 2019 that U.S. rights had gone back to the Wes Craven estate, and in November 2019 that the estate was taking pitches.
  • Dread Central covers the franchise, including Lee Cronin's April 2026 Freddy comments to Variety and Sara Risher's May 2026 interview.
  • Popcorn Frights Film Festival in Fort Lauderdale has hosted Freddy marathons and the FredHeads fundraiser.

Sources