56 Fun Facts About A Nightmare on Elm Street

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What kind of hat does Freddy Krueger wear?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dream Warriors is largely set in which psychiatric hospital?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Before making films, Wes Craven worked as what?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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