In the late 70s/early 80s the city of Atlanta was wracked by dozens of child murders of African-American children, some snatched off the streets in broad daylight, others taken from their homes by night, all inexplicably without any witnesses. This created utter hysteria with wild conspiracy theories about the involvement of the Ku Klux Klan and establishment pedophile rings with vigilante mobs taking to the streets to hunt the murderer. Although Wes Craven never officially confirmed it this markedly resembles the events of the Nightmare on Elm Street mythos. No it was not Based on the Atlanta Child Murders.

Freddy can appear and reappear only within the Dream World. In the real world, he has no such abilities. Nancy understood that Freddy didn't have his powers in the real world, which is why she set up the booby traps in the first place. (Although it could be noted that Freddy vanished away with Nancy's mother) Also Nancy Went into a dream and pulled Freddy out.

There's no indication for that in the movie, but also nothing that contradicts it.

Yes They Are.

According to the Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy documentary, Wes Craven had actor David Warner in mind.

Yes it was Johnny Depp's first acting role.

He's referred to as a "child-killer" or "child-murderer". There's nothing ever suggested that he's a child molester as well. Though he is in the remake.

In a very loose manner of speaking. The earliest origins of what ultimately became A Nightmare on Elm Street are to be found in three articles which appeared in the LA Times over the course of a one year period in the early 1980s. Specifically, the articles were about a group of Cambodian refugees from the Hmong tribe, who had fled Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime and sought refuge in the United States. The articles described how several of the group began to suffer horrific nightmares and after a few nights, refused to sleep. However, due to exhaustion, when they finally did fall asleep they awoke screaming and in terror, then almost immediately died. Three of the group died over the course of the year; a young man died first, followed six months later by another young man, and three months after that a third victim, a young boy. What particularly intrigued Craven about the situation was that when an autopsy was carried out on the third victim, he was shown to be in perfect health; he hadn't died from a heart attack or any other physical ailment, he had simply died.

Speaking of the articles, Craven has commented, The eeriest case was the boy who had a nightmare that was worse than anything. His family tried to quiet his nerves, and he refused to sleep. He stayed up several nights, and they sent for a doctor who gave him sleeping pills. The kid threw them away. Finally there was a night when the kid could not stay up any longer, and he went to sleep. The house was quiet at last. The parents were relieved that their kid was getting some rest. Then they heard this horrendous scream from the bedroom. The parents ran in and found the boy thrashing in his bed, only to fall still a moment later and die. An autopsy revealed there was nothing wrong with him, no heart failure or any reason for his death. He was just dead. I became fascinated with the idea of harm happening to a person in such a way that people would not be able to clearly discern if the harm came in a dream or if it came in reality.

[extract from The Nightmare Never Ends by William Schoell (1992); quoted here] Craven has also stated, It was a series of articles in the LA Times, three small articles about men from South East Asia, who were from immigrant families and who had died in the middle of nightmares and the paper never correlated them, never said, "Hey, we've had another story like this." The third one was the son of a physician. He was about twenty-one; I've subsequently found out this is a phenomenon in Laos, Cambodia. Everybody in his family said almost exactly these lines: "You must sleep." He said, "No, you don't understand; I've had nightmares before this is different." He was given sleeping pills and told to take them and supposedly did, but he stayed up. I forget what the total days he stayed up was, but it was a phenomenal amount something like six, seven days. Finally, he was watching television with the family, fell asleep on the couch, and everybody said, "Thank god." They literally carried him upstairs to bed; he was completely exhausted. Everybody went to bed, thinking it was all over. In the middle of the night, they heard screams and crashing. They ran into the room, and by the time they got to him he was dead. They had an autopsy performed, and there was no heart attack; he just had died for unexplained reasons. They found in his closet a Mr. Coffee maker, full of hot coffee that he had used to keep awake, and they also found all his sleeping pills that they thought he had taken; he had spit them back out and hidden them. It struck me as such an incredibly dramatic story that I was intrigued by it for a year, at least, before I finally thought I should write something about this kind of situation.

[from "Wes Craven on Dreaming up Nightmares", by Steve Biodrowski (October, 2008) Cinefantastique Online] Medical authorities have since labeled the phenomenon as Asian death syndrome, a condition which afflicts only east-Asian men between the ages of 19 and 57. This condition (also known as Thai SUDS and Lai Tai) is believed to be a form of Brugada syndrome, itself a form of sudden unexplained death syndrome (SUDS).

As with the dream aspect of the story, the character of Freddy is very loosely based on reality. According to Craven, the look of Krueger, especially the dirty clothes and hat, were inspired by an incident from his childhood. Late one night when he was in the sixth grade, he heard a noise outside his second-floor bedroom window; When I looked down there was a man very much like Freddy walking along the sidewalk. He must have sensed that someone was looking at him and stopped and looked right into my face. He scared the living daylights out of me, so I jumped back into the shadows. I waited and waited to hear him walk away. Finally I thought he must have gone, so I stepped back to the window. The guy was not only still looking at me but he thrust his head forward as if to say "Yes, I'm still looking at you."

[...] I ran through the apartment to our front door as he was walking into our building on the lower floor. I heard him starting up the stairs. My brother, who is ten years older than me, got a baseball bat and went out to the corridor but he was gone.

As an adult I can look back and say that was one of the most profoundly frightening experiences I have ever had. The guy has never left my mind, nor has the feeling of how frightening an adult stranger can be. He was not only frightening, but he was amused by the fact he was frightening and able to anticipate my inner thoughts.

[extract from The Nightmare Never Ends by William Schoell (1992); quoted here] Decades later, Craven explained, The hat was the kind worn by men when I was a kid, and there was a particular man who scared me when I was little. He was a drunk that came down the sidewalk and woke me up when I was sleeping. I went to the window wondering what the hell was there. He just did a mind-fuck on me. He just basically somehow knew I was up there, and he looked right into my eyes. I went back and hid for what for what I thought was hours. I finally crept back to the window, and he was still there. Then he started walking almost half-backwards, so that he could keep looking at me, down to the corner and turned, and I suddenly realized, My god, that's the direction of the entrance to our apartment building. I literally ran toward the front door and heard, two stories down, the front door open. I woke up my big brother; he went down with a baseball bat and nobody was there. Probably the guy heard him coming and ran; he was drunk, having a good time. But the idea of an adult who was frightening and enjoyed terrifying a child was the origin of Freddy.

[from "Wes Craven on Dreaming up Nightmares", by Steve Biodrowski (October, 2008) Cinefantastique Online] Freddy's name came from that fact that Craven had been bullied at school by a child named Fred Krueger; Fred was my worst enemy in junior high school. He and I both had paper routes and shared the same drop-off point for newspapers. We used to get into a fight every day. Fred became my least favorite name.

[extract from The Nightmare Never Ends by William Schoell (1992); quoted here]

In the original script, Freddy had a yellow and red sweater, and was based on Plastic Man, with the idea being that whenever he changed his shape, he had to maintain the red and yellow color. However, in a 1982 issue of Scientific American, Craven discovered that... the two most clashing colors to the human retina were this particular green and red. I wanted this costume that [would be recognized] if he changed into any other thing in the room. I was an old Plastic Man comic book fan. He used to change shape, but you could always tell it was him because the couch would be red with a green stripe down it or yellow? So I wanted Freddy to be a shape-shifter that could be recognized from his colors.

[from "Wes Craven on Dreaming up Nightmares", by Steve Biodrowski (October, 2008) Cinefantastique Online] As for Freddy's famous glove, Part of it was an objective goal to make the character memorable, since it seems that every character that has been successful has had some kind of unique weapon, whether it be a chain saw or a machete, etc. I was also looking for a primal fear which is embedded in the subconscious of people of all cultures. One of those is the fear of teeth being broken, which I used in my first film. Another is the claw of an animal, like a saber-toothed tiger reaching with it's tremendous hooks. I transposed this into a human hand.

[extract from The Nightmare Never Ends by William Schoell (1992); quoted here] Craven has also gone into more detail on this issue; I wanted to do something that was tied into the deepest recesses of our subconscious. I had a history in academics, so I knew there were certain things that were universal. One is the fear of predatory animals; obviously, it goes back to when we were little primates running around with nothing to protect us. Nature is full of stabbing instruments: claws, teeth, horns. I thought the claws of the cave bear must be buried somewhere in our subconscious, so that claw which is from nature or animals was combined with what is one of the most specifically human parts of our anatomy, which is our hands. The human hand is so much more dexterous than any other animals. Many scientists postulate that that has gone hat-in-hand, if you will, with the development of our brains: the more developed our brains have gotten, the more clever our hands have gotten, and vice versa. So that became the instrument; rather than anything he would leave someplace and then pick up, it was something that he actually had on him.

[from "Wes Craven on Dreaming up Nightmares", by Steve Biodrowski (October, 2008) Cinefantastique Online]

There is some disagreement amongst fans about this issue. Although the film was shot in California (all the exteriors of Elm Street were filmed on North Genesee Avenue in LA), there is never any mention of a specific location within the film itself. In Dream Warriors however, it is mentioned that Elm Street is located in the fictional town of Springwood. Subsequently, in Freddy's Dead, it is revealed that Springwood is in Ohio. Some fans argue that although the location of the first film is never mentioned, the mere presence of Palm trees was meant as an indication that it was actually set in LA, and the relocation to Ohio was something retconned from the sequels. Others argue that the exact location was purposely kept vague so that Elm Street could serve as an archetype for any street in any small American town. Whatever the case however regarding the original ideas concerning the location however, the official New Line position on this question is that Elm Street is, and always has been, in Springwood, Ohio.

According to Heather Langenkamp on her DVD commentary track, this is the question which fans most commonly ask her. On the same track however, Craven explains that the lamb has no narrative or symbolic significance, and is simply an homage to Luis Buñuel. Presumably, Craven is referencing Dali's 1965 film Simon of the Desert (1965), in which a lamb is carried by a bearded lady (Silvia Pinal).

It could be interpreted as a play on the phrase "Like a lamb to the slaughter," in which an innocent and helpless creature is in danger without realizing it.

As Nancy, Glen and Tina pull up outside the school early in the movie, there are a group of young girls nearby playing skip-rope and singing a song, the first lyrics of which are "One, two, Freddy's coming for you." However, at this point in the film, Freddy hasn't killed anyone (in the dream world), and is unknown to the main characters. So how are the children already singing about him?

The key seems to be in the dialogue between Tina and Nancy as they get out of the car. Tina tells Nancy, "It was so scary, and when I woke up it seemed like he was still in the room with me", to which Nancy responds, "It sounds like a real boogieman, one, two, Freddy's coming for you", to which Tina says "That's what it reminded me of, that old jump rope song."

The fact that Tina refers to the song as old suggests it has been around for a while, and as such, the song is most likely derivative of an urban legend about the real-life crimes of Fred Krueger. However, over the years, the name has ceased to have any real meaning (none of the parents talk about him), and the children thus sing the song without any knowledge or understanding of what they are singing; Freddy Krueger is thought of as a prototypical boogieman, not a real life killer. Obviously, Nancy and Tina have no idea of the details of the real Freddy or they would have recognized him from the dream, which lends credence to the suggestion that the real man has developed into an archetypical representative of the boogieman in the cultural zeitgeist of the area; everyone knows the song, but no one knows the real details.

This has certain parallels in reality, where real killers such as Lizzie Borden, Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson or the Zodiac Killer have become almost metaphorical expressions rather than descriptions of people who were once really alive. Compare this with names such as, say, Harold Shipman, Fred West or Gerald Stano, names which tend to evoke images of flesh-and-blood people. Freddy has obviously come to reside in the first group. Hence the song is about him, but no one really knows that much about him.

There is one problem with this theory however. After the opening line, the song goes on "Three, four, better lock your door / Five, six, grab your crucifix / Seven, eight, gotta stay up late / Nine, ten, never sleep again." If the children are singing about the real-life Freddy, these lyrics seem to make little sense, as at this point in the film, nobody is aware of Freddy's dream abilities. As such, there are three theories to explain this. One is simply that the lyrics do make sense; in that "Gotta stay up late" and "Never sleep again" could refer to how Freddy abducted children from their bedrooms, and how, in the middle of the murder spree, children were afraid to go to bed incase Freddy got them. A second theory is that the children singing the song aren't supposed to be interpreted as literally existing in the same ontological reality as the characters. Proponents of this theory point to the fact that when the camera is on the children, things are in slow motion, and the colors distorted, with white in particular bleeding into the surrounding colors; as such, the children are simply a symbol, they aren't literally there, and the song they are singing is something which has been taken from the old jump song to which Tina refers, and changed to reflect what is going to come. In this sense then, the children would serve as a chorus of sorts. The third theory is simply that the filmmakers goofed by having the children singing anachronistically about events which haven't yet transpired.

At the end of the film, Nancy leaves her house, telling her mother that she feels great. She then gets into a car with Glen, Tina and Rod, and for a moment, the implication is that everything that we have seen in the film is a dream. The car then however takes control of itself, locking the doors and windows and driving down the street on its own volition. At this point, Marge is pulled back through the house door by Freddy's gloved hand.

This scene has provoked considerable debate amongst fans as to what exactly happens, especially in light of the fact that Nancy returns in Dream Warriors. It also complicates what exactly happens to Marge, as she was apparently killed by Freddy in the real world only moments before the dream begins. However, if she was killed in real-life, why did she sink into the bed, and how did Freddy subsequently rise from that bed.

The most popular theory is simply that everything in the last twenty minutes of the film is a dream; i.e. Nancy never pulls Freddy into reality. When she wakes up with the rose bushes in her bed, she is in fact still dreaming, and the whole final sequence is a dream. In this theory, although Nancy weakens Freddy, she doesn't kill him, and the final scene is thus his way of letting her know he's still around. This explains how she is able to return in Dream Warriors at the end of the film, Freddy is not strong enough to kill Nancy, he is only strong enough to scare her. This theory does pose the question, however, that if the dream was Nancy's, how could Marge have been killed in it, as there is no indication in the film that Freddy can kill someone in a dream even if that person isn't the dreamer.

Whatever the case about Marge however, this theory is the one used by Nightmares on Elm Street comic book series. Although this series is set between The Dream Child and Freddy's Dead, is also details what happens to Nancy after the events of the first film. She is institutionalized for a short time after the trauma of the death of her friends and mother. Upon being released, she goes to college and specializes in dream research, eventually returning to Elm Street (which is seen in Dream Warriors), to help those who are suffering from the same kind of nightmares she did. It is also mentioned that during this period in her life, she is taking Hypnocil (a fictitious drug), to prevent her from dreaming. All six of the Nightmares on Elm Street comics (which New Line considers canon) can be read here.

In Wes Craven's original script, the film ends with Nancy, Tina, Rod and Glen driving away from the house, and Marge smiling as they leave; the car never imprisons them and Marge is never attacked. In this sense, the implication is that the whole film is a dream. Even the scene where Nancy pulls Freddy into reality was part of the dream, thus explaining how he reappeared from the bed. As such, when Nancy turns her back on him, she really does defeat him. In this interpretation, the final scene could either be a dream or not. If one interprets it as a dream, then it could signify that Nancy has defeated Freddy and has altered her own dream world accordingly. If one interprets it as real, then it is the only scene in the script which is set in reality.

Craven however was compelled by producer Robert Shaye to shoot the twist ending; In my version, the film ended with Nancy turning her back on Freddy and telling him he was nothing. It showed that evil can be confronted and diminished, in the sense that Nancy had become as tough as Freddy and was able to turn away from him. Once you've confronted the evil, the next step is to turn away from it. The ending was very carefully thought through and had nothing to do with a world view of my own. I don't like horror films that end with general massacres, a survivor crawling out at the end and the bad guy jumping on him for the last scare. They say villains will win out and the most brutally powerful survive. In my work, I'm continually fighting that.

[extract from Screams and Nightmares: The Films of Wes Craven by Brian J. Robb (2000); quoted here] As such, taking everything into consideration, including the comic series and Nancy's return in Dream Warriors, it seems the most likely suggestion is that the last half hour or so of the film is a dream in which Nancy weakens Freddy, but who, in the final scene of the film, lets Nancy know she hasn't defeated him at all.

The Nightmare Series Encyclopedia is found on the eighth disk in the R1 US Nightmare on Elm Street Collection box-set, released in 1999 by New Line Home Video. The disk contains multiple special features relating to all seven Nightmare films (up to and including New Nightmare; Freddy vs. Jason hadn't been made at the time), including multiple featurettes about each movie, cast & crew interviews (including interviews with the directors of all seven movies), behind-the-scenes footage, deleted scenes, still galleries, music videos, theatrical trailers, press kits and DVD-ROM content (all seven scripts, trivia games and an interactive Freddy desktop icon). The disk is divided into three sections: "Primetime", "Labyrinth" and "Index". Primetime contains several interviews, a documentary about the series and an alternate ending for the original film (see below for more details). Index is divided into sections for each film. In all, Index contains 62 video clips, including interviews, behind-the-scenes footage and music videos. Labyrinth is an interactive game of sorts. The viewer must navigate through a labyrinth full of puzzles, traps and riddles in order to discover the various features (110 video clips and 6 stills galleries).

There are 4 shots in the "unrated" version that had to be cut for the R-rated version:

(1) Tina lands on the bloody mattress and bounces, blood splatters off both sides of the bed {1 second cut}

(2) The slow tracking shot of the bloody mattress to Tina's dead body had to be shortened, so the R-rated only shows the final 2 seconds of the shot which focuses on Tina (missing the footage that focuses on the mattress) {4 seconds cut}

(3) The tracking shot of the blood shooting out of Glenn's mattress to the ceiling was a bit longer {2 seconds cut}

(4) The far shot of the blood shooting out of the bed and hitting the ceiling (right before Glenn's mother enters the room) was a bit longer {1 second cut}

The "unrated" version has never been released in North America. Theaters showed the R-rated version. All the NTSC VHS releases are the R-rated version. All the DVDs and Blu-ray discs, no matter what region, contain the R-rated version. The "unrated" version's footage can be viewed as "bonus scenes" on the 1996 Special Edition laserdisc and the 2-VHS set from Anchor Bay. This footage can also be seen as a "branching videos" option on some DVDs (popup videos that appear during the movie), it also appears in one of the documentaries with Wes Craven, which is a special feature on several DVDs and Blu-ray discs.

Outside of North America, it was the "unrated" version that was shown in theaters. The "unrated" version was also released on VHS in some European countries (Germany (rated 18) and UK (rated 18) for sure, although certain other countries only have a heavily-censored version, e.g. the 16-rated German VHS). Australia also has a VHS release of the "unrated" version (with a yellow colored warning on the cover). However, any VHS release, regardless of country, made after 2001 contains the North American R-rated version. And again, every DVD or Blu-ray release in existence of the movie contains only the R-rated version.

Since only 8 seconds or so were cut out, it seems highly unlikely that an "unrated" version will ever see a DVD or Blu-ray release. Thus, the "unrated" version is likely to only ever exist on the old Region 2 and Region 3 VHS releases.

Two of the four missing scenes can be viewed here. (The info on movie-censorship.com is rather inaccurate, though.)

Apparently there are some "bootleg" fan edit DVDs in existence that contain at least some of the "unrated" version's footage cut for the R-rated version

There was also a workprint version which ran approximately 101 minutes, and this version contained the "unrated" version's footage plus many other plot extensions. This is where most of the "deleted scenes", which are available on most DVDs, originate.

The complete set of deleted scenes for the film have a somewhat convoluted history. Deleted scenes, alternate takes, and outtake footage were first released by Elite Entertainment on the Laserdisc Edition of the film in 1996 (now an exceptionally rare collector's item). Also in 1996, Anchor Bay released a VHS Collector's Edition containing the same bonus material found on the laserdisc (not quite as rare as the laserdisc, but still considered a collector's item). However, upon the film being released on DVD in 1999, the only deleted scenes included were two alternate endings ("happy ending" and "scary ending"), neither of which had been included in the deleted footage on the laserdisc or VHS. In 2006, a new Infinifilm DVD was released. However, much to many fans' disappointment, this disk contained only three alternate endings (one of which, "Freddy ending" had never been released before), one small deleted scene available only as a branching clip, and several alternate takes and outtakes, also available only as branching clips. Here is a complete list of all the deleted scenes from the Laserdisc and VHS, with a brief description of their content:

The Sleepover: an alternate version of the scene where Glen goes into the garden to find the noise; in this version, there is a brief conversation about whether or not it could be a cat.

Tina's Last Nightmare: a scene in Tina's last dream where she finds a bunch of worms under a trash can (this scene is available on the Infinifilm DVD as a branching clip)

The Classroom: as the student starts to read from Hamlet, another student makes a joke.

Visiting Rod: prior to Nancy meeting Rod in jail, there is a scene between her and her father, where he reluctantly allows her in to see him. The conversation between Nancy and Rod is also slightly longer.

Glen and Nancy at the police station: an extended version of the scene where Nancy tries to convince her father and Garcia (Joe Unger) to let her and Glen see Rod. Garcia is then unable to find the keys. Rod's chocking is also longer and is intercut with Garcia searching for the keys. After his body is found, Donald asks Nancy how she knew something bad was going to happen.

Cemetery: Marge and Donald discuss how what is happening reminds them of what happened ten years ago.

Katja Institute: an extended scene where Dr. King (Charles Fleischer) asks Marge about any prior injuries Nancy may have had.

Talking on the phone : after returning from Katja, Marge rings Donald and tells him about the hat.

On the Bridge: an extended version of the scene on the bridge where Nancy tells Glen where she got the survival book

Freddy's Past: an extended version of the scene where Marge tells Nancy about Fred Krueger, telling her that she, Glen, Rod and Tina all had siblings who were killed by Freddy.

A Late visit to the station: A scene where Donald arrives at the police station in the middle of the night because he can't sleep.

Before Glen's death: a scene where Glen contemplates visiting Nancy but decides against it.

Alternate Glen's death: Glen's body raises up from the bed covered in blood (outtake footage)

After Glen's death #1: a scene where Donald tries to comfort Glen's father (Ed Call)

After Glen's death #2: Donald asks Glen's dad if he has any ideas who might have done it, and Lantz says he thinks it was Freddy. Donald tells him not to be ridiculous, but Lantz says that the door to Glen's room was locked because he had wanted to prevent Glen sneaking out to see Nancy.

Nancy flying: untreated blue screen footage of Nancy flying through the air for a scene in her last dream which was ultimately cut from the film (it would have come between the scene where she falls over the boiler room balcony and the scene where she lands in the rose bush outside her house).

Supplies: two scenes of Nancy collecting bits and pieces in the basement in anticipation of the battle with Freddy (outtake footage).

Final confrontation: an alternate take of the scene where Nancy turns her back on Freddy