A Nightmare on Elm Street
About the Film
In the quiet suburb of Springwood, a group of teenagers begin to share the same terrifying nightmares — all haunted by a burned, razor-gloved man in a striped sweater and battered fedora. When one of them, Tina, is brutally killed in her sleep, her friends realise that whatever happens to them in their dreams happens to their bodies in the waking world: to die in the nightmare is to die for real.
As the body count rises, teenager Nancy uncovers the dark secret behind the killer, Freddy Krueger, and the guilty history their parents share. Fighting to stay awake and to drag Freddy out of the dream world, she wages a desperate battle for survival. Wes Craven’s genre-defining horror classic marked the film debut of Johnny Depp as Nancy’s boyfriend, Glen.
Plot synopsis by johnny-depp.org.
Johnny Depp
A Nightmare on Elm Street was Johnny Depp’s film debut. He plays Glen Lantz, Nancy’s easygoing boyfriend — and the role includes one of the franchise’s most infamous death scenes, in which Glen is pulled into his bed and erupts in a geyser of blood. Depp was reportedly cast after Wes Craven’s teenage daughter spotted his photo, launching a career from this modest teen-horror part.
Cast & Crew
Cast
Nancy ThompsonHeather Langenkamp
Freddy KruegerRobert Englund
Glen LantzJohnny Depp
Lt. Donald ThompsonJohn Saxon
Marge ThompsonRonee Blakley
Tina GrayAmanda Wyss
Rod LaneNick Corri
Crew
Director / WriterWes Craven
MusicCharles Bernstein
CinematographyJacques Haitkin
ProducerRobert Shaye
StudioNew Line Cinema
Filming Locations
- Los Angeles, California
- The iconic house at 1428 North Genesee Avenue, Los Angeles (Nancy’s house)
- 1419 North Genesee Avenue, Hollywood (Glen’s house)
- 620 Milwood Avenue, Venice (Tina’s house)
- Venice Beach canals, Los Angeles (Johnny Depp and Heather Langenkamp on the canal bridge)
- John Marshall High School, Los Feliz, Los Angeles
- John Burroughs Middle School, Los Angeles
- Lincoln Heights Jail, Los Angeles (boiler room)
- Evergreen Cemetery, Los Angeles (cemetery)
- Cahuenga Branch Library, Los Angeles
- North Hollywood, Los Angeles
More about this film
Trivia
- It was Johnny Depp’s film debut — he was reportedly cast after Wes Craven’s daughter picked his photo from a stack of headshots.
- Glen’s death scene — a bed erupting with a fountain of blood — used a rotating room set and hundreds of gallons of fake blood.
- The tiny $1.1 million film was a huge hit that effectively saved New Line Cinema, later nicknamed “The House That Freddy Built.”
- It spawned one of horror’s most enduring franchises and made Robert Englund’s Freddy Krueger a pop-culture icon.
Awards
- 2021 National Film Registry — selected for preservation by the Library of Congress Won
