Trivia for A Nightmare On Elm Street:
Director Wes Craven claims to have named Freddy
Krueger after a kid who bullied him in school and to
have based his appearance on a disfigured hobo who
scared him as a youth.
Krueger bleeds green.
When Freddy Krueger is chasing Nancy and she runs up
the stairs only to find that its all gross "muck",
what she steps in is pancake mix.
News continues after advertisement
Just before Glen is pulled into the bed, the
television station announces its name: "KRGR".
Freddy Krueger's colors of red and green are
contrasted throughout the movie.
The movie Nancy watches to stay awake is Evil Dead.
Director Wes Craven's original concept for Freddy
Krueger was considerably more gruesome, with teeth
showing through the flesh over the jaw, puss running
from the sores, and a part of the skull showing
through the head. Make-up artist 'Miller, David B.'
argued that an actor couldn't be convincingly made up
that way and a puppet would be hard to film and
wouldn't blend well with live actors, so these ideas
were eventually abandoned.
In the scene where Nancy is sleeping at Tina's house
and Freddy comes through the wall over the bed,
Jason's hockey mask (from the Friday the 13th films)
can be seen. Incidentally, Freddy is being played at
this point by special effects man Jim Doyle wearing
Freddy's stunt mask.
The poster above Johnny Depp's bed in the scene where
he is killed is the Grace Under Pressure album cover
by Canadian rock trio Rush.
Johnny Depp accompanied friend Jackie Earle Haley to
the auditions, where he was spotted by director Wes
Craven, who asked him if he'd like to read for the
part.
Wes Craven cast Joseph Whipp, who plays the inept
sidekick of John Saxon's Lt. Thompson in this film, as
the sheriff who endures David Arquette's inept Deputy
Dewey in Scream (1996)
With one exception (Freddy walking through jail-cell
bars), all of the F/X in Nightmare were done using
physical F/X rather than trick photography.
In the end scene, the top to the convertible came down
faster and harder than expected. The expression from
the actors is real.
Nancy's bathtub was constructed over a tank built into
the floor of the set with a cutout bathtub sealed down
to it. Actress 'Lagenkamp, Heather' spent 12 hours in
it during filming, accompanied at least some of the
time by special effects man Jim Doyle who was wearing
the Freddy glove.
Wes Craven wrote the script and presented it in 1981,
but no one wanted it. He said that "It just flew
around" until New Line Cinema picked it up.
In Just the Ten of Us , Heather Langenkamp makes
reference to a rusty knife stuck in a cutting board
"looking like something from A Nightmare on Elm
Street"
This was the first real movie by New Line Cinema.
Before that, they were just a distribution company for
college campuses.
This movie was almost never made. About halfway
through filming, New Line lost its deal with the
distribution company. As a direct result, they
couldn't pay the cast or crew for two whole weeks
until they found another distribution company. They
didn't lose one crew member.
Freddy Kruger was designed by Wes Craven to be the
typical "silent" serial killer such as Jason Voorhees
or Michael Myers. But in the sequels Freddy developed
a cheeky persona that enabled him to be the black
humored villain
The original glove was also used in Nightmare On Elm
Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge, A (1985) but then the
glove went missing. The original glove was used in
1986 for Evil Dead II (according to the DVD)
New Line Cinema was saved from bankruptcy by the
success of the film, and was jokingly nicknamed "the
house that Freddy built".
In her room after almost getting killed in the tub,
Nancy looks at herself in a mirror and says, "Oh God,
I look 20 years old." Heather Langenkamp was 20 years
old at the time of the movie.
When Nancy's dreams are "examined", when her hair
turns white, the nurse is played by Wes Craven's wife,
Mimi.
Over 500 gallons of fake blood was used during the
making of the film
The only times you see or hear the words "Elm Street"
are during the opening and closing credits.
When Freddy is chasing Tina, Freddy's long arms were
marrionetted.
Wes Craven claimed to have drawn inspiration for this
movie from a series of news stories that involved a
group of young Samoans who died from a horrific
nightmare. The story goes first these young, healthy
people would have a nightmare refuse to sleep for as
long as they could, then when they finally fell asleep
from sheer exhaustion they awoke with a scream, and
died from a heart failure.
The actual Elm Street the movie is based on is in
Potsdam, New York. The name of the town (Madstop) is
Potsdam spelled backwards.
