All language subtitles for The.Unknown.Story.S01E10.A.Nightmare.on.Elm.Street.1080p.PCOK.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

In
the mid 1980's

one film franchise changed
the face of horror.

Nightmare on Elm Street
took the genre to a new level.

With a
totally twisted concept.

It took the slasher
film

and made it psychological.

And one of
the most terrifying villains

in cinematic history.

Some of you may know me
as Freddy Krueger.

He's not just gonna kill you,
he's going to enjoy killing you.

Freddy figured it out and
he kind of knew where you slept.

A nightmare
on Elm Street

and its creator, Wes Craven,
pushed horror to new heights.

All you need is a
great idea and a lot of vision.

You go out there and make
something

that scares the pants off
people.

But the
original film

almost never became reality.

Wes Craven
pitched it everywhere

and he was being rejected
all the time.

Nobody believed in this
movie

and it went on to be a
blockbuster.

We'll take you
behind the scenes.

They started making me
try these different hats on.

I said, "You guys we're getting
desperate here, "this is wrong."

Go deep into
the director's mind.

The man himself
was based on a man

who frightened me as a
child.

And relive
some of the most

intense moments ever.

They actually used
like 500 gallons

of fake blood for that scene.

Plus, the
ultimate casting coupe.

Wes Craven's daughter
saw Johnny Depp,

thought he was adorable, said,
"That's the guy "for this movie"

I do have really fond
memories, I mean,

it was really exciting.

Learn how
Nightmare went from

a low-budget indie flick...

It was actually a
really

independently-financed film.

To a pop-
culture phenomenon.

Turning a tiny movie studio
into an industry powerhouse.

New Line Cinema became
known as the house

that Freddy built.

Every
nightmare must come to an end.

♪ 1, 2, Freddy's coming
for you ♪

Or does it?

People love him.

Freddy is still as popular as
he ever was.

In late 1984,
A Nightmare on Elm Street

creeped into theaters and
going to bed at night

would never be the same.

I think it was one of the
most universal films I've made.

Horror fanatics
and movie goers in general

embrace Wes Craven's
genre-defining film

while being introduced to
one of the most

terrifying villains in
cinematic history.

Freddy Krueger.

Freddy Krueger right here.

Nightmare on Elm Street.

And I wanted to see if it's
really as ghastly as people say.

Over the next
four decades,

the legacy of the franchise
and the iconic status

of Freddy himself would
only continue to grow.

But the story of how Elm
Street even happened

is one for the ages because
it almost never happened at all.

Wes Craven
started out

with the Last House on the
Left,

that was his directorial
debut in 1972.

Which is a really gritty,
difficult-to-watch

horror movie.

And from there, he did
Hills Have Eyes in 1977.

They were both successful,
groundbreaking films.

My feeling, which is very
strong,

that movies about violence
are entirely justified

and in fact need to be
made so long

as they treat it accurately.
It's not made to look glamorous,

it's not made to look cute,
but it's treated as what it is,

a terrifying reality of our
lives

that must be confronted
and dealt with.

Fast forward
to early-1982

when Craven's latest
creation, in conjunction

with DC Comics, descends
upon theaters.

He had done an adaptation
of the comic book Swamp Thing.

Comic book films are related
to the horror genre,

which is what he was
known for,

but they have a slightly
broader reach

so it was a chance to break
out to a wider audience.

But the
ambitious film

is poorly received and
throws Craven's career

into flux.

When you're a filmmaker,
the cliche is

"you're only as good as
your last picture".

And when you're not a
success,

it's much more difficult to
get a project of yours

off the ground. That was
a really stressful period.

After
struggling

for more than two years to
sell a script

and with mounting financial
problems,

Craven's luck finally
changes in 1984

when an upstart company,
New Line Cinema,

agrees to produce the writer
director's next film.

And the concept is a
beautifully twisted one.

So, the original
Nightmare on Elm Street,

it's about a group of teens
who all seem to be

having the same nightmare
about this boogie man.

And if he kills you in your
dreams,

then you actually die.

Here's what's great about
this movie,

kids never want to go to
sleep, right?

But can you imagine not
wanting to go to sleep

because you think you're
going to die? God!

No matter who you are,
there's something

you can relate to here.

If you're old, all you want
to do is go to sleep

and if you're young, staying
awake

is supposed to be fun,
not survival.

Yeah, Wes Craven doesn't
play around

when it comes to horror.

All you need is a great
idea and a lot of vision.

You go out there and make
something

that scares the pants off
people.

The best horror
movies strike us

when we're most vulnerable.

It's Marian in the shower
in psycho.

It's what's under the water
in Jaws.

When are you more vulnerable
than when you're asleep?

It taps into a fear that
something's

going to happen to us
when we least expect it.

But the film is far
from a guaranteed success.

And Craven's reputation in
Hollywood is still very much

on the line.

Yet in November 1984, A
Nightmare on Elm Street

opens to enthusiastic
audiences

and perhaps more
surprisingly,

positive reviews.

Horror movies always
struggle

to get good reviews from
mainstream critics,

but I think Nightmare on
Elm Street was recognized

for being a good horror
movie.

It didn't open huge, but
people kept going to see it

and the movie was very
successful at the box office.

The sleeper-
hit rakes in

more than $25 million
domestically,

resurrecting Craven's career
and inspiring 7 more films

plus a remake.

This movie was shot on
a tiny budget.

Nobody believed in this
movie

and it went on to be a
blockbuster.

In order to
understand the true roots

of this monster franchise,
we must jump back

to 1981 when Craven, a
former humanities professor

with a master's degree in
writing and philosophy,

reads something peculiar
and the spark is lit.

There was a series of
newspaper articles

in the LA Times that
occurred over a year and a half.

There were cases of young
men

that had had severe nightmares

and had told their families
about that

and the next time they fell
asleep,

they died inexplicably.

They're very sober
articles

about this mysterious
phenomenon,

which is refugees from
Laos who were dying

at an unusually-high
percentage.

In the newspaper accounts,
there was at least one man

who was having such
horrible nightmares

he did not want to go
back to sleep.

He kept himself awake
and he stayed up

for nearly a week. Finally
he fell asleep on the couch

and everybody thought,
"Oh, thank God "that's passed."

And they took him up to
his bedroom.

And in the middle of the
night

they heard screams and
scuffling.

They ran into his room
and he fell silent on his bed

and he was dead when
they got to him.

And there was no
explanation for it.

No one could really figure
out exactly what he died from.

There was absolutely
nothing wrong physically

with this young man.

And this made Craven
think,

"Well, what if it was the
dream that killed him?"

The article in the
LA Times

has a very ordinary kind of
title,

but just above it in
quotation marks,

it says "Nightmare
Syndrome?"

And that, I think, is really
the start.

Craven's idea
for A Nightmare

on Elm Street is born and
he doesn't have to look far

for inspiration when
dreaming up the story's

viciously-delicious villain.

Wes Craven dug into his
own childhood

to create Freddy Krueger.

He was just Fred Krueger
in the first film.

The name "Fred"
came from a bully

who terrorized Wes Craven
as a child.

And the name "Krueger",
he adapted that

from the character "Krug",
who was the villain

in his first movie, Last
House on the Left.

The man himself was
based on a man

who frightened me as a,
as a child.

Woke me from my sleep
one night

shining down the sidewalk
in Cleveland.

And I got out of bed to see
what it was and I looked

and there was this guy
dressed very much

like I made Freddy
dressed like.

He just stopped and then
he just looked right up at me.

And I fell back and sat on
the edge of the bed in the dark.

I went back to the window
and he was waiting and just.

And then the man,
according to Wes,

came to the apartment,
opened the door

and Wes' brother, who
was older,

got a baseball bat.

And they went out into the
hallway

to look for this guy and
they never saw him again.

I'd love to give that
guy credit for changing horror.

If we could ever find him.

The essence of that man
was that he enjoyed

terrifying a child and
enjoyed

sort of destroying the
comfort of innocence.

So that became Freddy.

With a killer-
concept in place

and a brutal baddie to do
Craven's bidding,

the writer director begins
to shop his script,

but no one bites.

He pitched it
everywhere

and he rewrote the script
and he did all kinds of stuff

and he couldn't get any
takers for months

and months and months.

He was being rejected all
the time.

Craven was friends with
Sean Cunningham,

who produced and directed
the first Friday the 13th.

Cunningham told Craven,
"It's not gonna work,

"it won't be suspenseful because
everyone knows "it's a dream."

But Wes Craven persevered.

He knew it was a great
concept,

but he was really fighting
an uphill battle for this.

That will all
soon change

when Craven fortuitously
crosses paths

with someone who decides
to take the nightmare leap

with him and together they
will create horror history.

It's 1983
and writer director

Wes Craven is continuing
to shop his script

for A Nightmare on Elm
Street,

perverse plot and all.

A man who had been
actually murdered

by a group of parents
because he was

a child molester and the
law had let him go.

He turns up in the
nightmares of their children.

But the pile
of rejection letters

from film studios cast
serious doubt

on whether Craven's brain
child will ever become reality.

The Nightmare on Elm
Street script went around

town for three years before
it found backing.

And that's
when a man named

Robert Shea and something
called New Line Cinema

enters the picture.

New Line Cinema
was such a small company

that it was actually just
based out of the founder,

Bob Shay's apartment in
New York City.

He would take films like
the public domain

Reefer Madness and show
it at colleges.

He was not really a feature-
film distributor

or someone who made
films either,

but he liked Nightmare on
Elm Street

and he decided to get into
the production end of it.

Robert Chase saw the
potential in it.

And went about raising the
money to get it done.

Shay green
lights the film,

giving it a budget of
$700,000.

It was a really
independently-financed film

and they cast mostly
unknown actors.

The budget at the time
was extremely low

for a film of its scale and
size.

But Craven
is determined

to make it work, as the
remaining details

of his main character,
Fred Krueger,

continued to get fleshed
out.

Horror villains at
that time

were supposed to have
masks.

I want a mask,
everybody's using masks,

but I want him to be
able to talk.

What about a scar?

That gave him an
intimidating appearance,

kind of covered the human
features,

but he could still emote.

What's going on with his
skin? Is he a burn victim?

You're like, "What is
happening with this dude?"

And that led into the fact
that the parents

had burned him alive.

So as bad a guy
as he is,

he does have a certain
justification

in seeking revenge.

Freddy is going after the
children of the parents

who murdered him.

Wes Craven has
said when he dreamed up

the villain for this film, he
wanted him to be

the most despisable thing
on earth.

And what's more despisable
than someone

who kills children and
actually takes

gleeful pleasure in it?

It's beyond serial killer,
it's psychopath.

It's a cogent, articulate,
devious, clever,

resourceful villain.

Freddy figured it out, you
know,

and he kind of knew where
you slept.

And that kind of villain,
I think,

is always more frightening.

And then he had
this glove with knives.

Were they supposed to be
fingers? Were they fingernails?

I don't know.
All I know is it was terrifying.

Pre-spear, pre-knife,
pre-sharpened stone,

to the claws that nature
gives to its predators.

He had that weird fedora-
style hat

and he always wore the
same thing,

which was a striped, like,
rugby sweater.

There might be a scientific
reason

that we're so uncomfortable
looking at that sweater,

red and green.

I read an article on the
two the most difficult colors

for the retina to see next
to each other

were those two colors.

It was kind of just a smart
hodgepodge of stuff.

And then finding an actor
who was brilliant

and who could bring it
to life.

And that actor
would be...

Robert Englund here.

Some of you may know
me as Freddy Krueger.

Robert Englund
was a character actor,

you had seen him around here
and there in supporting roles.

During this
whole Freddy thing,

I had a big hit series called
V that was like

a number-one mini-series
in ratings.

He played a
friendly alien named Willie.

Oh wait, here's the dude
from V!

Oh my God, who knew?

I went in a general
audition,

was just your basic general
audition.

Wanted to work for Wes
Craven.

But Wes
Craven isn't exactly looking

for Englund's type.

Craven had expected to
cast a taller actor,

someone more imposing
like David Warner

who had been Jack the Ripper,
a very terrifying character.

I think he wanted a big
guy,

I think he wanted a
stuntman originally.

It's really a totally
unexpected piece of casting.

He just impressed Craven
with his ability to bring

that character to life.

Maybe he just knew that
if he piled

all that crap on me that I still
would look normal with my...

Because I got broad
shoulders for a guy my size

and you can put the
prosthetics on me

and it's still the right ratio.

I think that might have
been one of the gifts I bring.

I have a little skinny neck
too.

How can you see anyone
else as that character?

He took it and made it his
own.

When I put the glove on
the first time,

the first prototype glove
was so heavy. It literally...

You kind of drop your
shoulder.

But I did that in front of
a mirror, I was, you know,

in a dressing room, getting
stuff fitted to me.

And I went, "Oh, I can
use that."

Freddy Krueger
was supposed to just be

a figure in the dark,
something that goes

bump in the night and then you
end up slashed and dead.

But Englund had such an
energy about him

that the minute you see
him in that movie

you're like, "Oh, this is
real."

For every
horror film

with an utterly wicked
villain, there's usually

a female lead who spends
much of it

trying to avoid his clutches.

♪

That role
of Nancy Thompson

will be played by 19-year-
old Heather Langenkamp.

Heather Langenkamp was
early in her career,

she had done some small
parts, some TV roles.

She seemed like someone
you could have gone

to high school with.

And she just had this girl-
nextdoor quality.

I pulled out of college
and got an apartment.

And just started going on
auditions like,

basically, every other, you know
18 year old in LA at the time.

So I was able to make, you
know, pretty modest living,

did some commercials.

And then, um, I got an
audition

for Nightmare on Elm
Street.

There were a ton of
people that auditioned.

Some fairly well-known
actors,

but she's the one that got
it.

Another
perfect casting choice,

in hindsight, is for the
role of Nancy's boyfriend,

Glen, which will go to a
20-year-old,

complete unknown
named Johnny Depp.

Johnny Depp,
pre-21 Jump Street,

makes his film debut in
Nightmare on Elm Street

and you can tell pretty quickly
that he's going to be a star.

I do have really fond
memories.

I mean, it was really
exciting.

Johnny Depp before he
was like a dirty pirate.

He was a cute teenager
getting killed.

He's got an onscreen charisma,
he's got a presence that works.

Johnny Depp had something
special and different.

Depp had
moved to Los Angeles

to pursue music, but then
he met

an up-and-coming star
named Nicholas Cage

who encouraged him to
give acting a shot,

as he told Entertainment
Tonight in 1988.

I was selling pens over
the phone,

making about $50-a-week
maybe, something like that.

And I met his agent, she
sent me to read

for Elm Street and meet
the people

and I, uh, just got very
lucky and got the role.

It's actually
something more

than just luck, which seals
the deal for Depp.

Wes Craven's
daughter saw Johnny Depp,

thought he was adorable
and said,

"That's the guy for this
movie."

I was shocked at Wes
Craven

and Annette Benson, the
casting director

and the director, for, you
know,

for taking such a chance
on this guy

who was totally green.

I mean I had no idea, I
didn't know lights

and, like, marks, you
know, camera position,

you know, I was clueless.

He was obviously such
a looker.

There's even a scene in
the film

where johnny Depp wears
a crop top.

Hi, how you doing?

And bares his midriff and
it really kind of gave signs

for his future sex appeal
in Hollywood.

Rounding out
the main characters

are Nancy's parents, Donald
and March Thompson.

John Saxon
played Nancy's father

and he was an accomplished
genre veteran at the time.

So he was the big name
for the project.

And Ronnie Blakely was an
Academy-Award nominee

for her performance in
Nashville in 1975

and really brought a lot
of warmth to the role

of Nancy's mother.

And it's the
fragile relationship

between the adults and
their teenagers

that is key to the film's
dynamic

and one that will become
a Craven staple

for years to come.

You come away from
Nightmare on Elm Street

realizing the adults in this
are just not very good

or very helpful.

The kids have to help
each other.

There's tremendously
profound things going on

during the teen years.

So they are kind of like
a, a boiled down version

of the human journey.

And I think if you
understand the journey,

then you understand teenagers
and you can write about them.

With casting
locked up

and principal photography
set to kick off

in just weeks, Craven and
his team prepare

to greet a fear fest like
no other.

But achieving their goal
will be far trickier

than anyone could have
dreamed.

It's the
spring of 1984

and shooting for Wes
Craven's reality-bending

horror film, A Nightmare
on Elm Street

is about to begin.

But there are some
unexpected

last-minute concerns
about Fred Krueger's look,

specifically that iconic hat.

I was in a room with Bob
Shaye,

head of New Line Cinema,
and Wes,

and they panicked about
the hat.

And they started making
me try these different hats on.

I said, "You guys, we're getting
desperate here, "this is wrong."

I said, "Wes, that hat is
from your imagination,

"the fedora." And I got the DP
in there and I said,

"Look what can happen
here with the light on me."

And I stood and I said,
"Look at my shadow

"on the wall, look at this
silhouette."

Craven's
original vision of the hat

stays, but transforming
Robert Englund's actual face

into the horrid villain day in
and day out

will prove to be a bigger
challenge.

To make Robert
Englund into Freddy Krueger

does not come fast.

It took hours of hair and
makeup to make him

that terrifying.

That's the rough part for me.

I mean, once I get the
makeup on, I love playing him.

And in about four hours
there's nothing left

of Robert Englund, it's just
this cantankerous cuss

named Fred Krueger.

Set in the
fictitious town

of Springwood Ohio, but
shot in and around

the Los Angeles area,
production kicks off in June

and from the start it's clear
that Wes Craven's baby

is a rather unique beast.

In the 80s, we were in
the middle of the slasher genre.

The villains were faceless
killers, usually with a knife.

Robert Englund told me,
"We're not allowed to use

"the word slasher on set."

Because it was something
else, it was surreal,

it was taking you into this
dream world.

We're getting into what I
have coined as

"rubber reality", which is
films that deal

with the way that reality
can be distorted

and permeated, going
into dream states,

all sorts of strange illusions.

As an audience member,
you never really know

if you're in a nightmare
or not.

Now this happens very
quickly

in Nightmare on Elm Street
with Amanda Wyss'

character, Tina.

She's in her high school
hallway

then all of a sudden here's
a goat.

When you see that very
early scene,

you know that something
is happening here

that is different.

From the
first moments

Freddy slithers onto the
screen,

it is also evident that we
are being treated

to a very different kind
of villain.

His first appearance when
he cuts off his own fingers.

Tina!

Watch this.

And just starts
laughing and smiling,

there's a malevolence to it
that's different

from other horror villains.

He's not just gonna kill you,
he's going to enjoy killing you.

And spoiler
alert, that's exactly

what's going to happen
to Tina,

who becomes Kruger's
first victim in the film.

Tina's death scene in
the original

Nightmare on Elm Street,
is incredible.

She gets killed about 20
minutes in in this horrific,

brutal way.

She's at her most vulnerable,
she's in a nightgown.

Then all of a sudden there's
an unseen entity.

Freddy Krueger essentially
sticks those knife-nail

finger claws right into her.

Tina goes rolling
up the wall onto the ceiling.

Tina!

It's meant to be
spectacular and it is.

You don't expect to see
this kind of stuff

in a low-budget horror
movie.

So here's what's really
scary,

she's dead, boyfriend's
looking at her,

slash marks on her.
Where did that come from?

The whole "rubber reality"
notion,

that is the backbone of
this picture,

you can see in that shot.

Freddy kills you in your
dreams,

but it it's still happening in
real life.

Just how
did the filmmakers create

such an intense visual
effect?

They actually had to create
this revolving bedroom

in order for the victim to
appear like

she was on the ceiling and
walking on all the walls.

So when she's on the
ceiling,

the actress or stuntwoman
was actually on the floor.

There's another actor in
the room

that was basically glued
down,

so he wouldn't fall up to
the ceiling.

They had to strap
in the furniture

and everything in the room
to make it appear as if

the room was stationary.

But nothing
comes cheap in Hollywood

and complex set pieces like
the rotating room

are part of why the film's
original budget of $700,000

will actually run out right
in the middle of production.

Thankfully, at the last
minute,

New Line Cinema is able
to secure at least $300,000

more in order to help
execute the special effects

that will give the film its
visual identity.

The first time you really
get a good look at Freddy,

he's got these huge
outstretched arms.

You have nancy sinking
through the stairs.

You have Freddy pushing
through a wall.

What they did very
cleverly was put in

enough effects at
appropriate moments

that made a big impression
that gave the idea

that, "Wow, this is a really
huge special effects movie."

But they were very
judiciously used.

So judiciously
in fact, that the effects crew

reused the revolving room
for another

infamous death scene.

Johnny Depp's
character is on his bed,

he's fallen asleep listening
to music on his headphones

and suddenly this claw
reaches up

from the mattress and
pulls him in.

Poor beautiful Johnny
Depp.

He just gets sucked into
the bed

and you're like, "Oh my
God, what happened?"

Then again, what bed wouldn't
want to eat Johnny Depp?

What happens next
is even more horrifying.

All of this blood just like
comes back up,

gushes through the bed.

It's a geyser of
blood that erupts

and it's way over the top.

What they actually did
was that they just moved

the revolving room upside
down

so that all the blood could
come down from the ceiling

but make it appear as if it
was actually coming up

from under the bed.

They actually used
like 500 gallons

of fake blood for that scene
and it was so much blood

that it shorted the electrical
equipment on the set.

It actually left Wes craven
and the cameraman

trapped upside down for
half an hour.

There's a famous bathtub
scene

in the first Elm Street,
Nancy is taking a bath.

Not surprisingly, she nods
off.

And Freddy's glove emerges
from the water

with the claws.

They cut out the bottom
of the tub

and place it on top of a
waterproof wooden box

where a man could be
under the water

in a scuba suit, that was
Jim Doyle.

And when Wes basically,
like, banged on the side

of the tub, he would stick
the glove out

because he couldn't hear
well in a scuba suit.

So it was a lot of banging
on the side of the tub

and then, you know, Jim
Doyle would.

And then Wes would be
like, "A little to the left."

And then he would do it
again. "A little to the right."

And so it was just endless,
like, getting that shot perfect.

Once Nancy
falls asleep for real,

that's when Freddy makes
his move.

It's a very safe place for
most people

and it's a place they've,
like, enjoyed

since they were kids.
You know, taking a bath.

And Wes decides to just
like ruin it for everybody

in that scene.

There was of course, that
famous rhyme

that we hear like a
Children's nursery rhyme.

♪ 1, 2, Freddy's coming
for you ♪

♪ 3,4, better lock your
door ♪

♪ 5,6,
Hey, you're gonna die!

7, 8, gonna stay up late.

I don't even want to say
the rest of it

because it's so scary!

It's time for
the cast and crew

to shoot the film's grand
finale,

where our young hero
faces off with her nemesis.

Nancy comes up
with this plan

that if she's holding him
in her dream

when she wakes up, she
can pull him out

of the dream world into the
real world

and she can fight him and
potentially kill him.

So she sets up this whole
trap.

She shaves off a light
bulb and she puts

gunpowder in one of the
light bulbs

and she runs a wire to the
on-off switch

so that you can trip it and
cause an explosion.

Wes Craven wanted
Nightmare on Elm Street

to end when Nancy finally
turns her back on Freddy

and realizes that without
her giving him life

he's negated, he's
powerless.

I take back every bit of
energy I gave you.

You're nothing.

What was
supposed to be the ending

was: Nancy walks outside
into the sunshine.

It's bright.

And she was gonna
walk away into the fog.

So it would be a dreamlike.

The ending was a little bit
ambiguous

and no one's quite sure if
Nancy is still in her dream.

But the ending
that makes it

to the big screen will have
an added twist to it.

The classic horror movie
"jump scare"

due to producer Robert
Shay's insistence.

A lot of movies at
that time ended

with a last minute shock.
You thought the movie was over,

suddenly the villain popped
up out of the ground

or out of the water and
cut to black.

Wes Craven did not
want a jump scare at the end.

He wanted it to be left
open and mysterious.

And so they sort of made
this compromise

that she'll, she'll drive off
in this car

and the foot of the
convertible will come down

and it's got Freddy stripes.

What's going on?!

- Hey, I'm not doing this.
- Glen, let us out!

I'm not doing this!

What's going on with
the window?!

No!

And then as her mother
is waving goodbye to her,

Freddy reaches through
the window of the front door

and pulls her inside.

I believe Wes craven didn't
like that

because it negated everything
that went before.

He had built the picture to
end with Nancy triumphing.

It was all structured toward
that revelation

that if you don't feed your
fears, they won't get you.

And yet Robert Shay packs
on an ending

and the fears get 'em. Well,
hell yes, I'd be upset by it.

Regardless
of the revised ending,

audiences are sure to be
shocked.

And with shooting now
wrapped,

it won't be long before
Craven unleashes Elm Street

upon the unsuspecting
masses.

But will it be too much for
them to handle?

November
9th 1984,

opening day for New Line
Cinema's new horror

mind bender, A Nightmare
on Elm Street.

Made on a shoe-string
budget with a cast

of mostly unknown actors,
and writer director

Wes Craven's career
essentially on the line,

it's time to see if this indie
film will be able

to find an audience.

Expectations were not
that high

for this film to translate into
huge box office numbers.

But what happened was
that there was

word of mouth, there was
a great poster,

a great trailer out for the
film.

The
kids of Elm Street

don't know it yet, but
something is coming to get them.

There's something out
there, isn't there?

Whatever you do,
don't fall asleep.

The concept was so
original.

The character of Freddy
Krueger was so tantalizing

and terrifying that people
just started to talk about

this movie.

Fangoria was a
magazine dedicated to gore.

Cinefantastique was a
magazine

that was dedicated to taking
the genre seriously.

They both loved it.

Even the mainstream
reviews were better

for a horror film than most.

The film
grosses 25 and a half

million dollars domestically,
making Elm Street

a bona fide hit.

When we talk about
success in Hollywood,

we've got to talk about
return on investment.

Nightmare was made for
around a million dollars.

In terms of that, it was
wildly successful.

Nightmare on Elm Street was
New Line Cinema's first big hit.

New Line Cinema
became known

as the house that Freddy
built.

He's the one that gave them
their financial foundation

to go on and make bigger
budgeted films

and become even more
successful.

New Line is now
in the Freddy Krueger business.

But before the first film is
even completed,

its creator would make a
deal

that he would ultimately
regret by signing away

all of his rights to the film
and its characters.

Keep in mind, Wes Craven
had not really made

a picture for years.

He was in pretty bad
financial shape.

Craven had to
sign the rights

for sequels over to Shay.

So, Robert Shay was able
then to go on

and do subsequent Elm
Street movies

with or without Craven's
approval or input.

Fans certainly
are hungry for more

as they rushed back into
theaters

less than a year later to
experience

A Nightmare on Elm Street
Part Two: Freddy's Revenge.

Nightmare on Elm
Street Two,

there's some really interesting
inventive special effects.

Some using animals, like
there's sort of

these demonic creatures
that live in

Freddy's boiler room.

And it dealt with the
concept of Freddy

trying to inhabit someone's
body

and turning the main
character into Freddy.

Part two kind of abandoned
the whole nightmare concept

and it just, it wasn't that
interesting.

You want to call it the
Craven touch,

whatever you want to call it,
didn't quite have that feeling.

Still, the
sequel earned $30 million

at the US box office,
surpassing the original.

Keeping the momentum
going in 1987,

part three, Dream Warriors
is unleashed.

Nightmare on Elm Street
Three takes

what's great about the
original Nightmare

on Elm Street and makes it
bigger,

it takes it to the next level.

Dream Warriors is considered
one of the stronger sequels.

Wes Craven was involved,
he wrote an early draft,

they brought back Nancy.
She's a therapist.

I used to be like them,
Neil.

I know what they're going
through.

And she's a good therapist
for these kids

because she had the same
problem they did.

Playing one
of the Teens,

Kristen is an 18-year-old
Patricia Arquette

in her film debut.

♪

Nancy!

Nightmare on Elm
Street Three was a huge hit.

It was more successful
than the first two.

Freddy was known before
that,

but I think that's what
made him huge in,

in pop culture.

One night I opened up my door
on Halloween night and there was

a little Freddy Krueger in a
costume.

And I thought to myself,
"Okay, he's got

"a Halloween costume
now, that's pretty iconic."

On Halloween you see
little kids walking around

with Freddy costumes, it
was really quiet,

quite remarkable.

The only person you
wanted to be on Halloween

was Freddy.

This is my Fred Krueger
mask, I made it myself

from the sculpting on
up. This is my claw.

It was a lot of fun, you
know,

to play with the
phenomenon of it all.

And so, I kind of owe Mr.
Krueger.

Freddy
Krueger is indeed

now a household name
and while he's busy

slashing through theaters,
another merging medium

brings him literally into our
living rooms.

Nightmare on Elm Street
really took off

for the same reason a lot
of horror franchises

at that time took off, and
that's the advent of VHS.

Teenagers didn't have to
ask their moms for ID

to go to the movie theater
and they could rent

Nightmare on Elm Street.

And that helped Freddy
come into everybody's house

in a way he never would
have otherwise.

As the legacy
and the terror grows

at home, the franchise
continues to flourish.

Nightmare on Elm
Street Four was huge

at the box office, it was
even bigger

than Nightmare on Elm
Street Three.

It was really an ascending
kind of franchise.

I love playing Freddy
once a year, it's fun.

As the sequels proceeded,
Freddy was prone

to telling more and more
jokes.

Basically you watch to see
what is Freddy going to do next.

We had so much fan mail
after the original

Nightmare on Elm Street where
people liked the personality.

I do remember he had
some great lines.

Like his tad's were amazing.

This is it, Jennifer,
your big break in TV.

The prime time!

I want to draw some
blood!

No!

Sorry kid, I don't believe in
fairy tales.

It was kind of cute and funny
and it made him more mainstream.

Listen, everybody enjoys
watching someone

who's good at their job.

I'm not saying I like serial
killers, but I do enjoy

someone who excels at
what they do.

He became maybe a little
too much of a prankster,

a little too much of a, of a
wisecracker.

You could say we jumped
the shark on it,

but it was intentional.

Capitalizing
on Kruger's over-the-top

personality, the franchise
even spawns

its own television series.

Freddy's Nightmares,
which runs for two years

in syndication, starting in
1988,

with Englund running the
show as Freddy.

No, no, no, don't touch
that dial.

Here's what's on my mind
tonight.

I feel like I've invented
this guy

and we've made him a
worldwide phenomenon,

now, you know, he's huge
in Europe.

But back
on the silver screen,

a surprise is in store.

Part five came out
and it was a big drop off

and suddenly they realized
this isn't gonna last forever.

So they did part six.
- This is gonna be the last one,

we're going to put him to bed.
Please put him to bed.

Freddy's Dead
came out in the early '90's

and they decided to go out
with a bang.

The end of the movie was
filmed in 3-D.

They had some big cameos,
Alice Cooper,

Roseanne and Tom Arnold,
Johnny Depp came back

and did a cameo.

This is your brain.

This is your brain on
drugs.

As the title
implies,

Freddy actually does die
in the sixth installment

of the franchise, which
leaves fans wondering

"Is the Nightmare on Elm
Street saga officially over?"

Not if Wes Craven has
anything to do with it.

1994, it's
been 10 years

since audiences were first
introduced

to A Nightmare on Elm
Street

and it's vile villain turned
pop culture icon,

Freddy Krueger.

Five Sequels, one tv
series,

and countless Halloween
mask later,

the monster mega-franchise
has been a juggernaut.

But when the film's
producers killed off Freddy

in part six, it seemed that
the nightmare

had officially ended.

Or did it?

I thought the series was
over

when they released
Freddy's Dead in 1991,

I believed them that,
that that was it.

And then it was announced
that Wes Craven was coming back.

Came shortly after Bob Shaye,
who, you know,

is the head of New Line
Cinema coming to me

and saying, "Would you be
interested "in doing one more?"

New Line revived the
Elm Street franchise,

but with a different title,
it was Wes Craven's

New Nightmare.

And not only is Wes
Craven coming back,

Heather Langenkamp is
coming back

and John Saxon is coming back
and obviously Robert Englund.

We'll do lunch.

♪

It was a meta-take,
where the actors

were playing themselves.

You played that girl in
that movie with the guy,

with the shhhk.

Robert Shay plays
himself,

Wes Craven plays himself.

And cut.
Print that, Gretchen.

And they were all playing
people

who were making a horror
movie.

I thought, you know,
wouldn't it be fascinating

to do a film about us and
about the fact that now

that the series were
stopped and the character

was killed off, that
whatever it was

that Freddy originally stood
for was somehow released.

So it, it involved Freddy
crossing over out of films

into our reality.
- Wes Craven's New Nightmare

was critically loved, but it
wasn't a huge success.

As the
franchise goes dormant

for the rest of the 1990's,
Craven reinvents

the horror genre once
again,

this time by directing the
first four Scream films

starting in 1996.

Let's do a slasher movie
with characters

who have seen slasher
movies,

they know all about it,
they know the genre tropes,

they know who's likely to
die and who's not

and "what are the things
you shouldn't do

if you don't want to die?"

They're all the same.

Some stupid killer stalking
some big-breasted girl

who can't act, who's
always running up the stairs

when she should be going out
the front door. It's insulting.

Scream
becomes an even larger

success than the nightmare
films.

The Scream movies of
the 90's

and the early 2000's was
kind of a second chapter

for Wes Craven and his
career.

And the
director has his

Elm Street roots, in part,
to thank for that.

Scream really built
on a lot of the foundations

that Wes Craven developed
in the Nightmare

on Elm Street franchise.

All those storylines that
revolved around teenagers.

Why do you think you
connect so well

with an adolescent or
young audience?

Probably because I never
grew up.

It's now
2003, 9 years

since Freddy Krueger last
tore up the silver screen,

and his next outing will be
his most intense

and lucrative yet.

Freddy VS Jason,
it was something

that fans had been waiting
for and asking for for years.

And I think the writers
found a really smart way

to bring Freddy and Jason
together.

Yo, that is fire right
there.

It's Jay-Z and Kanye coming
together

and putting down
something decent man.

There's two fan bases
who are going to be buying

tickets to this and you don't
want to alienate either one.

So, there are really two
battles in the film.

The first one takes place
in the dreamworld

and Freddy is clearly the
victor in that.

Ooh, tilt.

And they have one big
fight sequence

where they're in the real world,
they're at camp Crystal Lake.

And that's where Jason
has the advantage.

♪

Kind of a tie.
So both fan bases can go home

and argue
about who won.

And Freddy VS
Jason cemented

Freddy's status in pop
culture history even more.

It elevated everyone.

It also
elevated the franchise's

box office to new heights.

Freddy VS Jason
was the highest grossing

in this series, it made over
80 million domestically

and 116 million worldwide.

Seven years
later, in 2010,

a reboot of the original film
is released

starring Jackie Earle Haley
as Freddy

and Rooney Mara as
Nancy.

And though it's a success,
almost replicating

Freddy VS Jason's strong
box office numbers,

many purists aren't sold.

I think with the
reboot, people did their best.

Jackie Earle Haley gave it
a good effort,

but I think it struggles with
not having Robert Englund

as Freddy.

There's an over reliance
on digital effects.

Craven is
not involved in the reboot

but re enters the public eye
after directing Scream Four

in 2011.

Sadly, it will be his final
film as he succumbs

to brain cancer in 2015
at age 76.

When Wes Craven
died, not just horror movies,

but the American cinema
lost an innovator,

somebody who is
consistently interesting

as a filmmaker and
making horror

a deeper experience with
filmgoers.

He could do anything he
wanted to do, he really could.

But he was fascinated by
what scares us.

Stories, it's an ancient
device

that human beings use
instinctively

to deal with scary things.

And if there's something
terrifying in life,

if it's captured into a
character

like Freddy Krueger, it's
somehow more able

to be processed and that
allows us to go, you know,

on to the next day.

I think a huge
part of the success

of A Nightmare on Elm Street
is because of the concept.

It was something that no
one had really dreamed up

before in quite the way
that he did.

Nightmare on Elm Street
took the slasher film

and made it psychological.

Texas Chainsaw, Mike
Myers, Friday the 13th,

we, we get it, you're a
serial killer,

you're deranged.

Let's step it up a notch,
let's kill you

inside your own head.

Yo, that's the next level, man.

You don't know whether
the characters on the screen

are supposed to be in a
real situation

or if they're in a dream
situation.

That's brilliant to me and
that brilliance still holds up.

And the character
of Krueger was memorable.

Freddy Krueger gave you
the creeps.

Just the outfit alone.

All of these little pieces
really make him

who he was.
He's an iconic character.

Some of the Freddy, so
called Clint-Eastwood lines

or whatever you want to
call them,

became things that kids
would say in school

and you'd hear them on
talk shows.

Even on Halloween Night,
you still see people

dressed up as that horrible
figure.

There's still, you know,
bobbleheads and figurines

and t shirts.
People love him.

Freddy is still as popular
as he ever was.

Robert Englund was
buried under a few inches

of prosthetics or whatever,
but he creates an impression

that sticks with you after
the films are gone.

That's the sign of a really
great actor.

If I have to take credit
for anything,

it would be that silhouette
maybe,

and the body language.

You know, that's what I
bring.

And the films
continue to live on.

It has so many iconic
phrases.

Not only do you have the
character,

you have a signature
theme song.

It changed the game
forever.

You know, in those dark
nights when you think,

"I just don't have it, I'm
a fake or whatever."

No, I created something
that's known

around the world, that's
not bad.

As for the
future of Freddy,

fans are clamoring for
another installment

to the Elm Street series.

Though with Englund
stating he's done playing

his classic role and without
Wes Craven, of course,

it might be tricky to pull
off.

If there is another Elm
Street come along,

it's going to depend a great
deal on the writing

because that was one of
Craven's trademarks.

His films were character-
driven,

fascinating characters.

And one of the
keys to bringing back

a franchise is if there's a
central character

that's real identifiable.

Well, who's going to be
Fred Krueger?

And what are they gonna
do with the glove?

And are the fingers going
to be even longer and scarier?

And what kind of new
dreams can they come up with?

So I think there's always
going to be a potential there.

Even if they never make
another sequel,

the character of Freddy
Kruger will always live on

in everyone's nightmares.

And that's why Nightmare
on Elm Street is classic

and timeless.