History NightmareFuel / ANightmareOnElmstreet

* The fact that no matter how campy Freddy gets, and how wacky his murder methods become, he still ''eats the souls of his victims.'' When other slashers kill you, the terror is over. When Freddy kills you, it's just beginning.

It's called "A '''''NIGHTMARE''''' on Elm Street." If this series didn't have a page, then Creator/WesCraven wouldn't have made great horror movies.

[[quoteright:277:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cutmypic_8626.png]]

* The entire premise of the series. Creator/WesCraven takes a fear that pretty much all of us have had at some point -- the idea that being killed in your dreams can result in you dying for real -- and embodies it in the menacing, knife-fingered figure of Freddy Krueger.

** Also, the numerous {{Nightmare Sequence}}s in the films also add to it- given that the whole theme and point of ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' is Nightmare Fuel. It's also BasedOnATrueStory. And the character of Freddy Krueger is based on a homeless person that scared Wes Craven as a kid. Wes Craven describes the story in a DVD special feature:

** Also, the numerous {{Nightmare Sequence}}s in the films also add to it- given that the whole theme and point of ''ANightmareOnElmStreet'' is Nightmare Fuel. It's also BasedOnATrueStory. And the character of Freddy Krueger is based on a homeless person that scared Wes Craven as a kid. Wes Craven describes the story in a DVD special feature:

* NightmareFuel/ANightmareOnElmStreet1984
* NightmareFuel/ANightmareOnElmStreetPart2FreddysRevenge
* NightmareFuel/ANightmareOnElmStreet3DreamWarriors
* NightmareFuel/FreddysDeadTheFinalNightmare
* NightmareFuel/ANightmareOnElmStreet2010

** Even Robert Englund, his portrayer, admitted to having nightmares about him.

[[quoteright:277:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cutmypic_8626.png]]

* The entire premise of the series. WesCraven takes a fear that pretty much all of us have had at some point -- the idea that being killed in your dreams can result in you dying for real -- and embodies it in the menacing, knife-fingered figure of Freddy Krueger.

--->"When I looked down there was a man very much like Freddy walking along the sidewalk. He must have sensed thaft 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.' The man walked towards the apartment building's entrance. 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."
* ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' (1984):
** There's a lot of them, considering they're slasher flicks, but the most famous two are [[spoiler:Tina's death in which she's brutally dragged across the ceiling of her bedroom]] and [[spoiler:when Glen is pulled into his bed and turned into a geyser of blood]].
** Any scene involving the dream version of Tina's body in the original as well.
** As tacky as the scene was, at the end when [[spoiler:the car hosting the colors of Freddy's sweater whisks away the shocked kids in it while the happy mother waves goodbye before she is sniped through the window while children are singing the eerie song...]] [[GainaxEnding That scene just...why.]]
** "Did you know that the brain can still function for seven minutes after the heart stops beating? [[ColdBloodedTorture We still have six minutes to play..."]]
** "Why are you screaming? I haven't even cut you yet..."
* ''A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge'':
** Freddy cutting and tearing his way out of Jesse's body.
** When Jesse walks in on his sister singing the "One, two, Freddy's coming for you" song.
** The entire premise of the movie. What's worse than fighting an undead reality-warping dream demon that's killing your friends? Having that dream demon ''possess you to make '''you''''' kill your friends.
** Earlier in the movie we're presented with an example of ParanoiaFuel. When Jesse begins dreaming of Freddy he sees him inside the basement from the outside of his house. Imagine the idea of going outside your house at night for a minute, when everyone's sleep. Then you look into the basement window and find a strange man who somehow managed to get inside and is taking out a glove fitted with knives on each finger out of the boiler. You have no idea how he got inside, your family is still in the house, and you've got no idea if you're fast enough to get inside before either running into him or before he gets to your sleeping family.
* ''A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors'':
** The "flesh marionette" scene.
** The scene where Kristen snaps out of her dream with the killer bathroom fixtures, and realizes she's got a bleeding wrist and a bloody razor blade in her hand. Maybe it's just paranoia talking, but for a split second she's so disoriented, she may not have been sure she '''hadn't''' genuinely gone crazy and slashed her own wrist while hallucinating. At least you can ''fight'' Freddy, but your own insanity...
* ''A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master'':
** Debbie's [[spoiler:death involves her turning into a cockroach in what is clearly a ''very'' painful transformation before being crushed in a roach motel. Also, take note that out of the entire movie, Debbie's death was the longest and the most elaborate Krueger inflicted.]]
* ''A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child'':
** ''Literally'' from this line.
--->'''Freddy''': "Fuel injection!"
* ''A Nightmare on Elm Street 6: Freddy's Dead'':
** Even the much-maligned sixth film gave Freddy some straight-faced, creepy moments, such as his standing in a windswept cellar doorway and gloating "''every'' town has an Elm Street", and later threatening [[spoiler:his long-lost daughter]] with the line "I didn't need a glove to kill [[spoiler:your bitch of a mother]], and I don't need one to kill you." Despite the jokes, Robert Englund could always make Freddy terrifying again at the drop of a dusty old fedora.
** How about when Tracy meets Freddy in her dream, [[spoiler:appearing as her father, who molested her and it is implied she killed in self-defense.]] He proceeds to feel her up, try to make her kiss him, and triggers her to the point that she bashes his face in with a kettle, which ''does absolutely nothing to phase him.''
** There is a brief, genuinely creepy moment in one of the otherwise very silly scene where Freddy Krueger takes away the nearly-deaf Carlos' hearing aid... and absolutely no sound plays as Freddy Krueger walks behind the confused Carlos, shouting at him, flailing about... being deaf, KNOWING that he's there, but having nothing BUT your sight to spot him is actually pretty creepy. [[NightmareRetardant Then Freddy ruins it with the "make your head explode with super-hearing and tiny pins", but still.]]
* ''Wes Craven's New Nightmare''
** ''New Nightmare'' [[spoiler: would see Tina's death revisited, as Freddy kills Julie in a quite similar manner.]]
* ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' (2010)
** Freddy's face [[spoiler: melting from being burnt alive and his screams while running towards Quentin in the remake.]]
** The [[RRatedOpening beginning]] with Dean [[SlashedThroat tearing his own throat open with a knife]] while screaming "YOU'RE NOT REAL! YOU'RE NOT REAL!"
** The remake makes him a CompleteMonster. ColdBloodedTorture and AttemptedRape both show up, the latter combined with DudeShesLikeInAComa... [[ItMakesSenseInContext sort of.]]
** The SoundtrackDissonance in the pharmacy scene.
* ''Other Works''
** The first episode of ''FreddysNightmares'' [[spoiler: when it turns out that the events of the episode are just a product of the main character's broken neurons misfiring as he's dying after taking a bullet to the brain.]]
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--->"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.' The man walked towards the apartment building's entrance. 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."

** Debbie's [[spoiler:death involves her turning into a cockroach in what is clearly a ''very'' painful transformation before being crushed in a roach motel.]]