History Film / ANightmareOnElmStreet

[[quoteright:309:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/freddy-krueger-wih-chain.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:309:The Bastard Son of 100 Maniacs, The Springwood Slasher, The Man of Your Dreams.]]

->''One, two; Freddy's coming for you''
->''Three, four; better lock your doors''
->''Five, six; grab a crucifix''
->''Seven, eight; gonna stay up late''
->''Nine, ten; never sleep again''
-->--'''The song of the series'''

->''If Nancy doesn't wake up screaming, she won't wake up at all.''
-->--'''Tagline of the first movie'''

The ''Nightmare On Elm Street'' film franchise centers around SlasherFilm icon Freddy Krueger (played by Robert Englund in every film except the 2010 remake) and his exploits in killing the teenagers of Springwood. The franchise features these films:

'''''A Nightmare on Elm Street''''' (1984)

In the original film, Heather Langenkamp plays Nancy Thompson, an average teenage girl who has nightmares for several successive nights. Her friends (including Johnny Depp in his first acting role ''ever'') end up murdered, one by one, [[YourMindMakesItReal in their sleep]] -- by the same man Nancy sees in her nightmares: a badly-burnt man who wears a red-and-green striped shirt, wields a knifed glove, and calls himself Freddy Krueger. Nancy confronts her mother, who tells her that Krueger, a child molester/murderer known as "The Springwood Slasher", died as the result of a vigilante murder by the parents of his victims after [[PoliceAreUseless a botched police investigation let Freddy go free]]. Freddy wants revenge against his killers, so he decides to kill the children of those parents in their dreams, where their parents can't protect them. Can Nancy stop Freddy once and for all? Well...since several sequels followed this one, one can only assume...

Despite [[{{Sequelitis}} the quality of those sequels]], critics call this Wes Craven-directed film a horror classic.

'''''A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge''''' (1985)

Five years after the original film, Freddy -- who wants to kill outside of the Dream World -- plans to break into reality; to circumvent the BroughtDownToNormal effect, he plans to possess [[AmbiguouslyGay Jesse Walsh]], the teenage son of the latest family to move into 1428 Elm Street. [[BrokenBase Franchise fans consider this either the best or the worst of the series]], due in part to the film's increased emphasis on BodyHorror and the excessive HomoeroticSubtext.

'''''A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors''''' (1987)

Wes Craven returns to the franchise (though not as director) in this film, set a year after the last. Freddy begins to kill off kids in their dreams again, with all the unusual deaths -- which occur primarily on Elm Street -- deemed suicides by the stumped authorities. The number of Elm Street teenagers eventually dwindles down to a small handful that the authorities wisk off to Westin Hills Sanitarium, where Nancy Thompson -- now a recently graduated psychologist -- works. Together with the skeptical Doctor Neil Gordon, Nancy sets out to help Elm Street's last teenagers, dubbed the "Dream Warriors" for their ability to manifest special powers during their dreams, defeat Freddy once and for all. Fans usually regard this film as good, as this film started the trend of creative (and ironic) deaths and introduced Freddy's now-trademark dark sense of humor (including his penchant for {{Bond One Liner}}s).

'''''A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master''''' (1988)

After appearing to kill Freddy off for good, the survivors of the last film return to their normal lives, but soon enough, the nightmares -- and Freddy -- return. Freddy manages to kill off the last Elm Street teenagers (and avenge his death), then sets his sights on the rest of Springwood's children. Only one person who stands between Freddy and hundreds of new potential victims: Alice Johnson, a shy girl given special dream powers by Kristen Parker (the last Elm Street teenager) just before Freddy kills her. Flashier and more "MTV-esque" than the preceding films, ''The Dream Master'' took what ''Dream Warriors'' introduced and rolled with it; some fans think it rolled a bit too far, as this film marks the point where Freddy became the wisecracking, death-dealing jester fans most often remember him as.

'''''A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child''''' (1989)

After his defeat in the previous film, Freddy finds a way to return to life: through the dreams of Alice's unborn baby son, Jacob. The dream demon intends to mold Jacob into the perfect little host body (or murder machine; the film leaves Freddy's exact plans for Jacob vague), and to do so, he kills off Alice's friends and feeds their souls to the developing bundle of joy. This film tried to combine the darkness of the early films with Freddy's new wisecracker persona.

'''''Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare''''' (1991)

A SeriesFauxnale vaguely set "[[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture ten years from now]]" (and originally released in 3D), ''The Final Nightmare'' has Freddy, who has now killed off damn near every non-adult in Springwood, concoct [[GambitRoulette a complicated scheme]] to escape Springwood's borders and begin his reign of terror elsewhere. Since Freddy can only hitch a ride in the psyche of his own flesh and blood, Freddy lures his long-lost son to Springwood as part of the plan to escape the dying town. ''The Final Nightmare'' explores [[StartOfDarkness Freddy's own dark background]] while ratcheting the campiness of the last two entries UpToEleven. While the film has its fans, franchise devotees usually regard this entry as mediocre due to the farcical treatment of Freddy's GrandFinale.

'''''Wes Craven's New Nightmare''''' (1994)

[[InCaseYouForgotWhoWroteIt As you can tell]], Wes Craven returned to the franchise -- this time, as writer and director for this meta picture. ''New Nightmare'' sets itself in our reality, where we think of Freddy as nothing more than a fictional horror film icon. After Craven starts to develop ideas for a new installment in the terminated franchise, [[UltimateEvil an ancient evil]] -- [[SealedEvilInACan imprisoned]] in the film series since the first and released by Freddy's death in the sixth -- decides it doesn't like the idea of getting trapped again; once it sets out to stop the production, it begins to target Heather Langenkamp (who the entity views as "Nancy", the only one who can stop it) and her young son. The arguable precursor to ''Film/{{Scream}}'' (also written and directed by Craven), ''New Nightmare'' received a degree of praise for its study of the [[NoFourthWall nature of reality]].

'''''FreddyVsJason''''' (2003)

Stuck in DevelopmentHell for years, the crossover between Freddy and fellow horror legend [[Film/FridayThe13th Jason Voorhees]] finally reached the silver screen in 2003. Trapped in Hell since his last defeat (''The Final Nightmare'') and unable to return [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly due to Springwood's censorship of his name and exploits]], Freddy uses what little remains of his power to assume the guise of Pamela Voorhees and resurrect her son, Jason. Freddy sends Jason to Springwood to kill the "naughty children" there, and as the bodies pile up, panic spreads among Springwood's populace and fuels Freddy, who soon gains enough strength to start his reign of terror all over. When Jason [[KillSteal refuses to stop killing]], however, [[{{Understatement}} Freddy gets a bit upset...]]

''For tropes specific to this film, please see its specific page.''

'''''A Nightmare on Elm Street''''' (2010)

JackieEarleHaley and {{Rooney Mara}} star as Freddy and Nancy in this MichaelBay-produced {{remake}} of the original film. It generally follows the story of the first film, though not without some alterations (including an attempt to make Freddy look like an innocent victim of a town of overzealous parents). Review buzz ended up as negative (going by RottenTomatoes), but the reviews themselves have a more lukewarm feeling to them, which reflects upon the generic-but-not-horrible feel of the film.

'''''I Am Nancy''''' (2011)

Heather Langenkamp took WesCraven's ''[[SelfReferentialHumor New Nightmare]]'' to the [[CashCowFranchise next logical step]] and made a [[GenreShift comedic documentary]] [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1536421/ about herself and Nancy]].

----

!! The ''Nightmare on Elm Street'' franchise contains examples of the following tropes:

* EightiesHair: Especially Nancy.
* [[ThreeDMovie 3DMovie]]: ''Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare''.
* AbandonedHospital: A large portion of Westin Hills, until it gets renovated sometime before ''Freddy vs. Jason''.
* AbsurdlySharpBlade: Freddy's claws. The best example of this in action is Grady's death in ''Freddy's Revenge''. Freddy pins him to the door, then rakes his claws down Grady's torso and the door, slicing through both like hot butter.
* AbusiveParents: Alice and Rick's father was a borderline example, though by ''The Dream Child'' [[CharacterDevelopment he got better]].
** Taken to extreme levels in ''Freddy's Dead'' where literally every main character had abusive parents (it was the theme of the film). Carlos had a mother whose abuse caused him to become deaf, Spencer has a father who psychologically abuses him, Tracy had a father who sexually abused her, and Maggie's biological father...well, you know. Even Freddy is shown to have a foster father who physically abuses him during his teen years.
** WesCraven [[WordOfGod said]] in the DVDCommentary that the distance between parents and teenage children (particularly teenagers) is a major theme of the first film. For example, Nancy's parents are not just divorced from each other but emotionally disengaged from their daughter, regarding her teenage problems as trivial and refusing to take her nightmares seriously, and divorced from life in general - Nancy's mother is an alcoholic, and her father arguably a workaholic.
* AccidentalMurder: In the chaos caused by Freddy appearing at the pool party in ''Freddy's Revenge'', a random reveler gets trampled.
* ActionGirl: Most of the {{Final Girl}}s become one.
* AdultsAreUseless: With a few notable exceptions, the parents and adult authority figures of Springwood are all oblivious at best, or downright hostile jerks at worst. Examples being Kristen's mother Elaine and Greta's mother Racine, with both of them downright unsympathetic to the fact that their daughters had both lost close friends. Elaine shrugs it off to Kristen being tired.
** A notable example happens in ''The Dream Child'', when Freddy kills Greta. In the real world it appears as though she's violently choking, yet her mother and the people at the dinner party all simply stare at her. It isn't until she falls face first into her salad, dead, that her mother and the party-goers check if she's alright.
** Played with in the remake. [[spoiler:The parents aren't able to do too much to protect their kids from Freddy in the present, but we see in flashbacks that they were so determined to protect their children from his molesting them that they burned him alive.]]
* AGodAmI: Freddy has traits of this, especially in the dream world when he is a literal nightmare god.
* AlienGeometries: Alice's last battle of ''Dream Master'' is set in an Escher-like dreamscape.
* TheAllegedCar: Jesse's car ("the deadly dinosaur") from ''Freddy's Revenge''.
* AllJustADream and DyingDream: Done ''to death'' in ''FreddysNightmares''. Almost every episode ended with one of two.
* AllYourPowersCombined: Alice can absorb the abilities of her fallen friends, leading to her becoming something of a martial arts-wielding GadgeteerGenius. This also means she [[MySignificanceSenseIsTingling instantly knows when someone's died]]. These abilities are suspiciously absent from the sequel "The Dream Child" though it is heavily implied that her unborn child's own supernatural powers have rendered her's useless.
* AloneWithThePsycho: For the most part, Freddy specializes in battling people one-on-one in their dreams. Even when people have conjoined dreams, he tends to isolate the weakest person [[AnalogyBackfire like a]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HlL2R4cQao lion with some zebras]]. It was best presented in part 4...
--> '''Kristen''': "We beat you before!"
--> '''Freddy''': "And now you're all ALONE."
* AmbiguouslyGay: Jesse Walsh (the actor who portrayed him is actually gay in real life).
* AndIMustScream: Freddy's victims are left in this state after he absorbs their souls. In the remake, Freddy intended to trap Nancy in this scenario, by keeping her awake for so long that, when she finally did fall asleep, she wouldn't wake up.
* AnswersToTheNameOfGod: Happens in both the original and remake.
** Original:
-->'''Tina:''' Please, God...
-->'''Freddy:''' ''This'' (holds up claw glove)...is God!
** Remake:
--> '''Jesse Braun''': Oh, God!
--> '''Freddy Krueger''': No. Just me.
* AssholeVictim: Coach Schneider in ''Freddy's Revenge''. And this trope is rare in the ''Nightmare'' movies (except ''Film/FreddyVsJason'', which is part ''Film/FridayThe13th'', which is the exact opposite and follows this trope all the time).
* {{Autocannibalism}}: The uncut version of the fifth movie reveals that the stuff Freddy is force feeding Greta is her own innards.
* BadassBoast: Freddy has had a couple including this little gem:
-->'''Freddy''': Faster than a bastard maniac, more powerful than a loco-madman, it's Super-Freddy!
* BadassLongcoat: Freddy is wearing one in ''New Nightmare''.
* BadassNormal: Nancy Thompson in the original film.
** Also in the third film, where she is the only character without a dream power, yet still is the most competent "dream warrior".
* BaldOfEvil: Even when he was alive, Freddy had a pretty thin hairline.
* BalefulPolymorph: Debbie is turned into a cockroach by Freddy and is later trapped in a Roach Motel in ''The Dream Master''.
* BedlamHouse: Westin Hills, originally.
* BigBad: Freddy Krueger
* TheBoardGame: One of the many, many pieces of merchandise these movies gave birth to.
* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Averted in [[spoiler:"Dream Warriors'' and ''Dream Child'']], but played straight in [[spoiler:"The Dream Master'']].
* BookEnds: ''Freddy's Revenge'' begins and ends on a bus ride to Hell.
* BreakingTheFourthWall: The seventh and final film in the original series, ''New Nightmare'', is about the making of a new "Nightmare" film, which is done [[spoiler:in order to keep the real Freddy demon from coming into the real world.]]
** What's creepier is that the real-life earthquake during filming was worked into the plot, and Heather Langenkamp actually suffered a stalker in real life.
* BroadStrokes: ''Freddy's Revenge'' and how it relates to the rest of the series.
* BlatantLies: Freddy to a hapless victim in TheRemake:
-->'''Freddy''': ''*brandishing claws*'' You don't have nothing to worry about. This won't hurt one...little...bit.
* BloodyHilarious: The death of Glen in the original film.
* BondOneLiner: Freddy Krueger, master of the bon mot.
* {{Callback}}: ''New Nightmare'' has many to the first film.
** And even to the sequels. The Freddy and Alice morphing head from ''The Dream Child'' appears as a prop at the beginning, Robert Englund quotes the "You are all my children now!" line from ''Freddy's Revenge'', and Tuesday Knight (who portrayed Kristen in ''The Dream Master'') appears as a mourner at Chase's funeral.
* CashCowFranchise: Candy, dolls, masks, the aforementioned board game, video games, ''[[http://www.i-mockery.com/weeklies/weekly.php?type=music&id=57 a dance album]]'', a phone line where Freddy tells you scary stories...you name it.
* CharacterDevelopment: In the cases of Freddy, Nancy, Kristen, Alice, and Alice's father.
* ChestBurster: Happens in ''Freddy's Revenge'', when Freddy cuts his way out of Jesse's chest.
** Done again in the remake when he shoves his clawed hand through Jesse's chest.
** The end of ''Dream Child'' has him [[spoiler:trapped back in the womb of Amanda, from which his clawed hand protrudes as he yells to be let out]].
* ChildOfRape: Freddy himself.
** ExtraParentConception: By ''a hundred maniacs'', assuming that isn't hyperbole.
* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: Inverted: the people of Springwood keep Freddy at bay by not thinking or speaking of him...well, at least not until ''Freddy VS Jason'', anyway...
** [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly Freddy Needs Fear Badly]]
* ClothesMakeTheLegend: The red and green striped sweater, the fedora, and the knife-glove that make up Freddy's trademark attire (indeed, when Freddy wants to mess with a victim's mind, he'll usually appear as a seemingly innocent person who's nonetheless wearing his trademark colors). The knife-glove was an invention of Freddy's during his time as the Springwood Slasher.
* ColdBloodedTorture: The Remake:
--> '''Freddy:''' "Did you know that after the heart stops beating, the brain keeps functioning for well over seven minutes? We got six more minutes to play..."
* ColonCancer: The full name of the RecycledTheSeries is ''FreddysNightmares: A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Series''.
* CompositeCharacter: Nancy Holbrook of the remake appears to be a combination of Nancy Thompson and Alice Johnson.
* CoolShades: Adorned by Freddy during the beach scene in ''The Dream Master''.
* CreditsGag: In the metafictional ''New Nightmare'', Freddy Krueger is credited "[[CharacterAsHimself As Himself]]".
* CreepyChild: Young Freddy is shown to have been pretty creepy himself in various flashbacks, and he loves to populate his nightmares with pale, creepy children who represent his former victims.
** Jacob Johnson in ''The Dream Child''.
** What about Dylan in ''New Nightmare''?
* CreepyChildrenSinging: "Freddy's Coming For You"
* CreepyCockroach: Debbie in the fourth movie, who hates roaches, is turned into one in her nightmare and is then trapped in a roach motel.
* CrossOver: ''Freddy VS Jason''
** ''FreddyVsJasonVsAsh''
** Also, believe it or not, Freddy VS DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-56CNh5S7GU Nightmare On My Street]]. Will Smith recorded the single as a gag, with Robert Englund providing dialogue. No, Freddy doesn't sing...but he does rap.
--->''You turned off David Letterman - now you must die!''
** [[VideoGame/MortalKombat9 Freddy Versus the cast of Mortal Kombat]]. Which, if you have the Ps3 version, means Freddy Versus [[VideoGame/GodOfWar Kratos]]. SoCoolItsAwesome indeed.
* CrustyCaretaker: Pre-death Freddy.
** [[CreatorCameo Wes Craven cameos]] as a crusty caretaker in Film/{{Scream}}, directly parodying Freddy.
*** Robert Englund himself has done the same, as an ActorAllusion on ''{{Bones}}''.
* DarkerAndEdgier: In ''Freddy's Dead'', the victims Freddy goes after have significantly-harsher past histories (child abuse, incest and [[spoiler: being the daughter of a serial killer]]) than those from previous films.
* DarkWorld: Freddy's dream worlds often take the form of abandoned, decaying versions of everyday life.
* DaylightHorror: Most memorably in the first movie. [[spoiler:At the end, we get a HopeSpot where Nancy firmly believes Freddy is dead and gone. It's an overly bright, clear day. She gets in a car, waves lovingly to her mother...then the cars morphs into Freddy's signature colors and carts her and her friends off to their sunny, cheerful, and oblivious doom, while her mother gets pulled into the house by Freddy. The end.]]
** In ''Dream Master'', Freddy is able to harass Alice even when she's wide awake in the daytime, because [[spoiler: he's using her unborn child's dreams, and a fetus's sleep isn't tied to the day/night cycle]].
* DeadlyHug: This is how Freddy kills Nancy in ''Dream Warriors'', while impersonating her deceased father. She embraces him and says her goodbyes...only to have him stab her, much to the horror of her friends and the audience.
* DeadpanSnarker: The remake Freddy enters this territory; he is much more physically subdued than the original, but his love for wordplays and puns remain more-or-less-unchanged.
* DeadUnicornTrope: In pop culture, Freddy is often referred to as "The guy with the long fingernails", despite the first film clearly pointing out that they're not fingernails, they're knives attached to a glove. Very rarely do other media notice that he only has them on one hand either.
** ''Freddy's Revenge'', ''Dream Warriors'', and ''New Nightmare'' don't help shoot down the misconception, since all three have scenes featuring Freddy sprouting blades directly from his fingers.
* DeathByIrony: A specialty of Freddy's.
* DeathBySex: Tina in the first film, Dan in ''The Dream Child''.
* DecoyProtagonist: Tina in the original film, her counterpart Kris in the remake (to those who haven't seen the original, anyway) and John in ''Freddy's Dead''.
** Kristen in ''Dream Master''.
* DemBones: When Neil and Nancy's dad try to give Freddy's remains a proper burial in ''Dream Warriors'', he possesses them briefly to kick their ass.
* DemonicPossession: Freddy's plan in ''Freddy's Revenge''.
** He tries it again in ''The Dream Child'', this time to ''an unborn child''.
** In the same film, he briefly possesses [[spoiler:Dan's corpse]] to taunt Alice.
-->'''Freddy:''' "Hey, Alice, let's make babies!"
* DisproportionateRetribution: Freddy vowed revenge on the parents who burned him by killing their kids just because they killed him so he couldn't hurt them in the first place. Who are we kidding? Freddy would've done what he's done even if he wasn't set ablaze. The only thing that burning Freddy did was free him from his mortal existence so he could become a nightmare god. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Way to go, parents]].
** Also done in the remake, except this time, he goes after the kids [[TheStoolPigeon because they were the ones who told their parents what he was doing]].
* DoubleStandard: In the remake, it is made very clear that all of the kids were molested by Freddy. "You're gonna pay for what you did to my son!" and other lines. But the film only shows Freddy taunting and flirting with the girls, and at no point did Quentin seem to blink at the realization of "hey, ''I'' was raped too!" But if you think about it, there is a reason for his attitude towards Quentin, compared to the others. Nancy was always Freddy's 'favoritie', so when he learned about Nancy and Quentin's feelings for each other, he got [[{{Yandere}} a little jealous]].
** More than likely Freddy only raped the girls and that it was just assumed that he raped Quentin and other boys.
*** Pedophiles in RealLife sometimes exchange kiddie porn with one another in secret. Possibly Freddy took dirty pictures of the boys to trade for similar photos of girls.
** There's ways a guy can hurt a child without actually raping them. It's possible that he had a...erm decent repertoire of things he did to the kids...
* DoppelgangerAttack: Done by Freddy in ''Dream Warriors'', and the Pseudo-Freddy in ''New Nightmare''.
* DreamWeaver: Freddy, natch.
* DreamWithinADream: Freddy loves screwing with people this way.
* DrivenToSuicide: Freddy's mother, after hearing about her son's release.
* EveryoneWentToSchoolTogether: Played straight in the remake when [[spoiler: you find out all the victims went to the same preschool that Freddy worked at in life]].
** Also justified. [[spoiler:Freddy only went after those particular kids ''because'' they went to school together.]]
* EvilMakesYouMonstrous: Freddy
* EvilPlan: Freddy's attempt to force Maggie to free him from Springwood. Widely considered to be one of the few moments in ''Freddy's Dead'' that was worthy of the earlier installments.
-->'''Maggie:''' But how?! This isn't Springwood!
-->'''Freddy:''' ''Every'' town...has an Elm Street.
* EvilPhone: "I'm your boyfriend now, Nancy."
* ExecutiveMeddling: Wes Craven originally wanted to end the first film with a happy ending. Executives made Freddy still alive for [[{{Sequelitis}} sequels]].
** Robert Shay disputes this. He claims that he had the ending changed not because he wanted sequels, but because he felt the original ending lacked energy.
* ExpandedUniverse: Various {{novelization}}s and original novels, comics, a television series, a short stories collection, and two video games.
* EyeScream: Happens twice in the remake: [[spoiler:first when Nancy stabs Freddy in the eye with scissors, and again at the end, when Freddy impales Nancy's mother through the head from behind and a blade comes out of her eye.]]
** In ''Dream Warriors'', Neil mentions a former Westin Hills patient who cut his own eyelids out.
*** Freddy might actually have caused the damage and made it look self-inflicted, as Neil also says that no one knew how the patient had gotten ahold of the razors to do it.
** While not shown in the film, the comic adaptation of ''Freddy's Dead'' shows Freddy killed his adoptive father by stabbing him in the eye with the straight razor.
* {{FanDisservice}}: Jesse and Lisa's make-out scene in ''Freddy's Revenge''.
* {{Fanservice}}: ''Freddy VS Jason'' aside, ''Dream Warriors'' and ''The Dream Master'' are the only installments to feature worthwhile nudity. Both instances happen to occur in Joey's dreams.
** Attempted (and failed) for rare male examples in the second film what with the excessive scenes of the male lead in his Whiteys, his friend in tight, tiny shorts, the coach full on nude, and just all around erotic shots of the male characters in general..
** In the remake, one of the main characters spends an entire scene that is pretty pivotal to the plot dressed in a speedo.
* FauxAffablyEvil: Freddy, when he's not being a CompleteMonster.
* FinalGirl
** ''A Nightmare On Elm Street'': Nancy Thompson
** ''Freddy's Revenge'': Lisa Webber
** ''Dream Warriors'': Kristen Parker
** ''Dream Master'' & ''Dream Child'': Alice Johnson
** ''Freddy's Dead'': Maggie Burroughs
** ''New Nightmare'': Heather Langenkamp
** ''Freddy vs Jason'': Lori Campbell
* {{Fingore}}: Freddy performs this on himself to show off in the first film and ''Freddy's Dead''.
* {{Flanderization}}: Freddy himself. Part of the appeal of the character for the first couple of films was that unlike a lot of slasher film killers, Freddy talked and would make the occasional wisecrack to his victims as he kills them. Sadly, as the sequels progressed, the writers would make Freddy a literal wisecracking machine, with lame puns and other jokey dialogue. At the sixth film, he was completely comical and only his killing characters and his scary-ass look kept him from being dismissible as a joke. ''New Nightmare'' and ''Freddy vs. Jason'' reversed this decline, though ''Freddy vs. Jason'' still features callbacks to past one-liners, such as referring to an African American girl he kills as "Dark Meat" and playing pinball with Jason.
** According to interviews before it's release, ''Film/FreddyVsJason'''s portrayal was intended as a sort of AdaptationDistillation. Using the wise-cracking nature of the later movies, but taking it to levels that they summed up as [[DudeNotFunny "A sick dog".]]
* ForceFeeding: Greta's death in ''The Dream Child''.
* ForgottenFirstMeeting: This happened to the protagonist in the new remake.
* ForTheEvulz: Freddy doesn't have any motive for killing people beyond the fact that he finds it entertaining. The remake tries to change this and make his character ''slightly'' less of a CompleteMonster than his original incarnation.
* FragileSpeedster: Freddy is one against Jason Voorhees' MightyGlacier in ''Freddy VS Jason''.
* FridgeHorror: In the remake, Freddy molested Nancy and her classmates. There were probably other classes before them.
* FromNobodyToNightmare: Who else?
* GainaxEnding: The original. Was the whole movie a dream? Did Nancy ever escape into the real world? Was that part a dream? Is her mother dreaming?
** And remake.
* GambitRoulette: Essentially Freddy's plan in ''Freddy's Dead''.
* GhostlyGoals: Freddy started out avenging his own death, but after he succeeded, he decided to stick around and continue killing (he was, after all, a sadistic serial killer even before he died; even with his revenge complete, he probably saw no real reason to stop killing).
* GhostTown: By ''Freddy's Dead'', Springwood has become this, Freddy having killed everyone under the age of eighteen. The remaining adults are left insane, and presumably unable to leave town due to Freddy's influence.
* GrievousHarmWithABody:
** Freddy gets himself impaled '''[[CrowningMomentOfAwesome with his own clawed arm]]''' in ''Freddy vs. Jason''.
** Also a scene in the original, where Freddy clubs Ron with Tina while in the midst of causing her to float around the room.
* GroinAttack: Freddy sustains a kick to the balls courtesy of Tracy in ''Freddy's Dead''.
** When Don gets clawed by the Freddy skeleton in ''Dream Warriors'' it at first looks like he was stabbed in the stomach, but when the skeleton lifts him up, it reveals he got it in the balls.
* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe: Happens to Freeburg in Freddy vs. Jason
* "Literature/HanselAndGretel": The theme of ''New Nightmare''.
* HarmfulToMinors: Freddy was a child killer in life, [[WhatCouldHaveBeen and he could've been worse.]] Wes Craven's original plan was to have Freddy be a ''molester'' as well, but he trashed the idea to avoid being accused of [[RippedFromTheHeadlines exploiting a series of highly publicised child molestations in California that occurred while the film was in production]].
** The implication was fairly clear in the original films anyway and become extremely obvious in ''Freddy vs. Jason''.
*** And stated straight out in the remake.
* HealingFactor: One of Freddy's many powers in dreams.
* HellbentForLeather: "Freddy" in New Nightmare.
* HiddenDepths:
** Alice Johnson, as well as her friends Debbie in ''Dream Master'' and Greta in ''Dream Child''. Alice's character in ''Dream Master'' is a meek daydreamer who fantasizes about telling her alcoholic father off and asking hunky jock Dan Jordan out. By the movie's end, Alice has grown as a character and no longer relies on simply fantasizing about what she wants to do.
** Debbie, a punk girl with her own weight equipment who does bad in school...and also likes to watch ''{{Dynasty}}'', is terrified of cockroaches, and is friends with brainy girl Sheila and sticks up for her. When Sheila dies, you can tell from Debbie's voice she's trying her best not to break down.
** Greta, a rich girl who hopes to be a model and is at odds with her domineering mother Racine. Following Dan Jordan's death, it cuts to a scene of Greta looking at his picture in the yearbook and crying over it. This gives her depth in the sense that she truly cared about Dan, and her friends, and was more than a total knockout.
* HopeSpot: Freddy loves these.
* HumanoidAbomination: Both Freddy himself and the demon ([[EldritchAbomination or whatever it was]]) ''impersonating'' Freddy during ''New Nightmare''.
* HurricaneOfPuns: In the latter films, Freddy often made cheesy puns before killing his victims.
* ImNotAfraidOfYou
* {{Immortality}}: As Freddy himself put it - "[[PunctuatedForEmphasis I. AM. ETERNAL!]]"
* ImmuneToBullets: The one time guns are used on Freddy (in ''The Dream Child'') they just knock him down. Seconds later, they become completely useless when Freddy upgrades to Super Freddy.
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Grady in ''Freddy's Revenge'', Donald in ''Dream Warriors'', John in ''Freddy's Dead'' and Freddy himself a number of times.
** In the remake, Jesse suffers this fate quite gruesomely, and is still alive long enough, as Freddy puts it, "to play..."
* ImprobableAimingSkills: Notably averted in ''Freddy's Dead''; out of all the stuff Maggie throws at Freddy, only a one knife and one shuriken actually connect.
* IronicEcho: In the remake, Freddy comments that there's nothing Nancy can do to stop him because they're in his world. When she pulls him out of the dream, she chops off his claw-gloved hand, stating "Hurts, doesn't it? Cause, you're in ''my'' world now [[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch bitch!"]].
* IronicNurseryTune: The quoted nursery rhyme, a jump-rope song for the children of Elm Street that often puts in a creepy appearance in the dream world as the prelude to Freddy's arrival.
* JackTheRipoff: [[UltimateEvil The entity]] masquerading as Freddy in ''New Nightmare''.
* KissOfDeath: Freddy kisses Sheila in ''The Dream Master'' and leaves her a withered husk.
* KnifeNut: Freddy's primary weapon is a glove with blades attached to each finger. And also Taryn White, who carries two switchblades in her dreams.
* LadyDrunk: Marge Thompson
* {{Leatherman}}: Coach Schneider in ''Freddy's Revenge''.
* LecherousLicking: Freddy wags his tongue out at Nancy in the first movie and does the same to Sheila in ''The Dream Master'' shortly before he kills her. There is also a scene in ''Suffer the Children'' that's quite...disturbing.
-->'''Freddy Krueger:''' "Come to Daddy, Peter... *starts licking Peter's face and rubbing it with his bleeding stump of a hand*
* LevelUp: Freddy [[spoiler:get more powerful with each person he kills.]]
** Freddy, toying with Mark in part 5, plays dead before levelling up in the guise of Super Freddy!
* LockedIntoStrangeness: Nancy gets her {{Skunk Stripe}} when she brings Freddy's hat from the dream world.
* LosingYourHead: Mrs. Parker in Kristen's dream in ''Dream Warriors''.
* LukeIAmYourFather: ''Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare'' reveals that [[spoiler:Freddy had a daughter named Katherine, who thankfully looks nothing like him.]]
* MakeMeWannaShout: Joey in ''Dream Warriors''.
* MamaBear: Nancy, the ActionGirl survivor of the first movie, turns into this in the third one while fighting to protect the next generation of Elm Street kids from Freddy.
** Heather (Nancy's actress) again in ''New Nightmare'', this time for her own kid.
** Alice Johnson. That was the point of ''Dream Child''. She refused to let Freddy use her unborn child as a means to continuing murdering innocents, and she refused to abort Jacob just to stop Freddy. Granted she worded it that he was the last link to Dan she had, but even before she knew the truth about him she demonstrated concern for him and told him that she cared about him.
* ManOnFire: This is how Freddy Krueger died at the hands of the parents of Springwood.
** In the first movie, Nancy sets Freddy on fire when she pulls him out of her dream.
* ManipulativeBastard: Freddy loves to distract and torture other people by [[ShapeShifterGuiltTrip appearing as their loved ones]].
** Especially in ''Freddy VS Jason'', where [[spoiler:he enters the dormant Jason's dreams and takes the form of Pamela Voorhees to revive Jason and get him to go wreak havoc in Springwood, all in an attempt to regain the power to kill again.]]
* {{Meganekko}}: For an [[HotMom older]] example, Nancy's mother in the remake.
* MindRape: [[spoiler:Almost literal in the remake.]]
* MurderByCremation: Kristen's death in ''The Dream Master'', and also how The Entity in ''New Nightmare'' is beaten.
* MustHaveCaffeine: Kristen ''eats'' instant coffee grounds when she's trying to stay awake at the start of ''Dream Warriors''.
* NailsOnABlackboard: Invoked by Freddy in ''Freddy's Dead''; he replaces Carlos's hearing aid with one that makes all sounds ultra-loud, then gets out a chalkboard and repeatedly scratches it with his knives until Carlos's head explodes.
** Happens again in the remake, though in a writing fashion.
* NeckSnap: Julie's death in ''New Nightmare''.
* NeverSayDie: Although it's obvious in the remake that Freddy molested the kids, they never directly use the word 'molest'.
* NeverSleepAgain: The TropeNamer and the way Freddy kills his victims.
* NewHouseNewProblems: The Walsh family in the second film had just moved into their house when Freddy starts making his comeback.
* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: A running joke in the series is that Freddy's powers are pretty much limitless, as far as changing from film to film.
** Makes a certain amount of sense. Since Freddy has effectively become the king of nightmares, his powers in the dreamscape would be virtually unlimited. On the rare occasions he manifests in the "real" world, he generally gets his ass kicked (most notably, at the end of the first film).
* NiceHat: The fedora, of course.
** Nancy has one at the funeral scene in ''Dream Warriors''.
* NighInvulnerability: Freddy Krueger is a combination of FightingAShadow and in some movies The Proxy. He ''can'' be pulled out of the dream world, and then either made to disappear [[HitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy in a puff of logic]], blown up with a pipe bomb shoved into his stomach, or, if the FinalGirl is a [[http://www.khurak.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/monica-keena3.jpg hot little blonde from Brooklyn]] who's [[TookALevelInBadass taken a level in badass]], [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome decapitated with a fucking machete]].
* NightmareDreams: Freddy's modus operandi.
* NoTimeToExplain: Nancy has a dream that she's seeing [[spoiler:her friend Rod]] being killed in the jail cell he's in. She wakes up and gets Glen (Johnny Depp) to accompany her to the police station. They join up at Nancy's house and run to the police station. Nancy waits until they're entering the police station to tell Glen that she doesn't have any time to explain. What could they have been discussing the rest of the way there that was more important than the fact that [[spoiler:Rod Lane]] was being killed?
* NowIKnowWhatToNameHim: ''The Dream Child''
* NowILayMeDownToSleep: In the fourth movie:
-->'''Chorus Children''': Now I lay me down to sleep. The Master of Dreams my soul will keep. In the reflection by my side...\\
'''Alice Johnson''': Evil will see itself, and it shall die!
* NunsAreSpooky: Sister Mary Helena. [[spoiler:Justified because she really is a ghost.]]
* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Doctor Simms in ''Dream Warriors''.
* OffOnATechnicality: The police failed to get the search warrant for Freddy's home properly signed off, which prompted the parents of Springwood to kill Freddy on their own; this mistake was famous enough to be critiqued in the column "The Law Is An Ass".
** Averted in the remake, where the parents skipped the authorities and immediately went after him.
* OffWithHisHead: A dream version of Kristen's mom ''Dream Warriors''.
* OhCrap: In the 2010 remake, [[spoiler:Quentin has one of these when he falls asleep whilst he should be guarding Nancy.]]
** It's a reference to the original film, where Glenn does this to Nancy, but due to his non-belief in Freddy he doesn't realize his mistake.
** Mark does the same thing in ''Dream Child...twice''.
* OurLichesAreDifferent: Freddy could arguably be considered a sort of "astral lich". He would definitely qualify as a powerful sorcerer, and his appearance just screams "undead". Also, killing him tends to involve some rather unusual methods, most often dragging him onto our plane, and, even then, nobody has ever managed to kill him permanently.
* EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette: Maggie in ''Freddy's Dead''.
* ParentalNeglect: Elaine Parker demonstrates this. She thinks that Kristen's "suicide attempt" in ''Dream Warriors'' is an attempt at getting attention, especially after Elaine took away her credit cards. In ''Dream Master'', she shrugs off Kristen's attitude to a lack of sleep, even though her daughter had just lost two close friends in one day, friends she only recently saw. Elaine's pretty much responsible for Kristen's death, since she put sleeping pills in Kristen's lemonade at dinner, leaving her easy prey for Freddy.
* ThePowerOfLove: Pretty much what beats Freddy in ''Freddy's Revenge''.
* PowerOfRock: In the end of Music/{{Dokken}}'s music video ''Dream Warriors'', it's revealed that [[spoiler:the video is actually [[HorrifyingTheHorror a nightmare that]] [[CrowningMomentOfFunny FREDDY is having]].]]
** [[spoiler:'''Freddy''': What a nightmare! Who WERE those guys!?]]
* PrimalFear
* PropheticDreams: Wes Craven bases the new ''Elm Street'' script on these in ''New Nightmare''.
* PsychoticSmirk: The remade Freddy pulled this one and a GendoPose on the film poster.
** SlasherSmile: Whenever Jackie Earl Haley smiles (no matter innocently) while in full Freddy make-up in the making-of featurettes of the remake, it's this.
* PungeonMaster: This is basically Freddy's trademark.
* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: Freddy plays this ''quite'' straight in the remake with Nancy. While [[spoiler:he abused the children sexually at school,]] he menaces Nancy nonstop with a perverted Yandere attitude that makes his antics in life seem tame. And when Quentin and Nancy grow feelings for each other, he grows pretty jealous.
* RealityWarper: Freddy's a consummate reality warper in the dream world, changing the setting, the laws of physics and his own nature at will. He can also subtly influence waking reality, and becomes better at it throughout the sequels.
* RecycledTheSeries: The aforementioned ''FreddysNightmares''.
* RedEyesTakeWarning: In ''Freddy's Revenge''.
* RubberMan: Stretching limbs are one of many Freddy's powers.
* RuinsForRuinsSake: End of ''New Nightmare''.
* ScaledUp: Freddy transforms into a snake in ''Dream Warriors'' and tries to eat one of the heroes.
* SceneryPorn: While not generally considered the best of the series, ''The Dream Child'' and ''Freddy's Dead'' are ''visually'' by far the most stunning.
* ScreamDiscretionShot: Used effectively in the remake as, [[spoiler:while Jesse's technically flatlined after being killed by Freddy, Freddy informs him in his continuing dream that the brain can survive up to seven minutes after heart failure, and they've still got six minutes to play]]. The scene cuts back to reality, with only his offscreen screams implying what's happening next.
* ScreamsLikeALittleGirl: Jesse in the second film.
* SequelHook / TheEndOrIsIt: Every film but ''Freddy's Dead'' and ''New Nightmare''.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Robert Englund and his wife's apparent course of action in ''New Nightmare''.
* SealedEvilInACan: In ''New Nightmare'', Freddy Kreuger himself, but he's not really "Freddy" so much as taking on the form of Freddy, there needs to be a script made in order to contain this evil.
* SealedGoodInACan: With Freddy being the can. Everyone he kills in the dreamworld, their soul gets absorbed into him, enhancing his strength of power. Alice manages to free them completely in ''Dream Master'', as does Jacob in ''Dream Child'', but FridgeHorror comes into play when you realize the possibility that all the other characters from the previous movies Freddy has killed... they've been stuck inside him ever since. This gets doubled when you think about everyone he killed prior to the beginning of ''Freddy's Dead''. If he was strong enough to be able to warp reality and erase the memory of someone from the world...
* SeeYouInHell: Near the beginning of ''The Dream Master'', Freddy's return is marked by the killing of a survivor of the previous film, Kincaid. When he's fatally stabbed by Freddy's glove, Kincaid says "I'll see you in hell!" Freddy, with his characteristically dark humor, replies with "Tell 'em Freddy sent you!"
* SerialKiller: Freddy Krueger, both in life (as the Springwood Slasher) and the afterlife.
* SeriesFauxnale: ''Freddy's Dead'', arguably. It depends whether you accept ''Freddy Vs. Jason'' as a sequel to that film, or an interquel set earlier in the series (''New Nightmare'' doesn't count, since it's set in the real world rather than the ''NOES'' universe).
* ShoutOut:
** In the 2010 remake, [[PulpFiction waking up an unconscious woman by jabbing an adrenaline-filled needle straight down between her breasts.]]
** The bar Nancy's father hangs out in ''Dream Warriors'' is called [[ComicStrip/LittleNemo Little Nemo's]].
* SinisterScrapingSound: Freddy with his claw on most anything.
* SinsOfOurFathers: Freddy originally wanted vengeance upon the parents who killed him for killing their kids... by killing the rest of the kids of Springwood.
* SkunkStripe: Nancy develops one mid-way through the first film. [[SeriesContinuityError Curiously]], its on the wrong side in ''Dream Warriors''.
** And Heather Langenkamp gets one in ''New Nightmare''.
* SlashedThroat: Dean's death in the remake, also happens to Freddy at one point near the end.
* SoundtrackDissonance: In the remake the end credits roll over "All I Have to Do Is Dream" by the Everly Brothers.
** ''Freddy's Revenge'' featured Bing Crosby's "Have You Ever Seen A Dream Walking?" during the end credits.
** Its actually seems to be a bit of a running gag that MoodWhiplash music plays over the credits of every instalment.
* SpinOff: Freddy had his own TV show. Um...yay? ''New Nightmare'' could count as well, since it's set in a different continuity from the rest of the series.
** For that matter, the show had a [[http://nightmareonelmstreetmovie.com/1-900-909-fred 1-900 number]] which taunted children to call... [[SchmuckBait if they dared]].
* StartOfDarkness: The barrage of flashbacks at the end of ''Freddy's Dead'' serve this purpose.
* TheStoner: Spencer in ''Freddy's Dead'', Freeburg in ''Freddy VS Jason''.
** There is also a hint of this in the remake; Quintin always looks high, and knows waaaaay too much about prescription drugs for the average high school student.
* StrictlyFormula: ''FreddysNightmares'' (the first season, at least) usually went like this. That awesome opening. A cheesy intro with Freddy. Character doing something fairly mundane. Weird, inexplicable shit happens. It turns out its all just a dream, hallucination or the character is dying. Cheesy epilogue with Freddy. Fin.
* SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome: Subverted with Nancy and Don in ''Dream Warriors'' (they both die right at the end and both die [[BlatantLies finally]] killing Freddy, played straight with Kincaid, Joey and Kristen in ''The Dream Master'' and Dan ''The Dream Child''.
* SupernaturalProofFather: Donald Thompson and Ken Walsh.
* TakeThat: Freddy is named after a bully that tormented Wes Craven as a kid.
* TakeThatKiss: [[spoiler:Freddy's daughter]] does this after [[spoiler:stuffing a pipe bomb in his gut at the end of ''Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare''.]]
* ThisIsForEmphasisBitch: Used many times throughout the series (and ''Freddy VS Jason''), mainly by Freddy.
** Combined with an {{Ironic Echo}} at the climax of the remake.
---> '''Nancy:''' Hurts, doesn't it? 'Cause you're in my world now, bitch!
* TearOffYourFace: [[DeathBySex Tina]] sort of does this to Freddy Krueger right before she dies. The "Sort Of" is there because Freddy let it happen to make himself even scarier, and it doesn't take.
* TeleportSpam: A scene in ''The Dream Child'' has Freddy essentially "flickering" down a hallway.
* ThisWasHisTrueForm: When the entity is seemingly destroyed at the end of ''New Nightmare'' it goes from looking like Freddy to a stereotypical demon
* TooDumbToLive: Multiple examples.
** Dylan in "New Nightmare". The sheer amount of danger he gets into in that film makes his continued survival frankly baffling to witness. He at one point tries to escape Freddy by ''climbing into a lit furnace''.
* TookALevelInBadass: Pretty much all the heroines, but especially Alice Johnson and [[FreddyVsJason Lori Campbell]].
** Lampshaded in nearly every film. Mark turns into his superhero creation, Rick shows master karate skills, Taryn dreams she's a punk biker chick...and none of this does anything to stop Freddy.
* TortureCellar: The boiler room.
* TrophyRoom: Shown briefly in ''Freddy's Dead'' flashbacks. It was filled with, among other things, variant gloves, pictures of victims, Springwood Slasher-related newspaper clippings and toys presumably belonging to victims.
* TwoferTokenMinority: Carlos, who is Hispanic and deaf, from ''Freddy's Dead''.
* UnhandThemVillain: Happens in ''Dream Warriors'', when Nancy, Kristen and Kincaid discover Freddy has Joey suspended over a flaming pit.
* UnwillingRoboticisation: Dan's death in ''The Dream Child''.
* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Wes Craven was inspired to make the film after reading stories about teenagers that mysteriously died in their sleep.
** Also, Freddy was loosely based on a kid that bullied Wes as a child, as well as a homeless man that scared Wes as a child.
* VillainBasedFranchise
* VillainousBreakdown: Freddy's not usually prone to losing his cool, but in the remake, he briefly snaps into an almost childish tantrum that somehow renders him all the scarier. Clearly jealous over Quentin and Nancy's growing affection, he attacks Quentin by banging his head against the boiler room pipes over and over again while furiously screaming [[PunctuatedForEmphasis "You! Can't! Save! Her!"]] He regains his composure after thinking he's gotten the upper hand again, and quickly reverts back to his calm hide-and-seek taunts, [[spoiler: which turns out to be a bad idea - Quentin survives the attack and ''does'' save her]].
* WastedSong: The music played during the scene were Alice [[LockAndLoadMontage prepares]] for Freddy is isn't the soundtrack for the movie's score.
* WelcomeToTheRealWorld: ''New Nightmare'' did this.
* WhamLine: In ''Freddy's Dead''
-->'''John Doe''': I know why you let me go.
-->'''Freddy''': Oh. Do you think ''I'm'' your daddy? Mm-mm! Wrong!
* WolverineClaws: Freddy's trademark.
* {{Yandere}}: Played straight by Freddy himself in the remake towards Nancy. While he intends to kill all the children for [[spoiler: telling their parents he molested them]] he saves Nancy for [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil something worse]], because as her mother admitted, she's ''his favorite one of all''.
* YouNeedToGetLaid: Spencer's response to Tracy's bitchiness in ''Freddy's Dead''.
* YourHeadAsplode: Carlos in ''Freddy's Dead''.
* YourMindMakesItReal: If you're killed in a dream by Freddy, you die in reality. This applies no matter how outlandish or ridiculous the manner of death is in the dream, though Freddy does have control over which injuries carry over into reality (for instance, a boy changed into a gruesome living marionette merely seems to have jumped to his death in the real world, while Kincaid was stabbed, but is completely unscathed in the real world).
* YourSoulIsMine: Freddy grows stronger with each soul he claims, making him a one-villain SortingAlgorithmOfEvil.
-->'''Freddy''': You've got their power, I've got their souls. [[BringIt Come on!]]

* BadAssLongcoat: Freddy is wearing one in ''New Nightmare''.
* BadAssNormal: Nancy Thompson in the original film.

** The bar Nancy's father hangs out in ''Dream Warriors'' is called [[LittleNemo Little Nemo's]].

* AllJustADream and DyingDream: Done ''to [[AWorldwidePunomenon death]]'' in ''FreddysNightmares''. Almost every episode ended with one of two.