♫ One, two; Willie's coming for you.♫
Bringing nightmares to the popular culture since the eighties, Elm Street has been referenced in many places; usually with "A Nightmare on X" titles, clothing with green and red stripes or Captain Ersatz-versions of the series main villain, Freddy Krueger.Anime & Manga
- Nurse Hitomi's Monster Infirmary: Chapter 43 is a parody of several slasher films. On the last page, a student who looks like Freddy Krueger appears.
- In Rosario + Vampire, a flashback shows Kokoa tormenting Outer Moka using Freddy's claw glove and hat (along with a Hockey Mask and Chainsaw and a replica of Chucky)
- A gray alien appears in a vision wearing a red and green striped shirt in Serial Experiments Lain, giving a creepy smile.
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie: Rebellion has monsters named Nightmares instead of the "usual" Witches, but what makes it clear that the series is being referenced is the sequence where Hitomi gets dragged into the alternate reality: she sinks into her bed much like what happens to Glen in the first Nightmare movie, with what seem to be red silly strings taking the place of the blood geyser in the movie.
- One of the three horror-character lookalikes in that Sledge Hammer confronts in the first issue of Marvel's Sledge Hammer! comic is a talon-fingered Crazy Teddy, whose "nightmares are insane".
- Doctor Strange faces off with Freddy-lookalike named Eddy in a Marvel Comics Presents story "A Nightmare on Bleecker Street".
- One issue of RoboCop: The Future of Law Enforcement features a string of crimes perpetrated by people who have been hypnotized to believe they are fictional characters. One of these people is a man dressed as Freddy Krueger, who tried to hijack a security truck.
- Dylan Dog has Mana Cerace the boogeyman who is a quite blatant expy of Krueger. As a comic based upon references to horror films and literature, there are several other nods to the franchise.
- Adventures of Supergirl: The third print issue is titled Nightmare on El Street, a pun on Superman and Supergirl's House of El.
- An issue of Generation X has Jubilee fall asleep while the team is binge watching horror movies, causing her to have a nightmare about villains dressed up as famous horror characters. One of them is Sabertooth dressed as Freddy.
- Freddy's killings are mentioned during the opening of Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon. Furthermore, the house featured in the original movie is shown and there's a shot of three little girls in white playing jumprope. (Plus, a significant character is played by Robert Englund).
- David Robert Mitchell described the first film as a major inspiration behind It Follows and it is one of the main sources of Shout-Out and homage. For instance:
- Jay has sex with a guy called Greg who has Glenn's similarly shaggy dark hair. (Note the initials.)
- Jay also runs out of her house and down the street when she realizes the monster is coming for Greg (like Nancy running down the street and into his house to try and save Glenn).
- Jay leaves literature class and runs into It in the school hallway while everyone around her is completely unaware of it, reminiscent of Nancy leaving class and seeing Freddy drag the corpse down the hallway.
- In Scream:
- The film's director Wes Craven, who also directed the original Elm Street, cameos as Fred the janitor who wears a fedora and a sweater with green and red stripes.
- In a deleted scene, Sidney gives her location as Elm Street.
- Tatum wears a crop top number 10 jersey which is almost identical to what Glenn wears in his death scene.
- The scene of Billy climbing through Sidney's window is a homage to Glenn's introduction.
- In Evil Dead 2, one shot of the basement shows Freddy Krueger's glove hanging on a wall. This is a returned Shout-Out, as a clip from The Evil Dead (1981) was used in the original A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), because The Evil Dead featured a poster for The Hills Have Eyes (1977). Recursive Shout-Outs, anyone?
- The Wedding Singer has one of Robbie's young nephews dressed as Freddy Krueger.
- Cal Leandros: In Blackout, one of the horror Shout-Out aliases that Cal uses is "Calvin F. Krueger".
- In InCryptid, Annie picks the last name "Thompson" for her fake identity from the protagonist of the first movie.
- A series of horror stories by Kim Newman revolves around a fictional movie franchise called Where the Bodies Are Buried, which along with its villain Rob Hackwill are modeled on Nightmare on Elm Street and Freddy Krueger.
- Weird Science has an episode titled "Nightmare on Chett Street".
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Killed by Death" has a monster called Der Kindestod, who is sometimes referred to as "Der Krugerstod".
- Eerie, Indiana's second series (subtitled The Other Dimension) had an episode titled "Nightmare on Eerie Street".
- In Living Color! had a Benita Buttrell skit featuring her in a physician's office say that the primary doctor is so mean that he "gives a rectal exam with a Freddy Krueger glove".
- Saved by the Bell:
- "Blind Dates" features an Imagine Spot of Jessie on a dating game show where Zack is the host and her choices include "Teddy" Krueger, "Mason" Voorhees and Donald "Chump".
- "The Evil Stepbrother" has Slater trying to say that Jessie's stepbrother, Eric, is a harmless kid, only for her to say "That was the same thing they said about little Freddy Krueger."
- The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: In the beginning of the "Mistaken Identity" episode while Carlton is driving to Palm Springs and making a verbal list of things to do, Will surprises him in the backseat dressed as Freddy and growls "Four: get the stick outta your butt!"
- In one episode of Full House, Jesse comes back from the grocery store and talks about how Nicky and Alex both threw a temper tantrum because he wouldn't buy them any cookies. Jesse says that everyone at the store looked at him "Like he was Freddy Krueger."
- Mr. Bean: "The Curse of Mr. Bean" has the title character and his "girlfriend" going to the movies to watch the original 1984 film.
- In The Good Doctor episode "Not Fake," a woman with severe burns laments, "Now I'm Freddy Krueger."
- The X-Files: In the episode "X-Cops", Mulder's attempt to get the authorities to take the Monster of the Week seriously is undermined when an eyewitness sketch of the monster comes back looking exactly like Freddy Krueger.
- Living Single: One episode mentions that Max considers Freddy Krueger to be the quintessential leading man, to which she corrects this, considering him the essence of every man.
- Married... with Children: An early episode had Al return a ridiculously overdue book by sneaking it onto the shelf without paying the fine, getting caught and being publicly disgraced for it. When his shame prompts others to return their books with payments and causes one boy to tell another one not to "Bundy that book", the librarian gleefully calls him "the Freddy Krueger of the library".
- Stranger Things:
- Both works have a teenage protagonist called Nancy, with similar appearance and clothing choices.
- In episode 1x07 the boys say to meet at the corner of "Elm and Cherry". Which would mean there is an Elm Street in Hawkins (or possibly Elm Road or such). It is probably not a coincidence that moments later the boys pass by two young girls singing a rhyme.
- In Season 4, a few characters are killed onscreen in a similar way to Tina in A Nightmare on Elm Street. Ironically, Robert Englund's character is compared with Michael Myers even though he was convicted of the first two such murders.
- Radio Enfer: There are two instances where Vincent compares somebody to Freddy Krueger:
- The first time is in Season 1, when he learns that Giroux is going to be replaced by a guy named Martial Boulet as the principal. According to Vincent, some people say that Boulet is "like Freddy Krueger but without the human side."
- The second time is upon seeing Dominique's atrocious new haircut during a Season 5 episode, where he jokingly wonders if Freddy was the one who cut her hair.
- DMX uses the counting rhyme from the movies in "X is Comin'" but replaces "Freddy" with "X".
- "Trust?" by Limp Bizkit features this: "Maybe Freddy Krueger will step into your dream and burn you like a demon and leave your ass screamin'."
- DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince's "A Nightmare On My Street."
- "The American Nightmare" by Ice Nine Kills.
- The animated screening made for live performances of blink-182's "Violence" features the band's rabbit mascot dressed as Freddy.
- While working in Memphis, Tommy Gilbert took on the Captain Ersatz gimmick of "Nightmare Freddy." His son Doug took the gimmick to the Japanese hardcore promotion W*ING as "Freddy Krueger," with his brother Eddie as "Michael Myers".
- On the October 23, 1995 WCW Monday Nitro, in re The Master of the Dungeon of Doom's promo about the Dungeon's "insurance policy"note , which is in a giant block of ice, commentator Eric Bischoff says, "Oh man, forget about Nightmare on Elm Street, we've got nightmare live right here in Huntsville."
- During Summer 2005, WWE SmackDown ran promos for "The Boogeyman" which was supposed to be a new show on UPN. On the October 14th episode, UPN Executive Palmer Canon told SmackDown General Manager Teddy Long that "something happened on the set, but we've got a multi-year holding deal with this gentleman" and introduced him to The Boogeyman. Boogeyman recited a variation on the "1, 2, Freddy's coming for you" chant, with his own name in Freddy's place, though only singing the first, second and last lines, before smashing a clock over his head and reciting his catchphrase, "I'm the Boogeyman, and I'm coming to get you!"
- AdventureQuest Worlds has a story titled "Nightmare on Twig's Street: The Dweam Swayers", with an antagonist named Twiggy Krueger.
- Blood
- Typing in the cheat code "Krueger" gives Caleb 200% health and also sets him on fire, latter bonus effect provided being a reference to how Freddy died originally.
- Freddy's signature hat and sweater can be found hanging on a wall of the levels "Charnel House" and "Castle".
- The Call of Duty: Zombies map "Call of the Dead" has four prominent actors starring As Themselves as zombie-fighting Player Characters, including Robert Englund himself. Nearly all dialogue is references to the actors' works.Robert Englund: This is a real nightmare!
- Castlevania II: Simon's Quest introduced roaming enemies who use clawed hands as their attack, and they're even called "Claws" in Japan. They were renamed Freddies in the localization as a reference to Krueger.
- The fifth boss in Crime Fighters has gloves similar to Freddy's.
- The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark: Freddy (presumably a carnie in costume, but with this series you never know) is seen hanging out with several other slasher movie icons backstage at the carnival's Haunted House.
- In DragonFable, during the "Valtrith Tomb" quest, there is a monster called "Ghost of Frederick" who looks almost exactly like Freddy Krueger.
- The Five Nights at Freddy's franchise is riled up with references to A Nightmare on Elm Street. Not only does its mascot Freddy Fazbear share his first name with Freddy Krueger, the whole franchise has a plot and tone similar to the films (especially Five Nights at Freddy's 4).
- One of the enemies in the Graveyard stages of Gex features an enemy who doesn't just have Hockey Mask and Chainsaw, but who also wears a green and red striped t-shirt.
- In Infinite Craft, Freddy Krueger can be crafted by combining "Nightmare" and "Ninja".
- Choi Bounge of The King of Fighters wears a hat and clawed gloves similar to Freddy Krueger. One of his victory animations is even a dance that Freddy did on the Japanese sketch comedy show, Kato-chan Ken-chan Gokigen
- In Team Fortress 2, the Pocket Pyro cosmetic item has this for its description:Loneliness is the world's deadliest silent killer. Next to carbon monoxide. But cuddle up to this adorable firebug, hold your breath, and you'll be free to concentrate on loud killers like car crashes and Freddy Krueger.
- This
Square Root of Minus Garfield strip shows Garfield having a nightmare about being eaten alive by an armchair. He wakes up, only to find Jon dressed as Freddy Krueger.
- The Angry Video Game Nerd has reviewed the licensed game based on the movie by LJN.
- Some of the pre- and post commercial segments in the Halloween episodes of Atop the Fourth Wall feature Linkara dressed as Freddy Krueger.
- He also fought a hallucination of Freddy twice, the second time defeating him with a Proton Pack and help from Jason Voorhees.
- The Cinema Snob: Brad Jones reviewed A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) in 2014 with his character bewildered that Freddy isn't funny in this film.
- Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue: Freddy Krueger gets mentioned by Alf in the mirror room.
- The Simpsons
- In "Cape Feare", Bart is scared because he received some death threats by mail. He suspects everybody. At one point Ned Flanders approaches him with a scissor knife hand much like Freddy Krueger, but it turns out he was using it to trim his garden hedge.
- The sixth Treehouse of Horror Halloween Special had a segment titled "Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace", where Groundskeeper Willie became a Freddy-like figure after burning to death.
- Freddy himself appeared during the Couch Gag of the ninth one.
- He also appeared in the fifth one, as one of the "ghouls" dragging Homer out of the storeroom.
- South Park
- Freddy himself appears in the episodes "Imaginationland" and "Insheeption".
- One of the episodes bears the name "A Nightmare on Facetime".
- Pound Puppies (2010) had an episode titled "Nightmare on Pound Street".
- The titular border collie from Mr. Pickles is basically Freddy Krueger as a dog. With every of his killer attributes set into such a border collie. Serial killer? Check. Rapist? Check. Turning his victims into Body Horror? Check. And that doesn't end there.
- The Rick and Morty episode "Lawnmower Dog" features a Freddy parody called Scary Terry, complete with creepy nursery rhyme. Rick even lampshades it by noting that Scary Terry appears to be "some sort of legally safe knock-off of a 80's horror character".
- The Amazing World of Gumball has supporting character Carrie Krueger, who is named after Freddy Krueger and Carrie White.
- Tiny Toon Adventures: The short, "Duck in the Dark" (part of "Best O' Plucky Duck Day") has Buster and Plucky watching a film featuring a Freddy expy named Eddy Cougar stalk and (implied to have) kill a Bambi expy.
- Robot Chicken:
- The sketch "Big Horror Movie Brother" had Freddy among a cast of other horror villains on Big Brother.
- The sketch "It's the Gifts That I Hate" had Freddy as a normal guy who just got his hat and sweater from his daughter and ends up accidentally setting fire to her school. After he's shanghaied into making a Deal with the Devil, he remarks that he's at least got his complexion before the flames swallow him.
- One sketch parodying Mamma Mia! takes Freddy's title of "the bastard son of a hundred maniacs" quite literally as he invites all of them to his wedding.
- Another sketch had Freddy preparing to kill a girl in her bathroom, but puts it on hold when she gives him a facial treatment.
- The Family Guy episode "The Splendid Source" begins with Quagmire and Joe pranking Peter by constantly telling him a dirty joke that makes him laugh so hard, he craps his pants. In one scene, Quagmire goes to sleep and meets Freddy in the dreamworld and pays him to enter Peter's dream and tell him the joke, causing him to soil the bed.Peter: (terrified) When you poop in your dreams, you poop for real.
- One TV spot for Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! mentions the eponymous tomatoes as being as dangerous as Freddy and Jason Voorhees.
