Amanda Wyss, who played the fifteen year-old Tina, was twenty-four at the time of filming.
Lampshaded when a sleep deprived Nancy looks herself in the mirror and says "Oh God, I look twenty years old". Indeed, if Heather Langenkamp wasn't yet past her 20th birthday when that scene was shoot, it was, at most, a few weeks away.
Enforced Method Acting: In the final scene, the roof of the convertible came down much harder and faster than the actors expected; their startled reactions are real.
Executive Meddling: Craven originally wanted to end the film with a happy ending. However, Robert Shaye insisted on a darker ending and prevailed. This might have been for the better, since aside from opening the door for the very popular sequels to be made, Craven's intended ending was notoriously anti-climactic when judged against the rest of the film.
It Will Never Catch On: It took about five years for Wes Craven to get funding for the film, because no one in Hollywood thought it was scary.
Ripped from the Headlines: Not only the reasoning behind changing Freddy from a child molester to a child killer (as detailed below), but also one of the sources of inspiration for the movie: Wes Craven has cited reading articles in the LA Times about children of Cambodian refugees who suffered from horrifying nightmares, refused to sleep and eventually died in their sleep after experiencing the nightmare a second time, a condition known as Sudden unexplained death syndrome, as inspiration for the basic idea of the movie.
