History Trivia / ANightmareOnElmStreet

** RealLife/MeanCharacterNiceActor

Trivia for the franchise in general:

* MeanCharacterNiceActor: Robert Englund's widely considered a nice and talkative guy (in fact, the chattering sometimes complicated the make-up artists' job).
* TheOtherDarrin: Kristen was portrayed by Patricia Arquette in ''Dream Warriors'', and Tuesday Knight in ''The Dream Master''.
* TypeCasting: Robert Englund played Freddy in all of the original films and ''Freddy vs. Jason''. To be fair, apart from all the makeup it requires, he does enjoy the role.
** The whole "typecasting" thing was lovingly mocked on ''Mad TV'' early in that show's run, when Englund did a guest spot for a Halloween episode. During his appearance, everyone kept describing Englund, as his big claim to fame, his other famous genre role of "Willie", the comic relief alien from the original ''{{V}}'' mini-series. Englund responds quite angrily, pointing out to each cast member who calls him "Willie", that he played Freddy Kruger in the ''Nightmare on Elm Street'' films. But everyone keeps referring to him as "The guy who played Willie on ''V''" instead of "the ''Nightmare On Elm Street'' guy", much to his dismay and anger.
* VaporWare: The reality television show ''Real Nightmares'', which had six episodes made but never aired.

Works with their own pages:

* ''Trivia/NewNightmare''

* ''TriviaANightmareOnElmStreet1984''
* ''TriviaANightmareOnElmStreetPart2FreddysRevenge''
* ''TriviaANightmareOnElmStreet3DreamWarriors''
* ''TriviaANightmareOnElmStreet4TheDreamMaster''
* ''TriviaANightmareOnElmStreet5TheDreamChild''

* ''TriviaANightmareOnElmStreet2010''

* TheCameo: Zsa Zsa Gabor in ''Dream Warriors''.
** [[CreatorCameo Renny Harlin]] in ''The Dream Master''.
** Johnny Depp, Roseanne Barr, Tom Arnold and Music/AliceCooper in ''Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare''.
** Nearly every film had producer [[CreatorCameo Robert Shaye]] in some role.
*** Actually averted in ''New Nightmare'' in relation to Johnny Depp: Craven wanted to have him appear in the film, but was too afraid to ask; after the film's release, Depp met with Craven and said he would have gladly made an appearance.
* FranchiseKiller: ''The Dream Child'' was so reviled they decided to kill Freddy in the next movie. ''New Nightmare'' only appeared because New Line liked the script and thought it could be done cheap... and the gross was so low Freddy only returned 9 years later to fight Jason. The remake kinda qualifies, as it earned money but [[StillbornFranchise no sequel plans appear so far]].
* HeyItsThatGuy: Yaphet Kotto in ''Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare''.
** Johnny Depp appears again in the sixth film, starring in an anti-drug infomercial.

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: The earthquakes LA suffered in ''New Nightmare'' were real, and struck the film during mid-production. Craven wove it into the plot.

** MeanCharacterNiceActor: He's widely considered a nice and talkative guy (in fact, the chattering sometimes complicated the make-up artists' job).
* VaporWare: The reality television show ''Real Nightmares'' which had six episodes made but never aired.
** The Freddy Vs Jason video game.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Creator/PeterJackson was asked to write a script for what would have been the sixth film: His idea would have started out with a weakened Freddy Krueger who no one takes seriously anymore, to the point where teens made a game of deliberately going to the dream world to beat him up. Once Freddy does start gaining power again, the main plot is kicked off by a boy having to enter the dream world to rescue his father. This script was never used and we got ''Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare'' instead.
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* HeyItsThatGuy: LaurenceFishburne and [[{{Medium}} Patricia Arquette]] in ''Dream Warriors''.
** Yaphet Kotto in ''Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare''.

* DolledUpInstallment: ''Freddy's Revenge'' apparently started life as an unrelated horror script, and got turned into the second ''Elm Street'' film when the producers wanted a quick sequel but were hampered by Wes Craven being unwilling to return.

* ----

* DawsonCasting: Prevalent in the remake.

** In the remake of the original, [[JackieEarleHaley Rorshach]] certainly looks good in red and green, doesn't he?
* NeverTrustATrailer: The trailer for the remake had several scenes that were noticeably absent from the film itself.

* ShownTheirWork: The writers for the remake bring up quite a few biological tidbits, in order to make Freddy more disturbing:
** Micronaps - a sleep-starved brain's attempt to "recharge" with tiny bursts of forced rest - means that staying awake will eventually become meaningless against Freddy.
** There is a difference between "Normal" death and brain death. [[spoiler: Freddy knows this, and uses the amount of time between the two to do a couple SerialKiller [[ColdBloodedTorture victory laps]] on people he has murdered]].
** Staying awake for too long will cause the brain to forcibly enter a coma. [[spoiler: Freddy not only knows this, but [[BatmanGambit was counting on it]] ]].

** Several from the remake:
*** Two alternate openings that were filmed. The first, which was shown in the trailer and orginal script, was of a party being held where Dean (played by Kellan Luz) kills himself by jumping off a high point and crashing into a garden. The second, featured on the DVD and BluRay, was Freddy Krueger lying in a hospital bed, covered up to hide his face before dying. He had somehow lived through his ordeal from being lit on fire and was comatose. He only dies several days before the remake even occurs.
*** According to the casting call sheet, Quentin was originally written as a "indie-style guy who runs the high school's podcast ''Insomnia Radio''".
*** Nancy and Quentin were also were set to face off Freddy inside an old church for the ending, with scenes even filmed at a local church but it was cut out entirely or strapped for the another ending.
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* ActorAllusion: John Saxon, who plays a lawman who tries to solve the murders in the first film, also played a similar character in ''BlackChristmas'' (1975).
* AndStarring: In the first film, Johnny Depp's name is preceded by "and introducing", as it was his very first film appearance.

* DawsonCasting: Prevalent in the remake, but the original is also guilty of it (Amanda Wyss, who played the fifteen year-old Tina, was twenty-four at the time of filming).
** [[LampshadeHanging 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.

* HeyItsThatGuy: John Saxon and Johnny Depp in the original; as pointed out above, ''Elm Street'' was Depp's first film role.
** LaurenceFishburne and [[{{Medium}} Patricia Arquette]] in ''Dream Warriors''.

* ItWillNeverCatchOn: It took about five years for Wes Craven to get funding for the first movie, because no one in Hollywood thought it was scary.

* RippedFromTheHeadlines: Not only the reasoning behind changing Freddy from a child molester to a child killer (as detailed above), 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 [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudden_unexplained_death_syndrome Sudden unexplained death syndrome]], as inspiration for the basic idea of the movie.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: PeterJackson was asked to write a script for what would have been the sixth film: His idea would have started out with a weakened Freddy Krueger who no one takes seriously anymore, to the point where teens made a game of deliberately going to the dream world to beat him up. Once Freddy does start gaining power again, the main plot is kicked off by a boy having to enter the dream world to rescue his father. This script was never used and we got ''Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare'' instead.

** Staying awake for too long will cause the brain to forcibly enter a coma. [[spoiler: Freddy not only knows this, but [[XanatosGambit was counting on it]] ]].

* WhatCouldHaveBeen:

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The remake had two alternate openings that were filmed. The first, which was shown in the trailer and orginal script, was of a party being held where Dean (played by Kellan Luz) kills himself by jumping off a high point and crashing into a garden. The second, featured on the DVD and BluRay, was a JohnDoe (possibly being Freddy Krueger) lying in a hospital bed, covered up to hide his face before dying.

* 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 [[LittleNemo Little Nemo's]].

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The remake had two alternate openings, one being a party where Kellan Luz's character kills himself by jumping off a high point and crashing into a garden and another, featured on the DVD and BluRay, being one where a JohnDoe (in reality or possibly being Freddy Krueger) lying in a hospital bed, covered up to hide his face before dying.

** Johnny Depp appears again in the sixth film, starring an anti-drug infomercial.

** Laurence Fishburne and [[{{Medium}} Patricia Arquette]] in ''Dream Warriors''.

** Johnny Depp, Roseanne Barr, Tom Arnold and AliceCooper in ''Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare''.

** In the remake of the original, [[JackieEarlHaley Rorshach]] certainly looks good in red and green, doesn't he?

*** Six also features cameos from Alice Cooper and Rosanne and Tom Arnold.