A Nightmare on Elm Street

Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street is one of the greatest scary movies of all time, and if you have only experienced the killer Freddy Krueger in watered-down sequels, prepare to spill your popcorn.

Teenagers in a small town are dropping like flies, apparently in the grip of mass hysteria causing their suicides. Disbelieving these rumors, a police officer's daughter, Nancy Thompson, soon traces the series of deaths to child molester Fred Krueger, who was burned alive by a mob of angry parents in the town many years before. Krueger has now come back to haunt the dreams of his killers' children — and claim their lives as his revenge. Nancy and her boyfriend, Glen, must devise a plan to lure the monster out of the realm of nightmares and into the real world...

Part of our series on "The American Nightmare." Courtesy of New Line Cinema and Swank Motion Pictures.