In this episode of our A Nightmare on Elm Street Rewatch, Cory and Nathan have their dreams haunted by Freddy's first appearance in the original "A Nightmare on Elm Street."
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Wes Craven began writing the screenplay for A Nightmare on Elm Street around 1981, after he had finished production on Swamp Thing (1982). He pitched it to several studios, but each one of them rejected it for different reasons. The first studio to show interest was Walt Disney Productions, although they wanted Craven to tone down the content to make it suitable for children and preteens. Craven declined. Another studio to show interest was Paramount Pictures; however the studios passed on the project due to its similarity toDreamscape (1984), a film they were producing at the time. Universal Studios also passed; Craven, who was in desperate personal and financial straits during this period, later framed their rejection letter on the wall of his office.
Finally, the fledgling and independent New Line Cinema corporation, which had up to that point only distributed films, agreed to produce the film. During filming, New Line's distribution deal for the film fell through and for two weeks it was unable to pay its cast and crew. Although New Line has gone on to make bigger and more profitable films, A Nightmare on Elm Streetwas its first commercial success and the studio is often referred to as "The House That Freddy Built".
New Line Cinema lacked the financial resources for the production themselves and so had to turn to external financiers. They found two investors in England who each contributed 40% and 30% respectively to the necessary funds; one of the producers of Texas Chainsaw Massacre contributed 10%, and home video distributor Media Home Entertainment contributed 20% of the original budget. Four weeks before production began, the English investor who had contributed 40% backed out, but Media Home Entertainment added in another 40% to the budget. Among the backers were also Heron Communications and Smart Egg Pictures.According to Shaye, all the film's original investors backed out at one point or another during pre-production. The original budget was $700,000. "It ended up at $1.1 million ... half the funding came from a Yugoslavian guy who had a girlfriend he wanted in movies."
Actor David Warner was originally cast to play Freddy. Make-up tests were done, but he had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts. Replacing him was difficult at first. "I couldn't find an actor to play Freddy Krueger with the sense of ferocity I was seeking," Craven recalled on the film's 30th anniversary. "Everyone was too quiet, too compassionate towards children. Then Robert Englund auditioned. [He] wasn't as tal asl I'd hoped, and he had baby fat on his face, but he impressed me with his willingness to go to the dark places in his mind. Robert understood Freddy."
A Nightmare on Elm Streetcontains many biographical elements from director Wes Craven's childhood. The basis of the film was inspired by several newspaper articles printed in the Los Angeles Times in the 1970s about Southeast Asian refugees, who, after fleeing to the United States because of war and genocide in Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam, suffered disturbing nightmares and refused to sleep. Some of the men died in their sleep soon after. Medical authorities called the phenomenon Asian Death Syndrome. The condition afflicted men between the ages of 19 and 57 and was believed to be sudden unexplained death syndrome or Brugada syndrome or both. Craven stated that “It was a series of articles in the LA Times, three small articles about men from South East Asia, who were from immigrant families and had died in the middle of nightmares—and the paper never correlated them, never said, 'Hey, we've had another story like this.”The 1970s pop song "Dream Weaver" b yGary Wright sealed the story for Craven, giving him not only an artistic setting to jump off from, but a synthesiser riff for the movie soundtrack. Craven has also stated that he drew some inspiration for the film from Eastern religions.
Robert Englund cut himself the first time when he tried on the infamous Freddy glove.
Over five hundred gallons of fake blood were used during filming.
Shot in thirty days.
Film debut of Johnny Depp.
The original glove was later used in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985), and was also seen hanging on the wall of the work shed in Evil Dead II (1987). This was in response to the use o fThe Evil Dead (1981) on a television screen in this film, and part of a continued banter between directors Wes Craven and Sam Raimi. However, when Wes Craven loaned the glove to the A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) set it got lost, and it is rumored to be in possession of Robert Englund's agent.
Wes Craven's original concept for Freddy Krueger was considerably more gruesome, with teeth showing through the flesh over the jaw, pus running from the sores, and a part of the skull showing through the head. Make-up Artist David B. Miller argued that an actor couldn't be convincingly made up that way, and a puppet would be hard to film, and wouldn't blend well with live actors, so these ideas were eventually abandoned.
In the original script, Freddy was a child molester. However, the decision was made to change him into being a child murderer to avoid accusations of exploiting a series of child molestation in California around the time of production. He was re-written as a child molester in the 2010 remake starring Jackie Earle Haley.
It would take about three hours to get Robert Englund into his Freddy make-up.
The inspiration for the character of Freddy came from several sources in Wes Craven's childhood. Fred Krueger was a schoolmate of his, with whom he had shared a paper route, and who had bullied him for several years. In The Last House on the Left (1972), Craven also used this experience as inspiration, calling the villain Krug. Freddy's appearance (especially the dirty clothes and hat) was inspired by a hobo, whom Craven saw staring at him through his window one day when he was ten.
The very first time we see Freddy in the movie, he isn't being played by Robert Englund, but by Special Effects man Charles Belardinelli, as Belardinelli was the only one who knew exactly how to cut the glove and insert the blades.
According toRobert Englund, he based the physicality of Freddy on Klaus Kinski's performance inWerner Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre( 1979). Englund also says on his DVD commentary that in his mind, the backstory for Freddy was based on something from his own childhood. On Valentine's Day when Englund was in school, everyone in the class made Valentine cards for one another, but there was one boy who received no cards from anyone. Englund theorized that this boy went on to become Freddy.
Charlie Sheen, John Cusack, Brad Pitt, Kiefer Sutherland, Nicolas Cage, and C. Thomas Howell were considered for the role of Glen.
A few days before the film was to go into general release, the processing lab, that had the negative, informed New Line Cinema that it would be keeping the film, because it had not been paid. At the last minute, however, Robert Shaye was able to negotiate a deal.
Wes Craven had helpedSean S. Cunningham by working on a few shots for Friday the 13th (1980). In turn, Cunningham directed a few shots near the end of the production of this movie, when several units were working at once.
In the original script, the movie ended happily. Nancy kills Krueger by ceasing to believe in him, then awakens to discover that everything that happened in the movie was an elongated nightmare. She then says goodbye to her mother, and drives to school with her friends. However,Robert Shaye wanted a twist ending that would leave the way open for sequels. He suggested fooling the audience into thinking Krueger has been defeated, only to reveal that the final scene itself is actually a nightmare, and then end the film with Freddy driving the car away from the house and the kids screaming.Wes Craven hated this ending, and ultimately four endings were filmed; Craven's happy ending, Shaye's 'Freddy ending' and two versions of a compromise ending Craven and Shaye had reached, in which Nancy's mother is pulled back into the house, but the audience is left slightly ambiguous as to what is going on. Craven has always maintained that the film should have had the happy ending he originally wrote.
