When child-killing psychopath Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) was set free due to a technicality, the enraged residents of Elm Street took justice into their own hands and burned him alive in the school boiler room where he worked. But vigilante justice transforms a figurative nightmare into a literal one: years later, Krueger returns as a hideously scarred, blade-fingered ghoul who haunts the dreams of Elm Street's teenage children, gruesomely murdering them in their sleep. As her friends fall one by one to the dream killer, it's up to Nancy (Heather Langenkamp) to try and pull Freddy into the real world and end his reign of terror. Wes Craven's ingenious spin on the standard slasher tale brought a brilliantly surreal dimension to the horror genre, presenting a terrifying dreamscape where any horrible thing can (and often does) happen. This first Nightmare is also notable for featuring Johnny Depp in his first major screen role, buying it like a champ in one of the most inventively gory deaths in horror history.