Like any major horror franchise worth its salt, A Nightmare on Elm Street has inspired a whole host of other movies, for better or for worse. Ever since the release of the first film to feature the dream-invading Freddy Krueger in 1984, the slasher genre was never the same, with an all-new breed of smack-talking supernatural horror villain now prowling theaters. The success of all nine Nightmare on Elm Street movies came amid a wave of imitators taking heavy inspiration from the original film.
Movies that take ideas from A Nightmare on Elm Street vary wildly in their obviousness. Some of them recycle a similar concept of an astrally-projecting or nightmare-causing slasher villain like Freddy Krueger, or even simply the very theme of a dream and sleep-oriented horror story. Other times, the influence is less than a variation on a theme and more of a blatant copy, with motifs as specific as Freddy Krueger’s signature fedora, melted face, or bladed glove being ripped off.
- Hellmaster
- Satan’s Bed
- Dreamaniac
- Sleepstalker
- Shocker
- Dream Demon
- Mahakaal
- Wishmaster
- Night Killer
- Bad Dreams
Well I’m sold!