Nightmare on Elm Street

No one wants to go to sleep and find him or herself being chased by a guy with a burnt face and claws for hands.

Wes Craven brought just that to the big screen, starting the terrifying franchise with A Nightmare on Elm Street in 1984. He was most likely unaware of the impact it would have on the horror genre, as well as the following it would gain.

The whole series is composed of nine movies, most of which follow the immortal Freddy Krueger as he terrorizes teenagers in a fictional city named Springwood.
Krueger uses his victims’ dreams to attack them, killing them in real life as well. Craven only directed two films in the franchise, but directed all four of the Scream franchise.

The Elm Street franchise is easily one of the most popular horror franchises, as it spawned novels, comic books, video games and even a TV show featuring Robert Englund, the original actor of Krueger.

Krueger also made an appearance as an add-on character in the 2009 Mortal Kombat game. The film franchise as a whole has made over $445 million, with the most recent film, a remake of the original, making the most money worldwide.

In 2003, Freddy vs. Jason was released, a crossover between the Elm Street and Friday the 13th franchises. In every adaptation, however, Krueger always has his burned skin, a fedora, a red and green striped sweater and his easily recognizable claw glove.

This film brought the most revenue domestically for both franchises, and featured Krueger fighting for dominance against Jason Vorhees when he realizes that teenagers are forgetting his existence.

Nevertheless, the franchise isn’t done yet, as New Line Cinema is due to remake the original film for a second time. The only challenge remaining for the franchise is to outdo the impact of the first film.