If Nancy Doesn’t Wake Up Screaming, She Won’t Wake Up At All!|Nov. 14, 1984|USA|91 Min.|TV-14
Genre: Horror
Description: In March 1981, Tina Gray wakes up from a terrifying nightmare where she is attacked by a disfigured man with a blade-fixed glove in a boiler room. Her mother notices four mysterious slashes on her nightgown. The next day, Tina is comforted by her best friend Nancy Thompson and her boyfriend Glen Lantz. They stay at Tina’s house for a sleepover, but the night is interrupted by Tina’s boyfriend, Rod Lane. While asleep, Tina dreams of being chased by the same disfigured man. Rod wakes up to see Tina being dragged and fatally slashed by an unseen force. He flees in panic, and Nancy and Glen wake up to find Tina dead.
The next day, Rod is arrested by Nancy’s father, Don Thompson, despite his claims of innocence. At school, Nancy falls asleep during class and dreams of being chased by the man in the boiler room. She burns her arm on a pipe in the dream, and when she wakes up, she finds a burn mark on her arm. Nancy visits Rod at the police station, where he shares details about Tina’s death and his own nightmares. This convinces Nancy that the man is responsible for Tina’s murder.
Later, Nancy almost drowns in her bathtub after falling asleep. To stay awake, she relies on caffeine and asks Glen to watch over her. In her dream, she sees the man preparing to kill Rod in his cell but then turning his attention to her. Nancy manages to wake up when her alarm goes off. Meanwhile, the man kills Rod by strangling him with bed sheets, making it appear as suicide. At Rod’s funeral, Nancy’s parents grow concerned when she describes her dreams. Her mother, Marge, takes her to a sleep clinic, where Nancy dreams of grabbing the man’s fedora, which bears the name “Fred Krueger,” and pulls it into the real world.
Cast director: Wes Craven
Cast actor: John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Heather Langenkamp, Amanda Wyss, Jsu Garcia, Johnny Depp, Robert Englund, Charles Fleischer, Joseph Whipp, Lin Shaye
Original name: A Nightmare on Elm Street