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In the decades since its release in 1984, A Nightmare on Elm Street has become a classic of the horror genre, slasher films in particular, and killer Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) has become one of the most recognizable villains in movie history. The movie follows the killer as he stalks and kills teenagers in their dreams, which then kills them in reality, as revenge against their parents for burning him alive. It was directed by Wes Craven, a horror icon in his own right, and went on to spawn a long-lasting franchise, helping launch New Line Cinema in the process.
Of course, it's difficult to replicate what makes the movie such a beloved classic—even some of the film's sequels failed to capture what made the original such a beloved success. But fans of A Nightmare on Elm Street looking for something similar can find plenty to enjoy in other films, whether they're straightforward slashers or explore the world of dreams, albeit in a slightly less menacing way.
10 'Slumber' (2017)
Dir. Jonathan Hopkins
A doctor specializing in sleep disorders, Alice (Maggie Q), faced something supernatural in Slumber when she encountered a family—just after the death of their infant son—who was being attacked by a demon who paralyzed them while they slept. Meanwhile, Alice was facing her own trouble sleeping, as she was plagued by nightmares about the death of her brother while sleepwalking when they were children, and worried about her young daughter’s sleep troubles.
The similarities between A Nightmare on Elm Street and Slumber are obvious—both featured villains who attacked their victims in their sleep, turning sleep into a peaceful and necessary part of life into something terrifying and to be avoided at all costs. While just about everyone understands how it feels to have a terrifying nightmare or to fight off sleep, both films upped the stakes, and Slumber in particular also touched on the unique terror of sleep paralysis.
9 'Shocker' (1989)
Dir. Wes Craven
Image Via Universal In Shocker, Horace Pinker (Mitch Pileggi), after being arrested and found guilty of a series of horrific murders, was sentenced to be executed via electric chair, but he made a deal with the devil which allowed him to come back from the dead as electricity. He then targeted the detective who found and arrested him, as well as his foster son, who had prophetic dreams about him and helped find him.
Unsurprisingly, Craven’s films often shared thematic elements, and A Nightmare on Elm Street and Shocker were no exception—even though Shocker is not as well-regarded. It’s easy to see elements of A Nightmare on Elm Street here, plus pieces of Craven’s other work. Both dealt with revenge, as well as supernatural killers claiming their victims through unique methods and the importance of dreams. Shocker also made great use of dark humor.
Shocker
Release Date October 27, 1989
8 'Paperhouse' (1988)
Dir. Bernard Rose
Image via Working Title Films Paperhouse followed lonely young girl Anna Madden (Charlotte Burke) while in her dreams, she began to inhabit the world she created in her sketchbook—after drawing a little boy, Marc (Elliott Spiers), she met him in her world. But things became more serious after she drew her absentee father (Ben Cross), who was a dangerous, menacing figure trying to harm her in her dream world. The movie was based on the novel Marrianne Dreams by Catherine Storr.
Paperhouse could’ve been a whimsical fantasy, but instead, it was something darker. It featured a fantasy world similar to the dream world of A Nightmare on Elm Street, albeit much less terrifying—although still not without it dangers and unsettling characters, especially Anna’s creepy father. It played with the idea that dreams and reality are intertwined and impact each other, and it dealt with the theme of escapism and culminated in a surprising ending.
Paperhouse is a dark fantasy film about 11-year-old Anna, who discovers that her drawings manifest in her dreams. Confined to bed by illness, she sketches a house that becomes the setting for her dream world, where she meets a lonely, disabled boy named Marc, who also exists in reality. As Anna's drawings grow more detailed, the dream world turns increasingly menacing, blurring the boundaries between reality and imagination in a haunting tale of creativity and connection.
Release Date October 8, 1988
Director Bernard Rose
Writers Catherine Storr , Matthew Jacobs
7 'The Texas Chain Saw Massacre' (1974)
Dir. Tobe Hooper
Image Via Bryanston Distributing Company Fearing her grandfather’s grave was among some reported to have been vandalized in rural Texas, Sally (Marilyn Burns) set out with her friends to find out in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. While traveling, they decided to spend the night at the family’s old farmhouse, where they learned a family of homicidal cannibals was living next door. One by one, they were attacked by the chainsaw-wielding Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen). The story was inspired by serial killer Ed Gein.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was a cult film—although it was a slasher film predating Halloween, the fact that few people had seen it and enjoyed it kept it from being as influential as it is now. Despite being inspired by a true story, the plot was wholly unique. Leatherface was terrifying and relentless in his pursuit of the friends, and in addition to being a killer, he was similar to Krueger in the way he seemed inescapable.
A group of friends traveling through rural Texas encounter a family of deranged cannibals, including the terrifying Leatherface. As they explore an old homestead, they are systematically hunted down in gruesome ways. The film culminates in a harrowing chase and a desperate escape attempt by the last survivor, Sally, who narrowly evades the murderous Leatherface.
Release Date October 11, 1974
Cast Marilyn Burns , Allen Danziger , Paul A. Partain , William Vail , Teri McMinn , Edwin Neal
6 'Jacob's Ladder (1990)
Dir. Adrian Lyne
Image via Tri-Star Pictures Psychological horror Jacob’s Ladder told the story of veteran Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins), who struggled after returning home from the Vietnam War, battling disturbing hallucinations and flashbacks which made it difficult to separate what was real from what wasn’t, despite his loved ones attempts to help him. When he learned he wasn’t the only veteran having those experiences, he and the others banded together to take legal action. A remake was released in 2019.
Jacob’s Ladder featured a character struggling to distinguish reality from what was going on in his mind, similar to the way the worlds of dreaming and waking blurred in A Nightmare on Elm Street. And like sleeping and dreaming, it’s difficult, if not impossible, to escape what’s going on in your own mind. It’s a film which leaves an impression long after the credits have stopped rolling, with an ending that’s open to interpretation.
Jacob's Ladder
Jacob's Ladder is a horror mystery centering on a mourning father and scarred Vietnam War vet named Jacob that is dealing with dissociation. After his child dies, Jacob struggles to separate reality from his delusions. Jacob's Ladder stars Tim Robbins alongside Elizabeth Peña, Danny Aiello, Matt Craven, and Jason Alexander.
Release Date November 2, 1990
Writers Bruce Joel Rubin
Tagline The most frightening thing about Jacob Singer's nightmare is that he isn't dreaming.
5 'It Follows' (2014)
Dir. David Robert Mitchell
Image via RADIUS-TWC In It Follows, after teenagers Jay (Maika Monroe) and Hugh (Jake Weary) slept together for the first time, Jay learned she was the recipient of a fatal curse which was passed to its victims through sex. As a result, she was stalked by an entity that could take on the appearance of any person, but only she and Hugh could see it. The only way to beat it was to pass it on by having sex with someone else.
The evil entity in It Follows was inescapable, much like Freddy Krueger—no matter where someone went, the danger was always lurking and always would be, and there was nothing anyone could do to stop it. There are numerous interpretations of the film as a metaphor, and it played with horror tropes regarding sexuality, specifically that being a virgin is the best way to stay alive. It also helped solidify star Monroe as a Scream Queen.
After carefree teenager Jay (Maika Monroe) sleeps with her new boyfriend, Hugh (Jake Weary), for the first time, she learns that she is the latest recipient of a fatal curse that is passed from victim to victim via sexual intercourse. Death, Jay learns, will creep inexorably toward her as either a friend or a stranger. Jay's friends don't believe her seemingly paranoid ravings, until they too begin to see the phantom assassins and band together to help her flee or defend herself.
Release Date March 15, 2015
Director David Robert Mitchell
Writers David Robert Mitchell
Tagline One of the most striking American horror films in years.
4 'Hellraiser' (1987)
Dir. Clive Barker
Image via Entertainment Film Distributors After tinkering with a puzzle box he bought while traveling, Frank (Sean Chapman) accidentally opened a portal to Hell in Hellraiser. When his brother (Andrew Robinson) and his wife, Julia (Clare Higgins)—who once had a relationship with Frank—moved in, they accidentally resurrected him, and Julia began to help him reconstruct his body by luring victims to the house for him to kill. The movie was written and directed by Clive Barker and was based on his novella The Hellbound Heart.
Although Hellraiser didn’t deal with the world of dreams, it did feature a bizarre and disturbing alternate dimension, filled with the Cenobites, creatures just as menacing, gruesome and cruel, not to mention recognizable, as Krueger and other movie monsters, if not more so. And like A Nightmare on Elm Street, it also featured one of horror’s smartest Final Girls, a teenager who managed to outsmart the Cenobites and defeat them.
Hellraiser (1987)
Release Date September 18, 1987
Director Clive Barker
Cast Ashley Laurence , Sean Chapman , Doug Bradley , Andrew Robinson , Claire Higgins , Nicholas Vince , Simon Bamford , Grace Kirby , Oliver Smith
Writers Clive Barker
Tagline
3 'Dreamscape' (1984)
Dir. Joseph Ruben
Teenager Alex Gardner (Dennis Quaid) was blackmailed into participating a government project in which psychics were trained to enter people’s dreams in sci-fi movie Dreamscape, presenting nearly endless possibilities in the fields of medicine, psychiatry and more. Although this skill was mostly used for good, that all changed when a new official, Bob Blair (Christopher Plummer), took over the project when his best friend, the President of the United States, was having dreams about nuclear war.
Like A Nightmare on Elm Street, Dreamscape dealt with the world of dreams and the concept that dreams weren’t separate from reality—and the idea that dreams could be used to kill. The movie tapped into how real dreams can feel and how terrifying they can be, even when they’re about something simple like falling. But it also presented a dream world that was bizarre, surreal and even frightening and dangerous.
Dreamscape
Release Date August 15, 1984
Director Joseph Ruben
Writers Chuck Russell
2 'Phantasm' (1979)
Dir. Don Coscarelli
Image via Embassy Pictures In Phantasm, teenager Mike (Michael Baldwin), along with his older brother and their friends, investigated after the residents of a small town began dying mysteriously. The local mortuary seemed to be at the center of the mystery, and its mortician, known as the Tall Man, was not as he seemed—he was really a shapeshifting alien necromancer using the dead as slaves on his home planet. The film spawned an entire franchise.
Similar to A Nightmare on Elm Street and plenty of other horror movies, the fate of a small town facing unimaginable horrors was in the hands of a group of teenagers in Phantasm. The film also blurred the line between dreams—terrifying ones, at that—and reality, with an ambiguous ending open to interpretation. Although it wasn’t well-received when it was first released, it has since become a cult classic.
Phantasm
Release Date March 28, 1979
Director Don Coscarelli
Cast A. Michael Baldwin , Bill Thornbury , Reggie Bannister , Kathy Lester , Terrie Kalbus , Kenneth V. Jones
Writers Don Coscarelli
Tagline If this one doesn’t scare you, you’re already dead.
1 'Halloween' (1978)
Dir. John Carpenter
Image via Compass International Pictures In Halloween, 15 years after murdering his older sister when he was just a child, killer Michael Myers (Tony Moran) escaped while being transported and returned to his hometown, then his childhood home where the killing occurred. As his psychiatrist tried to track him down, he went on a brutal killing spree, and among his targets was babysitter—and iconic Final Girl—Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her friends. The movie was directed by John Carpenter.
Halloween defined the slasher genre—without it, we might not have A Nightmare on Elm Street at all. While Myers differed from Krueger in that there was nothing supernatural about him, he was still a terrifying and dangerous villain with an unsettling look to him, and he’s become just as iconic. Both films also dealt with the peace and quiet of suburbia being shattered by horrific violence, and violence against teenagers at that.
Halloween (1978)
Fifteen years after murdering his sister on Halloween night 1963, Michael Myers escapes from a mental hospital and returns to the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois to kill again.
Release Date October 27, 1978
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