A Nightmare on Elm Street — Synopsis

Nancy Thompson is a typical American kid growing up in a clean, middle-class suburb. She’s a good student, outgoing and well-liked.

Her idyllic existence is abruptly shattered by a series of horrible nightmares—the monstrous stalking by a fierce cold-blooded killer.

When describing her haunted, sleepless nights to her closest friends, they suddenly realize that they too have been jolted awake by screams and cold sweats; they too have been plagued by the same hallucination—the same awful madman.

Later, one of Nancy’s friends is brutally murdered in her sleep. The police suspect the girl’s boyfriend.

Nancy, however, begins to suspect something far more sinister; she fears that the walls separating fantasy from reality are crumbling and the nocturnal monsters of their unconscious minds are hunting them down.

Their only defense, she claims, is to stay awake. Her family fears her sanity is slipping away, even as her friends are systematically slaughtered in their sleep.

After many sleepless nights of fighting off well-meaning adults armed with pills, warm baths, hot milk and calming lies, Nancy resigns herself to the fact that she must give in to her exhaustion and face the terror of her nightmares in a life-and-death battle for control. In an exciting and startling climax, Nancy confronts her tormentor and discovers the dark, decade-old secret of Elm Street—the heinous events that triggered the creation of the nightmare.

A Nightmare on Elm Street is the story of the courage and resourcefulness of one extraordinary girl—a psychological fantasy/thriller that rips apart the barrier between dreams and reality. It will make us all think twice before settling onto our pillows for a night of sweet dreams.

— Press Kit Synopsis