As good as Scream is, it is just pipped to the post by A Nightmare on Elm Street, an astonishingly original and effective film. An evolution of the tropes founded in John Carpenter's Halloween (and later adopted by the likes of Friday the 13th), A Nightmare on Elm Street added something different to a slasher genre that was growing very stale. Craven was inspired to write the film after reading a series of articles about South East Asian men living in Los Angeles who had all died in their sleep, as well as from his own childhood (he was terrified of a trench coat-wearing homeless man who stared at him through a window). That man served as inspiration for Krueger, a child killer (and implied molester) whom the parents of Elm Street burned alive and who was now wreaking havoc in their children's lives, by invading their dreams, in retribution. It was a novel concept which was helped an extraordinary amount by some truly inventive special effects work (the $1.8 million budget necessitated true creativity). But despite the limited funding and the constant clashes between Craven and New Line head honcho Robert Shaye, the film turned out incredibly well. Critics were impressed (94% on Rotten Tomatoes) and it made $25 million at the box-office, launching New Line as a name studio (the house that Freddy built). Eight sequels/spin-offs and a remake later, and people still cannot get enough of Freddy Krueger or the Nightmare franchise. However, with Craven now sadly gone, it's difficult to see how they can go on without him.
