A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)

Feverish, genuinely frightening horror film about Freddy Krueger (Englund), a scarred maniac in a fedora and razor-fingered gloves who kills neighborhood teens in their dreams and, subsequently, in reality. Of the children-fight-back genre, in which the lead victim (Langenkamp) ingeniously goes to great lengths to destroy Freddy. In the tradition of Friday the 13th's Jason and Halloween's Michael Myers, Elm Street spawned a Freddy phenomenon: seven sequels (including the upcoming Freddy Vs. Jason, linking Elm Street, Part 8 with Friday the 13th, Part 10); a TV series (Freddy's Nightmares, a horror anthology show hosted by Englund to capitalize on his character); and an army of razor-clawed trick or treaters at Halloween.