Is A Nightmare on Elm Street a Slasher Movie? Robert Englund & Heather Langenkamp on the Debate

It's now been four decades since Freddy Krueger invaded the dreams of his first group of unsuspecting teenagers in writer/director Wes Craven's 1984 horror smash A Nightmare on Elm Street. Led by Robert Englund's sinister Krueger, the film launched a franchise that would eventually include eight films (seven starring Englund), a TV series, and an uncountable number of books, comics, toys, and god only knows what other spin-off material. Actress Heather Langenkamp serves as Krueger's primary nemesis in three of those films. In the original, she's Nancy, a clever teenager who turns the tables on Krueger (and dates a young Johnny Depp). She reprised that role in A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 3: Dream Warriors and then returned again for Wes Craven's New Nightmare, the series' risk-taking seventh installment, a meta twist on the franchise that finds her playing a fictionalized version of herself. Still, it's the original film that's proving to stand the test of time 40 years later, and Warner Bros. is marking the occasion by releasing it in 4K UHD, first digitally on October 1 and then with a fancy physical release on October 15. Englund and Langenkamp reunited this past week to celebrate the occasion, and, in this one-on-one interview with Collider, the pair talk Elm Street's legacy, debate whether A Nightmare on Elm Street should be categorized as a slasher movie, and fondly remember their time with Craven, who would also go on to launch the Scream franchise before he passed away in 2015. #ANightmareonElmStreet #RobertEnglund #HeatherLangenkamp For interviews, movie reviews, and more visit https://collider.com FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL   / collider     / collider     / collider