Is A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) scary?

Yes — A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) is consistently scary. As a slasher film, it scored 9.0/10 for fear, 9.0/10 for atmosphere, and 8.1/10 overall on Watch Darkly's curator scale across 1 rating.

How many jump scares are in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)?

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) has 11 jump scares, based on its logged jump-scare count.

What age is A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) appropriate for?

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) is rated R. Watch Darkly does not assign its own age rating, so here is what the film actually contains. On Watch Darkly's curator scale it scored 9.0/10 for fear, 8.0/10 for gore, and 7.8/10 for intensity, where 10 is the most extreme in the catalog. It has 11 jump scares. Content warnings on file: self harm.

What are some films like A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)?

Films similar to A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) on Watch Darkly include Friday the 13th (1980), Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019), Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989), selected by shared themes and tags plus the curator scoring across fear, gore, atmosphere, intensity, and overall quality.

Metadata and artwork from TMDB. Not endorsed or certified by TMDB.

slasher

A Nightmare on Elm Street

Name: A Nightmare on Elm Street
Genre: horror
Released: 1984-11-09
Duration: 1 h 31 min
Rating: 8.1

1984 · R · 1h 31m

If Nancy doesn't wake up screaming, she won't wake up at all.

Teenagers in a small town are dropping like flies, apparently in the grip of mass hysteria causing their suicides. A cop's daughter, Nancy Thompson, traces the cause to child molester Fred Krueger, who was burned alive by angry parents many years before. Krueger has now come back in the dreams of his killers' children, claiming their lives as his revenge. Nancy and her boyfriend, Glen, must devise a plan to lure the monster out of the realm of nightmares and into the real world...

Plot summary via TMDB

Release

In theaters: November 9, 1984

Curator Score

8.1

Overall

Based on 1 curator rating · How we score

Strongest on fear and atmosphere.

Jump scares

A Nightmare on Elm Street has 11 jump scares. Compare counts

Age suitability

A Nightmare on Elm Street is rated R. Watch Darkly does not assign its own age rating. It scored 9.0/10 for fear and 8.0/10 for gore, and carries one content warning: self harm.

Add your rating

8.1Overall

Fear9.0

Gore8.0

Atmosphere9.0

Intensity7.8

Genres

horror

Details

Budget$1.8M

Box office$25.5M

Directed by

Written by

Cinematography

Music

Starring

John Saxon as Lt. Donald Thompson · Ronee Blakley as Marge Thompson · Heather Langenkamp as Nancy Thompson · Amanda Wyss as Tina Gray · Jsu Garcia as Rod Lane · Johnny Depp as Glen Lantz · Charles Fleischer as Dr. King · Joseph Whipp as Sergeant Parker