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TheA Nightmare on Elm Streetfranchise has been a horror mainstay since 1984 when Wes Craven unleashed Freddy Krueger on an unsuspecting public and made him the stuff of nightmares. It would be hard to imagine the horror genre without his frequent reappearances courtesy of the franchise’s many sequels, but Craven’s intention wasn’t to turn his idea into a media franchise.The director had a singular vision forA Nightmare on Elm Street, and that vision came at odds with what the founder of New Line Cinema, Robert Shaye, ultimately wanted.
New Line gave Craven a means to makeA Nightmare on Elm Street, and even though they weren’t a huge player in the industry and could barely keep the lights on in their own right, they could exert a certain amount of control over how the film should end.Craven wanted a more evocative ending that spoke to the film’s themes and put the monster to bed,while Shaye fought for a twist ending that gave the impression that the monster was very much alive. It would be a bone of contention between the two for years as the franchise took off beyond Craven’s control, but ifthe director had his way, the franchise as we know it wouldn’t exist at all.
Wes Craven’s Original Ending Made Freddy Krueger’s Defeat More Final
AsA Nightmare on Elm Streetcomes to a close, it becomes clear to Nancy how she can defeat Freddy once and for all. This is a man who feeds on fear and the energy that their fear gives him. This moment is depicted before the final scene, where Freddy returns. Having murdered Nancy’s mother and all of her friends, she realizes that the only way to strip him of his control is to literally turn her back on him and take back every bit of energy she gave him. She demands to have her mother and friends back again, and as Freddy goes to strike her, he disappears, and the scene switches to a beautiful, normal day.
Up to this moment, this is how Craven chose to wrap up the film.He wanted Freddy to be vanquished after Nancy strips him of his power, and it would be revealed, after waking up, that everything that happened before was one long nightmare. This ending did not sit well withNew Line Cinemafounder Robert Shaye, who wanted a twist ending.He wanted Krueger to appear to have disappeared until the audience realizes they’re in the dream again and Freddy is still in control, essentially leaving it open for Freddy to return. The actual ending, the normal day that sees Nancy’s mom and friends returning, only to have her mom ripped through the door by Freddy, was a bit of a compromise after many discussions over how the film should end,according to Craven.
“The original ending of the script has Nancy come out the door. It’s an unusually cloudy and foggy day. A car pulls up with her dead friends in it. She’s startled. She goes out and gets in the car wondering what the hell is going on, and they drive off into the fog, with the mother left standing on the doorstep and that’s it.”
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) Ending, Explained
Though the lore behind Freddy Krueger’s persona is sometimes murky, 1984’s A Nightmare on Elm Street sets him up flawlessly as a franchise kingpin.
He continued, “It was very brief, and suggestive that maybe life is sort of dream-like too. Shaye wanted Freddy Krueger to be driving the car, and have the kids screaming. It all became very negative. I felt a philosophical tension to my ending. Shaye said, ‘That’s so ’60s, it’s stupid.’ I refused to have Freddy in the driver’s seat, and we thought up about five different endings. The one we used, with Freddy pulling the mother through the doorway amused us all so much, we couldn’tnotuse it.”
The final ending implies that Freddy could still be out there, haunting the dreams of the other teens on Elm Street. New Line Cinema was happy they went that route becauseA Nightmare on Elm Streetbecame a huge hit, grossing $57 million worldwide on a $1.8 million budget and giving theindependent studio their first real hit. There’s a reason they used to call New Line"The House That Freddy Built"because Craven’s idea allowed them to become a player when they were barely getting by beforehand. With the success of the first movie, sequel talks began, but it would put Craven and Shaye immediately at odds.
Craven has always said that Shaye wanted a hook for a sequel, which is what the ending turned out to be. When asked if he ever regretted the final ending, Craven said he regretted changing his original idea because the final result wasn’t him. This is why, when it came down to doing a sequel, Craven wasn’t particularly interested in the idea, but Shaye was, and the New Line founder makes it clear why the director was upset when they pursued it by saying (viaVulture),“Wes didn’t want to direct a sequel, and he didn’t have any ongoing [financial] participation in sequels. He got mad at us. But nobody forced him to sign that contract.”
Wes Craven Saw No Financial Gain From the Original Elm Street Sequels
Craven admits that this was a significant cause of tension between him and Shayein the years after the first movie and when sequels began being produced to great box office profits. Freddy Krueger became a merchandising magnet, which Craven wasn’t involved with early on, which he fully admits to by saying, “I received no money from the sequels, no money from merchandising. That didn’t come until 10 years later, when Bob called me: ‘You’ve been complaining about this and that. We’d like you to make one more Freddy film, even though we killed him off in the last sequel.’ So what the hell, I took the meeting, and they offered me a cut of the merchandising and sequels retroactively.”
Robert Englund Wasn’t the First Choice for Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare on Elm Street
Freddy Krueger is one of Hollywood’s most legendary horror villains, but the demented killer almost had a completely different look and feel.
The pair indeed had a come-to-Jesus moment when it came time forCraven to craftNew Nightmare, allowing the director to put the monster he created on his own terms to bed. However, during most of Freddy’s big moments, as he was the king of his sequels, MTV, music videos, a TV show, and other merchandising, Craven wasn’t involved at all, and it really came down to that difference of opinion on how to end the originalA Nightmare on Elm Street.
Without Shaye’s input, Freddy, as we know him today, wouldn’t exist. Craven would’ve had his evocative ending, and hell, it likely would’ve been better. However, can you imagine the horror genre without Freddy’s continued presence? Now, that sounds like what nightmares are made of.A Nightmare on Elm Streetis streaming now onMax.
