Halloween and the 10 best horror movies to watch on Shudder

8.  A Nightmare on Elm Street

This is the movie that inspired seven sequels and a documentary (Never Sleep Again), and cast Johnny Depp in his first film role. Unknown actress Heather Langenkamp plays Nancy Thompson, who starts to dream about a man with knives for fingers.

Her friend Tina has the same dream, and is killed one night when Nancy and her boyfriend are sleeping over. At first, it’s presumed that Tina’s bad-boy boyfriend Rod is responsible, but Nancy’s dreams get worse, and she eventually finds out who Freddy Krueger is.

In one particularly creepy scene, Nancy nods off in class, and sees Tina, standing and encased in a bloody body bag, her hand pawing at the plastic. As she steps into the hallway, she sees the bag lying on the floor with Tina inside, and as she watches, Tina’s legs are lifted by an unseen being, and the bag is dragged down the hall. Brrr…that scene gives me chills every time I watch it!

When Wes Craven wrote Fred Krueger, he decided that he wanted him to wear a mask as so many onscreen killers did, but he also wanted him to be able to talk to his victims, thus the burn scars. Krueger’s name came courtesy of a boy who had bullied Craven as a child.

A remake was released in 2010, but despite its opening weekend gross of $35 million, it dropped 72% on its second weekend. Ultimately, it was unsuccessful.