Like any major horror franchise worth its salt, A Nightmare on Elm Street has inspired a whole host of other movies, for better or for worse. Ever since the release of the first film to feature the dream-invading Freddy Krueger in 1984, the slasher genre was never the same, with an all-new breed of smack-talking supernatural horror villain now prowling theaters. The success of all nine Nightmare on Elm Street movies came amid a wave of imitators taking heavy inspiration from the original film.
Movies that take ideas from A Nightmare on Elm Street vary wildly in their obviousness. Some of them recycle a similar concept of an astrally-projecting or nightmare-causing slasher villain like Freddy Krueger, or even simply the very theme of a dream and sleep-oriented horror story. Other times, the influence is less than a variation on a theme and more of a blatant copy, with motifs as specific as Freddy Krueger’s signature fedora, melted face, or bladed glove being ripped off.
- Hellmaster
- Satan’s Bed
- Dreamaniac
- Sleepstalker
- Shocker
- Dream Demon
- Mahakaal
- Wishmaster
- Night Killer
- Bad Dreams
It’s almost impressive just how succinctly Mahakaal rips off A Nightmare on Elm Street, from the near-identical villain to the narrative beats to even one-to-one recreations of famous murder scenes, with some being lifted from later Freddy Krueger sequels like A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master. Of course, breaking up the flagrant copyright violations are the traditional trappings of the Bollywood horror subgenre, including martial arts scenes, a hilarious comic relief character, and plenty of songs.
Well I’m sold!