My Favourite Flicks: "A Nightmare on Elm Street" Quiz

Answer: Wes Craven

Wes Craven's name has long been synonymous with horror film-making greatness, and as a director, writer and producer, he has had an incredible amount of success in the film industry. Prior to his work on the "A Nightmare on Elm Street" film franchise, he had a hand in making several horror film favourites, including "The Last House on the Left" (1972) and "The Hills Have Eyes" (1977).

Moreover it was Craven himself who came up with the iconic Freddy Krueger, who was based on a boy who once bullied him as a child.

Answer: Claw marks on her nightgown

In the opening scenes of the film, Freddy Krueger was shown aggressively pursuing a teenager named Tina Gray. Upon waking, Tina was then greeted by her mother, who had heard her crying out and thrashing about in her sleep. As Tina reassured both herself and her mother that her behaviour was due to "just a dream", her mother responded with "You gotta cut your nails or stop that kind of dreaming, Tina - one or the other." As Tina looked down at her nightgown, her attention was drawn to several vicious-looking slash marks, which showed precisely where Freddy's claw had ripped right through the thin material.

Answer: Nancy

Nancy said these words to her friends Tina, Glen and Rod at the beginning of the film, as they were making their way to school. It certainly seemed that, unlike the others, she was reluctant to talk about her dreams, and so she attempted to brush them off, much to the frustration of her best friend Tina, who wished to discuss them further.

Indeed Tina seemed to be the only one to feel that their dreams were a foreshadowing of something, which was made especially clear when she mentioned the possibility of an earthquake occurring. Refusing to let the subject drop, she commented that "Maybe we're gonna have the big earthquake.

They say things get weird before that..."

Answer: Tina

It was poor Tina Gray who was the first to be killed by the psychopathic dream killer, Freddy Krueger, and her boyfriend, Rod, could only look on in horror, as his girlfriend was torn apart by what appeared to him to be an invisible killer. Interestingly enough, as Tina's mother was out of town, Tina and Rod had slept in her bed, and Nancy had taken Tina's. Earlier on in the film, when Tina first evaded Freddy's clutches, she had a crucifix directly above her bed, which, (in light of subsequent events), seemed to deter him.

This same crucifix was eventually shown to protect Nancy when, on the night of Tina's death, as Nancy slept in her friend's bed with the crucifix beside her, the outline of Freddy's face and hands were imprinted on the ceiling above it.

However they soon disappeared, as instead, he went after Tina who, without the protection of her crucifix, proved to be vulnerable, and thus went on to become the film's first victim.

Answer: Johnny Depp

"A Nightmare on Elm Street" was Johnny Depp's first foray into the film world, and in a remarkable twist of fate, he initially only went along to the auditions in order to support his friend, actor Jackie Earle Haley, who would eventually go on to play Freddy in the 2010 remake of the film.

However it was Depp who ended up securing the role of Glenn, which was the same role that Earle Haley had auditioned for. Throughout the film, Glen stubbornly refused to believe that it was their dreams that were responsible for the death of his friends, which eventually came back to bite him in the behind when Freddy eventually came for him too.

Answer: No

After witnessing the murder of his girlfriend, Tina, who died at the hands of Freddy, a freaked-out Rod fled the scene, leading the police to believe that it was he who was responsible for the teen's grisly murder. He was soon captured however, and promptly incarcerated in prison, which, unfortunately for him, only made it all the easier for Freddy to get to him. Sure enough, no sooner had Rod fallen asleep, then Freddy twisted the bed-sheets around his neck, murdering him in the process, but making is appear as if he had taken his own life.

Answer: A prelude to Freddy's arrival or continued presence

The skipping rhyme was sung by a group of little girls who were playing together with a skipping rope. The words to the rhyme gave clear instructions on how to avoid Freddy, even though, as the first line stated, it was a certainty that he was "coming for you".

The little girls and their rhyme first appeared in the background at the beginning of the film, as the four friends walked to school together. The rhyme illustrated, more than anything, the fact that even in daylight, while they were wide awake, Freddy Krueger was continually present in their subconscious.

It also served as a foreshadowing device, so that whenever the rhyme was heard, viewers could bank on the fact that it wouldn't be long until Freddy appeared.

Answer: Alcohol

Nancy's mother certainly had issues of her own, and was frequently drunk in the film. Nevertheless, she did everything she could to try and help her daughter resolve her issues with sleep, and even took her to a sleep clinic. Meanwhile, while her mother was an alcoholic, Nancy's father was a workaholic, working all hours of the day as a police officer.

Indeed it was clear from the outset that Nancy's relationship with her parents was fraught with tension, and as the film reached its climax, she became even more emotionally distant from them.

Answer: Yes

During a micro dream of Nancy's, she received a call from Krueger, who told her, "I'm your boyfriend now", which was his way of informing her that Glen was about to become his next victim. Sure enough, across the street, at Glen's house, Glen was falling asleep on his bed. Around the same time, Nancy was frantically searching for a way out of her house, which her drunken mother had locked up tightly. With no way to contact Glen, who was wearing earphones and thus couldn't hear the phone, Nancy could only scream desperately for him wake up.

Unfortunately, her efforts were all in vain, and Krueger claimed Glen as his next victim. This also made Nancy the only survivor of the initial group.

Answer: "I take back every bit of energy I ever gave you. You're nothing."

After successfully pulling Freddy Krueger out of his dream world and into reality, Nancy set about trying to capture him. However when Nancy's father heard her calling for him, and came to her aid, the pair discovered that Krueger had killed Marge, Nancy's mother and Don Thompson's wife. Rather than feeling defeated, her mother's death was the final straw that broke the camel's back, and it was at that moment that Nancy realised she knew of a way to gain the upper hand. Turning her back on him, she uttered the quotation mentioned in the question above, which had such a significant effect on Krueger that he disappeared. Still, as with all good horror films, the final few seconds, which initially seemed to be rather happy, eventually revealed that Freddy Krueger was not actually vanquished, but was in fact just lying low, at least until the second instalment of the series.