A Nightmare on Elm Street is a 1984 American supernatural slasher film written and directed by Wes Craven, and produced by Robert Shaye. It is the first installment in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise and stars Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger, and Johnny Depp in his film debut. The film's plot concerns a group of teenagers who are targeted by Krueger, an undead child killer who murders teenagers through their dreams, as retribution against their parents who burned him alive. Craven loosely based the screenplay off of a series of news stories about Asian refugees dying in the middle of nightmares.