The 10/10 Slasher Flick Quentin Tarantino Says Stephen King Ripped Off Is Blowing Up on Streaming

With the clock counting down for Halloween this year, horror fans are revisiting Wes Craven’s franchise-launching slasher film that was first released in 1984. At the start of the month, A Nightmare on Elm Street was added to HBO Max alongside several of its sequels, and the original film is making a big splash on streaming.

In just three days after being added to HBO Max, A Nightmare on Elm Street is in the Top 10 Movies list on the streaming platform in the United States (per FlixPatrol). It is currently ranked at No. 7. The only horror film above the slasher classic is Backrooms, this year’s horror hit, which is now ranked at No. 1 after being added on Sept. 25. Trick ‘r Treat, the 2007 horror anthology movie, is also in the Top. 10, sitting at No. 9.

A Nightmare on Elm Street Is One of Horror’s Most Celebrated Films

A Nightmare on Elm Street Freddy Phone — Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp) uses a telephone possessed by Freddy Krueger.

Written and directed by Wes Craven (The Last House on the Left, Scream), A Nightmare on Elm Street follows a group of teenagers in Springwood, Ohio, who begin having nightmares about Freddy Krueger — a badly burned man wearing a glove with razor-sharp claws. When Freddy starts killing them in their dreams, they die in real life. The survivors must find out how to defeat Freddy by first uncovering the dark secret about who he really is, but they’ll also need to stay awake in order to stay alive.

Robert Englund famously stars in the film as Freddy Krueger, while Heather Langenkamp co-starred as Nancy Thompson, the final girl. The classic slasher flick also features Johnny Depp in his first feature film role, as well as John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Amanda Sywss, Jsu Garcia, and Lin Shaye.

Quentin Tarantino Said Stephen King Ripped Off the Film

Three little girls in white dresses play with a jump rope in A Nightmare on Elm Street

Revered filmmaker Quentin Tarantino is among the fans of the film. He once caused a stir when he said that Stephen King even ripped off the movie when writing It, one of the author’s most popular novels. Tarantino suggested that the Pennywise character was probably born after King watched A Nightmare on Elm Street and wanted to put his own spin on the story.

“He just replaces Freddy Krueger with Pennywise,” King said on the Eli Roth’s History of Horror: Uncut podcast. “It’s just exactly like he sees Nightmare on Elm Street: — ‘Oh wow, that’s a really neat idea. That’s really clever. That’s cool. Well, let me take that idea and let me do my version of it.’ Now, his version of it is going to be a 560-page novel.”

In addition to the original movie, other additions to HBO Max this month include the first four sequels: Freddy’s Revenge, Dream Warriors, The Dream Master, and The Dream Child. The Friday the 13th crossover film, Freddy vs. Jason, is also available, as is the 2010 remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street. The only films of the franchise missing are the sixth and seventh movies: Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare and Wes Craven’s New Nightmare.

A Nightmare on Elm Street is streaming on HBO Max.