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.

1. Hellmaster
2. Satan's Bed
3. Dreamaniac
4. Sleepstalker
5. Shocker
6. Dream Demon
7. Mahakaal
8. Wishmaster
9. Night Killer
10. Bad Dreams