andrevvgarfield:

“It was based on a newspaper article about an immigrant family, and the youngest son began to say that he was having nightmares that were getting worse and worse. Something was chasing him. He wouldn’t go to sleep because he felt like he would die if he slept. The father, being a physician, gave him sleeping pills. He did fall asleep, and his big brother carried him upstairs and put him to bed. The family all went to sleep thinking, ‘Thank God this crisis is over.’ Suddenly they heard screams, raced to his room, and by the time they got there he had fallen still and was dead.”- Wes Craven on the inspiration for “A nightmare on Elm street” (x)