Heather Langenkamp in A Nightmare on Elm Street
A Nightmare on Elm Street is a classic of the genre. Wes Craven introduced a villain that would go on to become one of the most iconic antagonists in cinema history, but he struggled to get the project off the ground. Craven told Filmmaker magazine that many studios were "afraid of making a film that had blood in it." Fortunately, New Line Cinema took a chance on the venture, and Heather Langenkamp was cast as Nancy Thompson—but Langenkamp wasn't prepared for what awaited her on the other side of stardom.