A Nightmare on Elm Street, and its iconic villain Freddy Kruger, has been a cultural staple since Wes Craven's original film in 1984. Since then, there have been six more films in the decade-long series, all the way up to the postmodern malaise of 1994. From the Freudian modernism of the 80s films, through the carbon-copy unoriginality in the middle of the series, up to the postmodern reflexivity of the last two films, the films trace a familiar pattern, and one which charts wider cultural shifts around this time. We ask how the first two films defy gender expectations and subvert already familiar slasher tropes. We delve into how these films represent dreams, and how far they can be understood as relating to Freud's Interpretation of Dreams. Is Freddy a phantom of the death drive, or a paradoxical creature of wish fulfilment? Finally, we analyse the nineties films' self-awareness, and what this means for our own dreams, desires and, indeed, nightmares.