Freddy Kruger is the substance of nightmares. He always appears strangely dressed and has knives on the fingers of his right hand. A group of four teenagers all begin to have the same strange dreams about Freddy and then one of them is gruesomely murdered in her sleep. The survivors soon realise that if Freddy kills them in their sleep, then they will die in real life too. Thus begins an ordeal of wakefulness as they try to find some way to stop Freddy.