To mark the final Friday 13th of the year, we are delighted to present Wes Craven’s modern classic. Ignoring the diminishing returns of the numerous sequels, the original remains a well-crafted slasher with a brilliant premise and a genuinely scary antagonist in the form of Freddy Kreuger (Robert Englund), whose fedora, green-and-red sweater, disfigured flesh, and knives-for-fingers claw have made him one of horror’s most iconic figures.

Arrested for multiple child murders, Kreuger is released on a technicality, after which angry parents form a mob and burn him to death. Some years later, a new generation of Elm Street children begin to die mysterious and violent deaths in their sleep. Led by Nancy (Heather Langenkamp), these teens (including a young Johnny Depp) realise they are all dreaming of the same man, and that if they die in their dreams, they die in reality. In order to stay alive, they must stay awake or defeat Krueger on his home turf . . . (Notes by Kevin Coyne)