Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy

Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy is a documentary about the Nightmare on Elm Street series, running four hours and covering the eight films that made Freddy Krueger a fixture of horror cinema. Heather Langenkamp, who appeared in the original films, serves as guide and narrator, walking through the history of the franchise from its beginnings through its later installments. The film gathers interviews with more than a hundred people involved in the series, among them Robert Englund, who played Krueger, director Wes Craven, producer Robert Shaye, and cast members such as Lisa Wilcox and John Saxon. Behind-the-scenes footage, photographs and archival material fill out the account of how the films were made and what the character came to mean.

Andrew Kasch and Daniel Farrands directed the documentary, which was produced by Farrands, Thommy Hutson and Lito Velasco and released in 2010. It was the first feature directed by both men. Farrands went on to make several more horror documentaries and dramatizations of true crime subjects, including a companion documentary about the Friday the 13th series. The credited cast numbers 154 people, reflecting the wide range of participants interviewed.

On IMDb the film holds a rating of 8.5 from around 5,500 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 7.8 from roughly 176 votes. The runtime of 240 minutes places it well beyond the length of a typical documentary about a film series.