When Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street was released in 1984, it birthed a franchise unlike anything viewers had seen before. The series follows bad guy Freddy Krueger, who stalks teenagers in their dreams, attacking and ultimately killing them in grisly and cartoonish ways, until they somehow find a way to stop him. The character is known for his burned skin, his red and green sweater striped sweater, and his signature weapon - a glove with knives attached.
The main A Nightmare on Elm Street series spans six movies, plus Wes Craven's New Nightmare, Freddy vs Jason, and the Freddy's Nightmares television series. In 2010, New Line Cinema and Platinum Dunes released a remake of the original film, though it wasn't a big critical success. That's the last thing that was done with the series, making it now over ten years since a new version of Freddy was available to viewers. The idea has been played with before, with nothing ever coming of it, but A Nightmare on Elm Street is the perfect candidate for an anime remake, and if the series were ever to be rebooted in that way, it would probably be amazing.
The premise as a whole is already a great premise for animation, and not too far-fetched from a few anime series that already exist. Dream demons are already a part of some anime series, though nothing quite like Freddy Krueger, and much of A Nightmare on Elm Street's scenes and concepts are already very wacky and cartoonish. Going in and out of a dream world could be very cool in the animation avenue, and the films' styles could be easily translated in a very interesting looking way.
The first film is the most serious of the series, but it's still full of interesting special effects that would work in animation very well. Think of Freddy pulling Nancy, the main final girl of the series, into the bathtub and attacking her underwater. Or even something as simple as the stairs melting as Nancy is trying to walk up them, which is now an iconic effect of the series. These could look so amazing in an animated form and later additions to the franchise have even more of these scenes that would really work, as the series gets progressively more kooky and colorful with every movie.
While the entire premise and aesthetics scream animation, the main elements of the Nightmare series that fans would love to see in that form are Freddy Krueger and his creative kills. The character not only has a very colorful and distinct look that would translate well, but his mannerisms and personality also stand out. He's a wisecracker, known for being a very humorous villain and in a lot of ways more funny than scary. Freddy also has a pretty intense backstory, involving a lot of taboo stuff. Even though he's funny, he's a properly dark villain that no one would be too excited to mess with. The funny, sexually charged villain is not a far-fetched concept for anime, or animation as a whole. As a character and the real face of the series, Freddy would go over very well.
The kills in the Nightmare series are so outlandish, so cartoonish, so wacky, and so wild. They're the highlight of the series for a lot of fans, which might sound a little strange but the creativity put into them makes it really hard to look away. As the series progresses, they get progressively more strange and each victim of Freddy goes in a different and creative way. The first kill of the franchise, Tina, gets slashed by Freddy's finger knives and then dragged across the ceiling. Already very creative, but it only gets better. At one point in the franchise, he literally "sucks the life" out of a character with asthma. Another character is pulled through a TV after she sees Freddy on a talk show. He kills close to 45 people over the course of all of his films, and most of them have these incredibly elaborate deaths, so an animated reboot could easily draw from that. Luckily though, the premise really allows for endless ideas so anything could happen.
Though an animated version of A Nightmare on Elm Street has never officially been played with or put into production, there has been some buzz about it. Robert Englund, the actor who plays Freddy Krueger, has voiced interest in the idea. He reprised his role briefly in a special guest appearance on The Goldbergs in 2018, for the first time officially since Freddy vs Jason. Fans were actually disappointed that he didn't play the part in the 2010 movie, with producers opting for a more scary version of the series. Jackie Earle Haley ended up playing the part and, though his performance has been generally well received, the iconic Englund character is what fans seem to want, and certainly is the version that would be seen in an animated form.
The Nightmare franchise and Freddy as a character have a very big and very dedicated fan base. Any kind of reboot or remake is going to be highly scrutinized, but also likely highly loved and successful. It resonates with people because it's dark and complicated, but also a bit fun and campy, and just very weird. There's nothing really like it to this day in the horror genre. Weird and complex stuff often thrives in animation, especially in anime, and transforming this franchise for a new audience in that way would be an excellent and fresh idea to consider.