If you told someone that one of the scariest characters in cinema wore a red and green striped jumper and a brown hat, it’s unlikely that they would believe you. And yet Freddy Kruger is the stuff of nightmares – literally.

His first outing, from 1984, gets a timely re-release to celebrate its 40th anniversary.

Nancy (Heather Langenkamp) and Tina (Amanda Wyss) are high school best friends, dating Glen (Johnny Depp) and Rod (Nick Corri) respectively.

They like nothing better than hanging out, but then Tina gets distressed after a number of frightening nightmares. They feature a burnt figure, wearing a striped jumper and a glove with knives for fingers. He manages to terrify her each and every time she falls asleep.

What’s really scary is that Nancy has seen him in her dreams too. And when Tina tragically dies, Nancy soon finds that the man in their nightmares, Fred Kruger (Robert Englund) now starts to focus on Nancy when she sleeps. But can Nancy fight a monster made from nightmares?

Out of the main horror villains of the eighties, such as Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees, Kruger still remains the most creative. The others have similar MO’s of looking menacing and going on a murder spree.

Kruger is similar, but the fact that he appears in your dreams is, still, far more horrifying.

Although created by Wes Craven, the American director didn’t helm any other entries in the franchise, except for the meta Wes Craven’s New Nightmare in 1994, which was a standalone entry, as well as a semi-sequel in that it starred much of the original cast, but now playing themselves as the actors are now haunted by Kruger.

This original still remains the most successful in the franchise (with the exception of Freddy’s appearance in 2003’s Freddy Vs. Jason, and the poorly reviewed 2010 remake), and you can understand why. It’s the purist vision, superbly crafted by Craven, with a number of impressive set pieces.

That said, time hasn’t been terribly kind to it, with the unique premise occasionally suffering from its execution. For instance, the finale gets just a little too Home Alone, with the main protagonist reading a book on how to make booby-traps in an attempt to capture Kruger, all looking rather farfetched and silly in this day and age.

Still it does mark the acting debut of a certain Johnny Depp, who was nothing more than eye candy for the film, but it certainly held him in good stead for the rest of his career.

In terms of horror icons and box-office takings, Freddy is sandwiched between Michael in first place and Jason in third, which is a little flattering for him considering how poor some of the subsequent sequels to this was.

The original may have lost some of its potency, but the idea of a villain who can kill you in your nightmares is still a killer premise.