The ‘Nightmare On Elm Street’ House Was Likely Inspired by This One in Potsdam, New York
If you love horror movies, then the movie "Nightmare On Elm Street" is one of the all time classics. Was this movie inspired by a frat house in Potsdam, New York?
Legend has it that the film and its title was inspired by a student film director Wes Craven made at a former fraternity house on Elm Street in Potsdam. Craven taught at Clarkson University in Potsdam for several years in the 1960s. However, Craven denies the connection. You have to admit though, for conspiracies, it does seem pretty plausible though.
North Country Radio asked Craven about the connection:
Question: I heard a rumor that the idea for "Nightmare on Elm Street" might have come from a student movie involving Elm Street in my hometown of Potsdam, New York. True?
Wes Craven: No, I'm afraid not. You know, when I was teaching, I bought a camera and we shot a film up there called "The Searchers", I think we called it. It was a bunch of students, noticed I had a camera and I didn't know what I was doing, though I was just fooling around. They asked me to help them start a film club which we did, and then we made a 45-minute-long little action picture. Very crude, we didn't know what we were doing, really. We showed it at the school and all the surrounding schools. We made our budget back about four or five times over. And that was when I got the bug for making movies. At the end of that year, I quit my job and went down to New York and started trying to get into the film business.
Unfortunately, the home has been torn down. The so-called home was in disrepair and had been condemned.
The Potsdam Public Museum has photos of the home posted: