I liked the acting, it's above average in the horror scope. Heather Langenkamp is a great protagonist, she doesn't make stupid decisions and is not helpless, which helps a lot. This is the first movie we get to see a young Johnny Depp, he does a good job and I found it strange seeing him "normal", with no makeup or some crazy outfit. And of course, Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger, awesome characterization, it is so good that Robert is one of the few actors that play some slasher monster or assassin that you actually know his name and are irreplaceable, at least that I can recall. He is Freddy, and he played the character in every movie except in 2010's remake.

The story is creative and reinvigorating. You can eventually escape (with a lot of luck) from Jason or Michael Myers, but Freddy will kill you in your sleep, and whether you like it or not, some time you'll have to sleep. What makes me like even more this premise is that it allows so much more creativity and possibilities in the horror created with the suspense and the killings.

They did an incredible work with the killings, every single one is different from what you have seen and most of them are really gory and horrifying. [spoiler]Tina's death is so good, she goes up in the air spinning and being dragged on the ceiling while being ripped off by Freddy's claws. Johnny Depp gets probably my favorite death scene in the slasher genre. What a blood bath. Oh my god! It's awesome.
Props as well for the special effects crew, the makeup and all the other effects in the killings are so so good. [/spoiler]

The soundtrack is amazing! Specially in the chasing scenes. The song sang by the little kids is creepy and really good as well.

Now we reach the part of the movie that I really don't like, the ending. [spoiler]First of all, it doesn't make sense, it breaks all the rules established along the whole movie. Apparently, Wes Craven wanted the story of the entire movie to be just a dream and when Nancy wakes up everything is back to normal; while producer Robert Shaye wanted the movie to end with a final scare and obviously the possibility of a sequel. So, that's what we got, thanks Robert. A lot of slashers tend to have a final scare that doesn't make sense and in the next movie they forget about it or it was just an hallucination. I like to ignore this ending and just believe that Nancy beat Freddy (which makes sense with the title, it was just some nightmare on Elm Street), or that Nancy actually died at some point and she never wakes up, Freddy just keeps playing with her. Anything is better than what we got.[/spoiler]

Nice movie overall, kind of slow paced sometimes but definitively worth the watch, so iconic.