A Nightmare on Elm Street is a TV episode.
A Nightmare on Elm Street . The film is credited with carrying on many tropes found in low-budget horror films of the 1970s and 1980s , originating in John Carpenter 's 1978 horror film Halloween , including the morality play that revolves around sexual promiscuity in teenagers resulting in their eventual death , leading to the term `` slasher film '' .