It may seem hard to believe but horror icon Stephen King could have helmed Nightmare on Elm Street 5 back in the late 1980s. Beginning with Wes Craven’s 1984 original, the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise reignited audience interest in the flagging slasher sub-genre by introducing a supernatural killer who was more vocal than the likes of Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers. Robert Englund’s dream demon Freddy Krueger was a memorably nasty villain from his first appearance onwards although, by the franchise’s fifth outing, his penchant for quips had rendered the character increasingly less terrifying and more of a prankster.
As a result, A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child was one of the franchise's more troubled productions, with the movie being quickly thrown together to meet a release date. The previous entry The Dream Master had been the highest-grossing entry to date, so instead of taking a break to properly develop Freddy's next nightmare, New Line wanted a new movie ASAP. This quick production process resulted in various screenplays being commissioned from different writers, only for these wildly divergent takes to be hap-hazardously stapled together during the filming of A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child bears the scars of this process and while an attempt was made to restore the menace of Freddy, the sequel struggled to blend campy humor with genuine horror. In their rush to get the movie into production, New Line considered many notable writers and filmmakers for the sequel before Stephen Hopkins (Predator 2) was hired. Hopkins at least managed to give the film a gothic flavor and visual punch to make up for an anemic story, but the studio also —albeit briefly—considered offering the director's chair to Carrie creator Stephen King.
According to a Fangoria article (via Nightmare On Elm Street Films) interview with then-New Line Vice President Michael De Luca, the executive stated “At one point, New Line was even considering offering the project to Stephen King as a writing/directing package." However, DeLuca went on to say the company didn’t pursue Stephen King for the project as they discovered he was no longer interested in directing. This was understandable, as King had recently directed the critically drubbed Maximum Overdrive in 1986 and swore off helming another film ever since - a promise he has stuck to in the intervening decades.
It’s hard to imagine a fusion of King’s creative energy with Craven’s nightmarish creation, but considering the rushed schedule, had the author accepted he likely would have been forced to use A Nightmare on Elm Street 5's main conceit. He might have been able to craft a more elegant narrative and really driven home the horror, but while it might have been fun to see him play in Freddy's sandbox, directing wasn't a comfortable fit for King either so it all worked out. Some of the other notable writers who were courted for A Nightmare on Elm Street 5 included George R.R. Martin - because of his acclaimed vampire novel Fever Dream, not his later, more famous fantasy efforts - The Shawshank Redemption’s Frank Darabont and The Monster Squad’s Fred Dekker. Producers also approached famed comic book artist/Sin City creator Frank Miller, who was busy with another disappointing sequel - 1990's RoboCop 2 - to work on the project.