Dean Russell

Dean Russell is a character in the 2010 remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street, played by Kellan Lutz. A teenager suffering from sleep deprivation and strange nightmares about an unknown man after exploring childhood memories with his psychiatrist, he has gone more than 72 hours without sleep and depends on caffeine to stay awake. He starts to fall asleep at the Springwood Diner while ordering coffee and is attacked by Freddy Krueger, a burned man wearing a bladed gardener's glove, who cuts his hand; Dean wakes and grabs a knife to defend himself, and when he falls asleep again Freddy uses the knife in the dream to cut his throat.

In reality Dean cuts his own throat as his friends Kris Fowles and Nancy Holbrook, who works at the diner, look on in horror. At his funeral Kris finds a photograph of herself and Dean as children, although she cannot remember knowing him before high school, which begins the friends' discovery of the past they share.