A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

It's coming up on the forty year anniversary; with so many horror films/characters that have come and gone since then, in my opinion there is still none better than Freddy Krueger! Over the years I have very seldom come across a horror fan who didn't like NOES, but I've always wondered if they understood the subtleties of what made Freddy such a terrifying presence. What makes him so damn scary?

A quick history in concept. The late Wes Craven came up with the idea of Freddy Krueger from a collage of creepy happenings. First, the name Fred Krueger was that of a schoolyard bully that used to torment Wes in his younger years. Freddy's look-- the infamous fedora, striped shirt and relative tattered appearance came from a vagrant that would hang around outside Wes's childhood apartment building. One night, young Wes found himself staring at this man, who seemed to be staring right back at him. For whatever reason, Wes decided to go downstairs to get a better look, when he was greeted by the same man now at the front window. Only inches away from the young boy, Wes was terrified as he was being eyed by this derelict looking man, wearing the familiar sneer we all know Freddy to have when he's tormenting his victims. And lastly, the concept of a dream demon, or night terrors was drawn from actual accounts of several young boys, particularly one Asian man who claimed to be attacked in his sleep by an unnameable entity. His family, understandably, did not take this to such extremes, and wrote it off as stress. They were wrong, unfortunately, as not long after, the boy was found to be screaming and tossing something fierce one night, until he had dropped dead.

Here, it is enough to tremble over, the fact that such an incident has occurred, and as it turns out, is not so isolated. Many, in fact, have reported a malevolent presence in their dreams (I know I can attest to this personally). But Freddy is fiction, yes? What makes him so scary?

Let's start with who Freddy is, or was. A child murderer (or molester if we are to draw from the original concept). Either way, he is the embodiment of the proverbial boogeyman. Freddy is someone who brought an entire town to its knees with arguably the most heinous acts one could commit. To attack children, the faces of innocence; there is no more definitive way to express true evil. Even before being identified, caught, and subsequently killed, he was a monster, one to be feared. A scary story told by everyone, one that no doubt was told to the many kids during his reign of terror. Now, we are never given any definitive reason as to why Freddy decided to kill children, not until after his own demise, I feel this is a notion that has yet to be touched on, and perhaps for the better. The lack of reason or motive, that makes his actions that much more unsettling. However, when he begins, or in this case, continues his stalking of young teens, it is arguably more disturbing.

In the most simplistic of explanations, Freddy attacks you when you're dreaming, asleep, and in bed. A place that should be a safe refuge from the world, is now as threatening as any dark alley (we'll come back to this one, ha)! But Freddy threatens more than your safety, he comes after you while you're in bed, at your most vulnerable, sometimes with a kind of sexual undertone--as mentioned before, the original idea for Freddy was that he was to be a child molester. It would appear the creators had left that as a bit of an implied understanding. Often, Freddy would either appear under the covers with them, or between their legs, tying his victims up, enticing his victims to a degree with some measure of erotica, all the while with the sinister sneer, enjoying every minute of his victims agony. he reveled in extracting the most fear from these kids until he was able to capture their souls, rendering them to a permanent state of terror within his own body.

The children, once suffering at the hands of Freddy's own whim, now bore the punishment of the parents actions. For, before he was burned, Freddy was known to the town (not yet by name), they knew someone was out there. After his subsequent execution, when the courts failed them and vigilante justice prevailed, Freddy was rendered to that of a dirty secret, one that they would take to the grave.

It was a secret the parents kept from their children, much like parents did in those days about the truths of sex and drugs. It is no coincidence that the use of drugs (which would most always have you passing out), or the act of sex would precede Freddy's arrival. He is the monster that awaits should you chose to act upon your promiscuous urges. And all this was taking place on Elm street, arguably the most ordinary sounding road that could be found in almost any neighborhood. A nightmare on Elm St. We equate this now with horror, sure, but think of it in 1984. If you didn't know better, would you tremble at such a title? it has a way of lulling you into a sense of security, does it not? And, no better way was this expressed in one of his first appearances when Freddy finally caught up with Tina.

The slasher villain, though, was almost always an allegory for pre-marital sex and drugs, and all other manners of misbehavior among teens. While its intent was to most likely drive away those tendencies, in fact, as we can all admit now, they probably did more to encourage them. Kids, right?

In his life, Freddy had to lie in wait for his victims, picking and choosing his moment to strike, restrained to what resources he had. In death, while still confined to the dream world, his victims would inevitably come to him, to a world of his own design and of near limitless power! While you might have been able to escape Freddy in the real world, if you were lucky enough, there is no escaping sleep, and next to nothing to protect you. Sooner, or later, you would have to face Freddy, he need only to wait. And, while one may kill Freddy now and again... and again, it is your fear he lives on. So long as you're afraid of him, he exists. A resurrection point done well, in my opinion, with Freddy vs Jason.

The eighties were a wild time, to say the least. A time of discovery and great creativity, a time that no matter how hard we try, we'll never recreate. Such is the case with the slasher genre. Be it a shifting audience, or lost style, it is a genre I hope to see resurrected itself one day. As a writer, I am on this elusive quest to bring back one of the more engrossing elements of the time. You would think a villain with a cool weapon who chops up some hapless teens would be easy to recreate, but as we've seen here, there are many more layers in creating a truly iconic slasher villain. One that will live on in the annals of time and experience, just as Freddy has over the years. Of course, Freddy is not the only one with such accolades, in fact, he may have been one of the last. But he is a face that is recognized everywhere, a chill that settles in every time you lay down to go to sleep, and a name you will always know... his name is Freddy Krueger!