how Freddy Krueger continues to haunt our nightmares 40 years later • Journal • A Magazine • , Life in canada

Our very first introduction to Krueger, a child murderer burned to death by the parents of suburban Springwood, Ohio, is in the opening of the original film where he gleefully plays a round of Project Runway, creating a glove with knife-fingers before beginning his hunt for vengeance. The burned face, red and green sweater, homemade knife-glove, and beloved brown fedora make for a distinct character, one that immediately joined the ranks of fellow iconic slasher villains like Friday the 13th’s Jason Voorhees and Halloween’s Michael Myers.

What helps set Kruger aside is that while Voorhees and Myers are explicitly human for most or all of their franchise runs, Krueger is a character who we have always known as a supernatural villain. His death comes long before the events of the film begin, and he haunts the dreams of his victims, eventually crossing between the world of the slumbering back into reality with an ease that seems almost unfair. A ghost who can cut and burn and kill his teenage targets is similar to a demonic presence found in other supernatural horror films, but free from the religious framing that often binds those types of antagonists. Krueger operates by his own rules, a monster delighted to play with his food, especially because his access to the high schoolers he haunts is inevitable. They can fight to stay awake, but, as Zach points out, “that’s why Freddy has to be one of the coolest designs for a slasher villain, because eventually you are going to have to fall asleep.”

Freddy is unavoidable and he loves to make that known. His taunting croons, reminiscent of the vulgarity of the killer from 1974’s Black Christmas, are another significant change from the silent, looming villains found in other big slasher franchises and have a way of making him stick out for members. Gladsau, Em, Ckennison17, and Kieran all echo a similar sentiment: Freddy is a funny guy. He calls his victims, he waves and winks, he plays hide-and-seek, and that humor has a way of hiding his most gruesome traits. Audiences today are far more likely to walk away from the film remembering his silly accordion arms rather than his atrocities. Stephen helps illustrate the nuance of having a killer who’s so chatty:

“I keep finding this to be a very silly movie, in that the horror seems horrific if you were in the film but does not translate outside of it. I believe that the characters are being tormented in their dreams, and that they are in states of perpetual fear, but that does not map to the audience. It sells a narrative state but it does not sell the atmosphere and no dread creeps out of the screen. If I was in Nightmare, I’d be terrified. Watching it? Not so much.”