Freddy Krueger

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This article is about the fictional character. For the Reuben song, see Freddy Kreuger (song).
Freddy Krueger

Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger
Portrayed by Robert Englund
Information
Gender Male

Frederick Charles "Freddy" (originally "Fred") Krueger [1] is a fictional character from the A Nightmare on Elm Street series of films. Created by Wes Craven and portrayed by actor Robert Englund in every film of the series, he is an undead serial killer, who can attack his victims from within their own dreams. In the original script, Freddy Krueger was a child molester, as to Wes Craven, this was the worst thing possible. The decision was made to turn make Krueger into a child murderer in order to avoid being accused of exploiting a spate of highly publicized child molestations which occurred in California around the time A Nightmare on Elm Street went into production, however Dream Child suggests this might still be the case in a headline Alice looks at when researching Freddy.[2] Freddy is commonly identified by his burned, disfigured face, red and green striped sweater, brown fedora hat, and trademark metal-clawed leather glove. Wizard magazine rated him the 14th greatest villain of all time,[3] and he came in 8th on British television channel Sky Two's Greatest Villains of All Time and ranked 40th on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains list.

Wes Craven claims his inspiration for the basis of Krueger's power stemmed from several stories in the Los Angeles Times about a series of mysterious deaths: all the victims had reported recurring nightmares beforehand, and died in their sleep. Physically, Craven's inspirations for Freddy included a homeless man who had frightened Craven as a youth and a bully at his school. The 1970s pop song "Dream Weaver" by Gary Wright sealed the story for Craven, giving him not only an artistic setting to "jump off" from, but the synthesizer riff from the Elm Street soundtrack.[4]

Robert Englund has expressed many times that he feels that the deeper meaning behind the character is that he represents neglect, particularly the neglect that children and teens are sometimes subject to when growing up.[5]

Contents

[edit] Fictional character biography

[edit] Life story

Freddy Krueger’s origin evolved slowly over the course of the film series. Each subsequent film revealed new information that intertwined with the backstory established in the original film. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child provided the origin of Krueger’s birth, which began with a tragic incident involving his mother in the early 1940s. During a Christmas holiday, a young nun named Sister Mary Helena (a.k.a Amanda Krueger) was accidentally trapped inside a ward of the Westin Hills psychiatric hospital. Known as “The Tower”, this ward was used to house the very worst of the criminally insane. Amanda was raped and tortured by the 100 patients confined there. She was found days later, close to death and now pregnant. Frederick Charles Krueger was born months later after a breech birth and was given up for adoption.

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare revealed that Krueger was placed with an abusive alcoholic named Mr. Underwood (Alice Cooper) who brutalized him physically and emotionally. As a child, Freddy exhibited sociopathic behavior, which included killing small animals. Socially, he was often ridiculed by his peers as "son of a hundred maniacs." In his late teens, Freddy practiced self-mutilation; after learning the "secret of pain", he murdered Underwood.

Freddy accepts the Dream Demons' offer.
Freddy accepts the Dream Demons' offer.

Later in adulthood, Krueger would go on to marry a woman named Loretta, with whom he would have a daughter, Kathryn. The Krueger family resided in Freddy's childhood home at 1428 Elm Street.[6] Kathryn was shown to still be a child when children from the neighborhood went missing and were later found dead. Soon after, Loretta learned that in the basement of the house, Freddy had a secret room where he kept devices of torture, newspaper clippings of his crimes, and different versions of his clawed glove. Loretta promised that "she won't tell", but Freddy strangled her in front of Kathryn, "for snooping in daddy's special work". The reason for going down into the basement is because she heard a girl screaming while Freddy was raping  her before burning her in his oven. Krueger worked at the local power plant, and it was there where he had taken and murdered 20 missing neighborhood children; killing them in the plant's boiler room. The police were unable to solve the cases and newspapers dubbed the mysterious killer the "Springwood Slasher".

In 1966, Freddy was arrested for the murders of the missing children. Young Kathryn was put into foster care and was later adopted. Due to the search warrant not being signed correctly, all evidence was considered inadmissible, and Krueger was released in 1968. Amanda Krueger, Freddy's mother, who had followed his trial, heard of the release and hung herself in the tower where she was raped. The neighborhood parents of the children Freddy had murdered found him in his boiler room later that night and threw Molotov cocktails in the building, trapping Freddy within. Just moments before his death, Freddy was approached by three dream demons. These demons search the mortal world for the most evil soul and, in turn, give that person the power to turn dreams into reality. Freddy accepted their offer to "be forever" as the flames consumed him. Afterward, Freddy's remains were taken to Penny Brothers Auto Salvage and locked in the trunk of an old red Cadillac. The Thompsons, involved with Krueger's murder, moved into the house at 1428 Elm Street, presumably to help erase his existence. Adopted by the Burroughs family, young Kathryn was taken away from Springwood and her records were sealed.

[edit] Film series events

In A Nightmare on Elm Street through A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child, Krueger was referred to as an urban legend. The Elm Street parents remained tight-lipped about the events of the decade before, especially now that their children were teenagers. In the closing months of 1981, the children of Springwood, in particular those teens whose parents had formed the mob that killed Krueger, began dying in peculiar ways as they slept. The parents often ignored or denied the pleas of their terrified children, who told tales of a mysterious man named Freddy who was terrorizing them in their dreams.

Krueger met three notable female adversaries in the period before Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare:

The only male to ever be a main victim of Krueger and main protagonist of the movie, who at the end defeats Krueger, is Jesse Walsh in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge. Here, Freddy's tries to enter the real world through Jesse's body. With the help of his girlfriend, Jesse regains control over himself and banishes Freddy back to the dreamworld.

[edit] Death

After a decade of systematically slaughtering all of the children of Springwood in their dreams, the town was shown to be under Freddy’s influence in Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare. By absorbing the souls of his victims, Freddy was now powerful enough to blur the lines between dreams and reality. The remaining adults were kept in a mass psychosis after their children had been murdered. When there was no one left to kill, Freddy sought to leave Springwood — hoping to continue his murder spree in another town full of more children. Only one person could arrange for this to happen — his daughter, Kathryn Krueger.

Krueger used what was left of his supernatural powers to find his daughter, who was now an adult named "Maggie Burroughs" (Lisa Zane) and was working as a counselor to troubled teenagers in another city. Since her mother's death, Maggie was raised by adoptive parents and had suppressed the disturbing memories of her early childhood. After catching up with Maggie, Krueger attempted to convince her to do his bidding. She proved, though, that a compulsion for murder was not hereditary and instead schemed with Doc (Yaphet Kotto), her coworker (and dream psychiatrist), to help destroy Krueger. After pulling him out of her dream and into reality, Maggie stabbed Krueger in the abdomen with his own glove and then shoved a pipe bomb into Krueger's chest, effectively killing him and releasing the dream demons that had given him his power.

[edit] Battle with Jason Voorhees

In the hybrid sequel, Freddy vs. Jason, Freddy was trapped in Hell. After Maggie defeated Krueger in Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, the people of Springwood sought to revitalize their town. Figuring out how Krueger operated, the authorities and town officials covered up any and all traces of his prior existence, which included blacking out obituaries and quarantining anyone who had ever dreamt about, or had any knowledge of Krueger. Other countermeasures included giving Hypnocil, a drug that prevents people from dreaming, to the children moved to Westin Hills. As a result, Springwood returned to obscurity and subsequently repopulated with no ill effects.

A scene from the movie Freddy vs. Jason.
A scene from the movie Freddy vs. Jason.

Meanwhile, Krueger was unable to escape the boundaries of Hell, thanks to the complete ignorance of his existence to the people of Springwood, and the use of Hypnocil to prevent those in Westin Hills from dreaming. Due to the fact that no one so much as knew of him, much less feared him, Freddy was unable to gain enough power to escape. Thus, Freddy hatched a plan to resurrect the undead, immortal killing machine Jason Voorhees. First, at the conclusion of Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday, Freddy pulled Jason's abandoned mask into the ground. Then, in the disguise of Voorhees' mother, Pamela, Freddy manipulated Jason into rising from the dead once more and going to Elm Street to kill more teenagers. Jason committed a few murders, which were then blamed on Krueger (as planned). As a result, Krueger began to get his equilibrium back. Enough fear fell over Springwood to make Krueger strong enough to haunt the town again. The problem, which Krueger had not counted on, was that Jason would not stop killing. He became irritated when Jason continued to slaughter "his kids" before he could. Thus, a bloody fight ensued between the two murderous icons that raged from the dream world to the waking world at Jason's old haunt, Camp Crystal Lake. The film ends with Jason walking out of Crystal Lake holding Krueger's decapitated head, which winks to the audience, followed by Krueger's laughter, indicating his reign of terror may not yet be over.[8]

[edit] Powers & Abilities

As long as his victims were dreaming, Krueger could inhabit and control their dreams, twisting them to his own ends. He is also capable of entering a victim's mind via state of intoxication, whether the victim is drunk or stoned. Any physical harm done to a person in this dream world would carry over into the real world, though exactly how differs significantly between films, allowing him to easily commit multiple murders. Krueger often toyed with his victims by changing his form and surroundings, usually resembling the boiler room where he brought his child victims that had been missing in town. He also has the power to manipulate or possess any object or part of the dream environment not kept exclusively on the person of his victim at all times after initial creation, as he does in the fifth and sixth films.

His powers increased from those originally granted to him based on how many knew and feared his existence as well as how many souls were in his current possession. At the height of his powers, he could cause severe damage in the real world. This included possession of humans (as shown in the second Nightmare film, briefly in the fifth, and Freddy vs Jason), his corpse (as shown in the third), objects or animals (also shown in the second) or even literally pulling a victim from the waking world into the dream world (as shown in the fifth Nightmare film). If one of Freddy's victims wakes up while they're holding onto him in the dream world, he can be carried into the real world where he is still superhumanly strong and durable, but can be wounded. This was used for extensive fight scenes in the first Nightmare film, Freddy's Dead, and Freddy vs Jason.

In a person's own dream, Krueger could see into their minds and use their deepest fears and personality against them, which became his trademark in the films, at times taking the image of previous victims to help lure friends or relatives to their doom. A few victims managed to use their own imagination to consciously manipulate their dreams against him, a technique known as lucid dreaming, but this typically had little effect on Krueger, who remained in control of their dreams. Another of Krueger's powers involved absorbing the souls of his victims into his own body after they had been killed, which served to make him more powerful. As he gained a victim, their face would appear on his chest, each soul augmenting his power. Each soul he takes grants him the attributes of the victim. This has lead him to acquire skills such as martial arts skills, and high durability. In addition, he is a shapeshifter and can turn into anything, such as a cockroach.

[edit] Alternate plot lines

The summary above corresponds to what New Line Cinema considers the canonical account, based on the films [9]. But other elements of the franchise, such as comics, novels, and other licensed materials, present variant accounts, and the films themselves are sometimes inconsistent in what they present or imply about Freddy's past. A Nightmare prequel is rumored which might offer a new view of the storyline.[10]

[edit] Wes Craven's New Nightmare

Freddy Krueger from Wes Craven's New Nightmare.
Freddy Krueger from Wes Craven's New Nightmare.

Elm Street creator Wes Craven returned to the franchise in 1994 with Wes Craven’s New Nightmare, giving audiences a new version of Freddy Krueger. New Nightmare, which celebrated the first film’s tenth anniversary, showed a darker and more sinister Freddy than presented in previous films. The story, which takes place outside the film continuity in a fictional “real world”, has Freddy haunting and killing the cast/crew members of the original film. Craven described this “new” Freddy as an abstract, ancient evil that had been captured in the story. Now that the films had ended with Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare, the evil, in the guise of Freddy, escaped to begin its reign of terror in the real world.

As the film plays out, Freddy targets Heather Langenkamp and her fictional son Dylan; killing Langenkamp is his only means of becoming fully released from fiction. While Freddy is preoccupied with killing Langenkamp and her son, Craven writes a new script titled “New Nightmare” in order to trap the evil again. By film’s end, Langenkamp manages to defeat the Krueger entity, and saves her son in the process. Craven, in closing, completed his script (which paralleled the film’s events) stating, “Freddy is back where he belongs.”

The “look” of Freddy in this film is more in line with what Craven had imagined for the character, allowing the clowning Freddy portrayed in the earlier films to be cast away.[11] In the film's credits, Krueger is credited as "Himself".

[edit] Freddy's Nightmares

The 1988 Freddy's Nightmares episode No More Mr. Nice Guy presented a less gruesome interpretation of Krueger’s death. Due to budget constraints, many of the series' original actors did not appear. Most episodes of Freddy's Nightmares do not interfere with the established timeline,[12] though a few episodes do present dates that conflict with the film series' timeline of events.

[edit] New Line Cinema vs. Wes Craven

As the Nightmare on Elm Street series progressed, Craven's original vision of Krueger as a true personification of evil was altered several times. Due to the enormous popularity of the films, the succeeding writers/directors chose to develop Freddy into a sardonic, wisecracking and flamboyant anti-hero. Initially, Craven did not intend any sequels and even wanted the original to be a standalone film. When the original became a hit, New Line insisted on following it up, in spite of both Craven and original Nightmare heroine Langerkamp declining involvement. The second entry, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge was released to box office success — topping the profits of the original.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors continued the series' financial success. Craven wanted Dream Warriors to be the end of the series, but the studio refused. Craven and New Line's relationship ended for a number of years as a result of their conflicting visions for the Nightmare enterprise. Later, in Craven's Scream a character would say that "the first movie was great but the rest sucked" — a jab at the other films.[13]

[edit] Memorabilia

The Nightmare on Elm Street series spawned a huge merchandising collecting cult. More than 20 years after the first film was released, the merchandising is still ongoing, with online auction sites still listing hundreds of pieces of A Nightmare on Elm Street memorabilia every day and new products rolling off the assembly line and in to toy stores around the world.

An online collection of Nightmare on Elm Street and Freddy Krueger memorabilia has been established, which showcases many of the pieces of Nightmare On Elm Street memorabilia that have been produced since the first film was released.[14]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Listed in the short story 'Life and Death of Freddy Krueger', published in the novel adaptation of A Nightmare on Elm Street, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge, and A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors.[1]
  2. ^ Rockoff, Adam (2002). Going to Pieces. McFarland & Company, 153. ISBN 0-7864-1227-5. 
  3. ^ Wizard #177
  4. ^ Wes Craven. A Nightmare on Elm Street DVD audio commentary.
  5. ^ Robert Englund in Never Sleep again: The Making of A Nightmare on Elm Street
  6. ^ In the film Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, Freddy's past is tied with the house that appears in every Nightmare film: 1428 Elm Street. In 1992, a companion book to the film series, The Nightmare Never Ends, was released containing a short hypothesis by author Andy Mangels regarding the inconsistent appearances of the house on 1428 Elm Street shown in the Nightmare sequels. Mangels suggests that Freddy's past shown in Freddy's Dead takes place at another street number – though the film blatantly shows[2] the house number at 1428. A scene cut[3] from the film also shows the central character finding Freddy's old lair behind a poorly sealed wall in the basement of 1428 Elm Street. The article from The Nightmare Never Ends has created confusion for the fan community, even though the shooting script [4] for the film and Director/Screenwriter Rachel Talalay confirmed that Krueger's family lived in the house that would become infamous. Andy Mangels himself had no part in the scriptwriting or production of the film, so his theory cannot be considered canon.
  7. ^ Alice Johnson and her son Jacob appeared in the comic book series Nightmares on Elm Street, published by now defunct comic book company Innovation Comics. The six issue mini-series, which was released in 1992, was meant to bridge the story gap between A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child and Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare. The story focuses on Freddy trying to convince six-year-old Jacob Johnson into using his psychic abilities to help him escape Springwood. Innovation worked closely with New Line Cinema when crafting the story, which leads it to be considered canon.[5]
  8. ^ Freddy vs. Jason scriptwriter Mark Swift indicated that various endings were written for the film, with the final ending being thought of by Robert Shaye, New Line's CEO. It's Swift's opinion that Jason indeed won the battle, though he mentions, "We certainly didn't want a draw, but we wanted it to end up that both sides could claim some sort of victory."[6]
  9. ^ A Nightmare On Elm Street Companion
  10. ^ Serial Killer Helmer Heads to 'Elm Street'. Bloody-disgusting.com (2006). Retrieved on 2006-04-02.
  11. ^ http://nightmareonelmstreetfilms.com/nightmareinterviewswesandsequels.html
  12. ^ http://nightmareonelmstreetfilms.com/timelinemain.html
  13. ^ Amazon.com essential video review, Scream, [7]: "Horror fans will fondly remember Drew Barrymore's assertion in Scream that the first Nightmare film was great but all the rest sucked."
  14. ^ http://www.mycollection.co.nz/gallery_view.php?uid=&oid=2

[edit] External links

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