Icons of Horror: Freddy Krueger

”1…2 Freddy’s coming for you…”

That nursery rhyme has sent chills down the spines of countless for nearly 40 years. It’s purpose belongs to Fred “Freddy” Krueger aka the Springwood Slasher from the “A Nightmare on Elm Street” franchise.

Created by Horror master Wes Craven in 1984. Freddy is the central antagonist in the A Nightmare on Elm Street series. By legend he was a child murderer who was freed by the justice system on a legal technicality and was then murdered by the parents of the town out of revenge. Upon his death he was granted will to reappear in the nightmares of the town’s children to exact his revenge. The first target of his brutality in the original film is Nancy Thompson portrayed by Heather Langenkamp. After pursuing Nancy he further torments anyone who moves into her infamous address of 1428 Elm Street in Springwood.

No pun intended, but Freddy is a certified nightmare and I mean that in good standing. Portrayed by the iconic Robert Englund for eight films, Freddy Krueger is one of the most iconic slashers in horror history. Having been part of the “80’s Big Four” golden era of slasher films, Freddy has always stuck out because of his personality and psychological torture. With the ability to enter his victim’s minds and know their biggest fears, Freddy was able to turn everyone’s worse imaginations into literal reality. In short, whatever you fear is something he can materialize. Furthermore, killing his victims in their dreams means they die in actuality and not just their imaginations. Most of his main targets who survived his bloody reign of terror became self aware and sought to keep themselves awake to avoid him, while others fought back or resorted to removing their will to dream using the fictional drug known as Hynocil, which is a dream suppressant.

Freddy bloody conquest are so destructive that even members of his own family such as his mother and daughter have been adversaries against him who have fought to end his terror. As powerful as he is, Freddy is not without weakness. Many of his enemies have defeated him by closing him out of their minds or dragging him out of the dream world and into reality where when killed he cannot be resurrected. He also needs his victims as a source of power and collects their souls as he kills them, essentially making them spiritual back up generators just in case he faces demise. His adversaries have found ways around this tactic by freeing the souls of the children he has murdered and even making sure that no one else learns of his existence so he can’t effect anyone else.

I can’t express enough how much Freddy is one of my favorite horror icons, especially as a slasher. His comedic wit mixed with his serious sense of terror makes him just as enjoyable to me as he is to every other fan of the Nightmare films. I’ll never forget the first time I ever saw him. It was on a summer night in the late 90’s when my sister was watch Wes Craven’s New Nightmare and invited me to watch it with her. From there I backtracked all of his other films and his franchise became one of my favorites.

I’m actually proud to say the most exciting movie I ever saw in theaters was Freddy vs. Jason, the crossover film that lit him against my other favorite slasher, Jason Voorhees. To this day I always tell people that was the most fun I ever had at a theater because no one expected that the showdown between those two titans of terror was going to be that epic. Of course we should have expected nothing less coming from the wisecracking king of dreams himself, Freddy Krueger.