FREDDY KRUEGER

Freddy Krueger "The Bastard Son of one hundred Maniacs" — or simply Fred, full name Frederick Charles Krueger[citation needed] — is a fictional character from the A Nightmare on Elm Street series of horror films. He was created by Wes Craven and has been portrayed by actor Robert Englund in every film. He is an undead serial killer and child killer [1] who can attack his victims supernaturally from within their own dreams and nightmares. Freddy is commonly identified by his burnt face, his red and green sweater, a fedora hat, his trademark metal-clawed glove, and an eerie chant in the tune of "Buckle My Shoe," that usually accompanies his appearance.

He ranks #40 on the American Film Institute's "100 Heroes and Villains" list.

Origin of Freddy Kruger

The character’s backstory begins 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 trapped inside the Westin Hills psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane. For days, she was raped and tortured numerous times by the one hundred patients confined there. When she was found, she was barely clinging to life and was now pregnant. Months later, after a breech birth, Frederick Charles Krueger was born and given up for adoption.

Fred was placed with an abusive alcoholic named Mr. Underwood (portrayed by Alice Cooper in Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare) who abused him physically and emotionally. As a teenager, Freddy exhibited sociopathic behavior, which included killing small animals. He was often ridiculed by classmates, which made him an outsider in social circles. In his late teens, Freddy was shown to enjoy the beatings and associated pain with pleasure. He also learned the "secret of pain" from self-mutilation and got his revenge against his adoptive father by killing him.

Later in adulthood, Fred Krueger married a woman named Loretta and soon had a daughter named Kathryn. The Krueger family was shown to reside in Freddy's childhood home at 1428 Elm Street.[2] Kathryn was still a little girl when children from the neighborhood went missing and were found dead. Soon after, Loretta learned that down in the basement of the house, Freddy had a secret room where he kept many different tools of torture, newspaper clippings, versions of his famous glove, and more. Promising that "she won't tell," she was killed by Freddy in front of a very young Kathryn, "for snooping in daddy's special work." Freddy worked at the local power plant, where he had killed the 20 missing neighborhood children in the 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. Because the search warrant was not signed correctly, all evidence was considered inadmissible and Krueger was released in 1968. After Freddy's trial, Amanda Krueger hanged herself in the tower where she was raped. Later that same night, the neighborhood parents of the children Freddy had killed took the law into their own hands, finding Krueger in his boiler room and burning him to death. Just moments before he died, Freddy was approached by three Dream Demons. These demons search the land of the living to find the most evil soul, and in turn, give that person the power to turn dreams into reality. Freddy accepted their offer to "be forever." Freddy's remains were taken to Penny Brothers Auto Salvage and locked in the trunk of an old red Cadillac. Presumably to help erase Krueger's existence, the Thompson family moved into the house on 1428 Elm Street. Adopted by the Burroughs family, young Kathryn was taken away from Springwood and her records were sealed.

Film series events

Thirteen years later, Krueger was shown to become something of a local urban legend. The Elm Street parents remained tight-lipped about the events of the decade before, and all of their children were now teenagers. In the closing months of 1981, the children of Springwood (specifically those teens whose parents had formed the mob that killed Krueger) began systematically dying again — this time in peculiar ways, as they slept. The parents were shown to often ignore and/or deny the pleas of their terrified kids, who regaled tales of a mysterious burned man named Fred, who was terrorizing them in their dreams.

Krueger met three notable adversaries in the period before Freddy's Dead:

* Nancy Thompson, the daughter of the family that moved into his old house. Nancy was the first of the Elm Street children to learn about Krueger's past and the first to vanquish him. She returned in the third, only to be killed by Freddy, who had taken the physical form of her father as a disguise.

* Kristen Parker, a girl with the ability to bring people into her dreams.

* Alice Johnson (who became the Dream Master), gained Kristen's power and the dream powers of her friends. Out of all these girls, Alice is the only one (supposedly) who has remained alive. After removing the souls Krueger gained over the years he was left powerless. A year later, Alice became pregnant and Krueger started using the dreams of her unborn child to kill again. Alice vanquished him with the help of Krueger's mother, Amanda. After Krueger was contained, Alice supposedly moved away before he was released and caused the events of Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare.

Freddy's Death

After a decade of systematically slaughtering all of the children of Springwood in their dreams, the town was shown to have now been under Freddy’s influence. By absorbing his victim’s souls, 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 long lost daughter, Kathryn.

Krueger used what was left of his supernatural resources to track down his daughter, who was now an adult named Maggie Burroughs and was working as a counselor to troubled teens in another city. Since her mother's death, Maggie was raised by adoptive parents and had suppressed the horrible memories of her early childhood. After catching up with Maggie, Freddy attempted to sway her to help him do his bidding. She proved, though, that a thirst for murder was not hereditary and instead schemed with Doc, her coworker (and dream psychiatrist), to help destroy Krueger once and for all. After pulling him out of her dream, and into reality, Maggie shoved a pipe bomb into Krueger's chest, killing him and releasing the dream demons that had given him his power.

Freddy Krueger's vs Jason Voorhees

In the aftermath of Maggie sending Krueger back to hell, Springwood sought to revitalize itself. Freddy returned briefly, killing at least a few people (as seen in Freddy vs Jason). 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. As a result, Springwood returned from obscurity and subsequently repopulated with no ill effects.

Meanwhile, Krueger was unable to escape the boundaries of hell, thanks to the complete ignorance of his existence to the people of Springwood. 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 from hell. 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 guise of Voorhees' mother, Pamela, Freddy manipulated Jason into rising up from the dead once more and to go to Elm Street to kill the teenagers in order to fool the residents of Springwood into thinking that he (Krueger) was back.

Jason committed a few murders, which (as planned) were then blamed on Krueger. As a result, Krueger began to get his equilibrium back. A small group of youths and a sheriff's deputy discovered that it was not Krueger who had committed the murders, but it was already too late. Enough fear fell over Springwood to make Krueger strong enough to haunt the town again. While this took place, Freddy encountered Lori, the virgin daughter of one of his past victims and began invading her dreams the most. The problem, which Krueger had not counted on, was that Jason would not stop killing. He became irate when Jason continued to slaughter "his kids." Thus, a bloody fight ensued between the two murderous icons that raged between the dream world to the waking world at Jason's old haunt, Camp Crystal Lake. One of the youths, Lori, entered the dream realm to lure Freddy into the real world, only to learn he killed her mother and was almost killed by him. The finality of this fight was deliberately left ambiguous by the writers of Freddy vs Jason. It ended with Jason walking out of the waters holding Krueger's decapitated head, which winked to the audience before the credits rolled, followed by Freddy's laughter heard after the screen fades to black, seemingly indicating that his reign of terror was not over.

Powers and abilities

As long as his victim was dreaming, Krueger could inhabit and control their dreams, twisting them to his own ends. Any physical harm done to a person in this dream world would carry over into the real world, 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 was burned. His powers increased as more and more kids believed he existed. 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 and Freddy vs Jason) or his corpse (as shown in the third). If one of his victims wakes up while he's touching them in the dream world, Freddy comes into the real world as well, where he is still superhumanly strong and durable, but can be wounded. This was used for extensive fight scenes in 'Freddy's dead' and 'Freddy vs Jason'.

In a person's own dream, Krueger could also use their deepest fears and personality against them, which became a trademark in the films. A few victims managed to use their own imagination to consciously manipulate their dreams against him (a technique known as lucid dreaming), but this had little effect on Krueger, who was completely in control of their dreams already. These kids were known as "dream warriors". 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.

Alternate plot lines

The summary above corresponds to what New Line Cinema considers the canonical account, based on the films. 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. And a Nightmare prequel is rumored which might offer a new view of the storyline.

Another portion of the tale says that Krueger had an illegitimate child named Al (he calls him "Alfredrick"). Al was adopted and always teased his 'brother' that he was Krueger's child, though Krueger revealed himself to be Al's father. In this story, Krueger was "defeated" when Al sacrificed himself and tackled him into a furnace. It is unclear if Al was really Freddy’s son or if Freddy was just manipulating him into killing for him.

In the Nightmares On Elm Street comic series by (defunct) Innovation Comics, Krueger attempts to escape Springwood (much like in Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare) by using Jacob Johnson's psychic powers. This story is meant to bridge the gap between A Nightmare on Elm Street 5 and Freddy’s Dead.

Freddy's Nightmares, a syndicated TV show, added further inconsistencies. The pilot episode, No More Mr. Nice Guy directed by Tobe Hooper, presented a tame interpretation of Krueger’s “death”, and, due to the show’s budget, many key actors/characters couldn’t be used. The origin sequence was presented quite differently in the films. Most episodes do not interfere with the established timeline [3], though a few episodes do present dates that conflict with the film series' timeline of events. A compilation of the pilot episode and the episode "Killer Instinct" was released as a direct-to-video feature called The Nightmare Begins Again in England in 1991 by the now-defunct Braveworld LTD. label.

Inspiration

Craven's inspiration for Krueger included a series of stories in the LA Times about a series of mysterious deaths -- all the victims had reported recurring nightmares beforehand, and died in their sleep--, a homeless man who had frightened him as a youth, and a bully at his school. Also, the 70s hit "Dream Weaver" by Gary Wright sealed the story for Craven, giving him not only an artistic setting to "jump off" from, but the signature synthesizer sound from the Elm Street soundtrack which can be heard at the beginning of Gary Wright's "Dream Weaver."

Memorabilia

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

A private collector from New Zealand has established an online collection of Nightmare on Elm Street and Freddy Krueger memorabilia. This collection spans more than 20 years, and is one of the largest on the internet to date.

New Line vs Wes Craven

As the Nightmare on Elm Street series progressed, director Wes 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 more of a sardonic, wisecracking and flamboyant anti-hero of the 1980s horror genre. On two occasions, Craven was drawn back to his creation in order to try and "rectify" the former producers' alterations of his creation.

Initially, Craven did not intend any sequels and wanted the first film to be a stand-alone movie. When the original Nightmare became a mega hit, however, New Line insisted on following it up — in spite of both Craven, and original Nightmare heroine Heather Langenkamp ("Nancy") 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. Once the buzz died down, however, spectators largely panned the film for its inconsistent continuation from the premise of the first film, and its otherwise weak story.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors was, in essence, the true sequel to the original and, thanks to Craven's scriptwriting, gave the series a new lease on life. 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 the Craven-directed movie Scream a character would say that "the first movie was great but the rest sucked" — a jab at the other films.

As the series progressed, Craven finally had the opportunity to revisit his creation a second time by creating Wes Craven's New Nightmare, a non-canon spinoff. This film departs from the other entries by taking place in the real world and removing Freddy's previous comedic undertones. It, however, became the least profitable of the series. Once again, Craven and New Line parted ways. It is stated at the Internet Movie Database that Craven watched all of the previous movies before he filmed New Nightmare, and that he could not understand the plot line at all.

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