The evolution of Freddy Krueger in horror movies.
The character of Freddy Krueger was created by Wes Craven in A Nightmare in the Deep of Night (A Nightmare on Elm Street, 1984), based on several elements he picked up in his life: juvenile horrors, notions of colorimetry – where for example the most disturbing colors for the human eye are green and red, hence his costume – and true stories about kids with sleep disorders. After the first film, the character of the serial killer burned and killed by the parents of the victims, became one of the most recognized in the history of the seventh art.
One of the most terrifying character and his cinematic history.
With his hat, his worn-out clothes, his scars and burns and above all: his glove with blades, Freddy Krueger became the nightmare of a whole generation. From being a killer who took revenge on a generation that brought him to the end of his own life, killing their children, he ended up becoming a sort of magical avatar and a connection to hell.
Freddy Krueger
Movies
The original film spawned seven sequels and one remake: A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985), directed by Jack Sholder; A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987), directed by Chuck Russel; A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988), directed by Renny Harlin; A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989), directed by Stephen Hopkins; Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991), directed by Rachel Talalay; Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994), directed by Wes Craven; Freddy vs. Jason (2003), directed by Ronny Yu and the remake A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010), directed by Samuel Bayer.
From its conception, it evolved from horror to comedy, in tune with what was happening with the monsters of the eighties. As those aspects surfaced, the distinctive elements were also configured: murdering teenagers in their dreams in the most imaginative way possible, a sort of slasher evolution. This led him to a confrontation with another of the most famous killers, Jason Voorhees. From the fourth film we learn more about his origin, which is dark before being killed: a nun named Maria Helena (Amanda Krueger) was mistakenly locked up in the psychiatric hospital “Westin Hills”, where she was raped and tortured by all his vile patients. She was found barely alive and pregnant, from which Frederick Charles Krueger was born.
Krueger had a daughter named Kathryn, who helps him escape from the original town and expand his powers. When he was killed by the parents in anger, he made a pact with “The Dream Demons” to be their avatar and murder in the real world and send souls to hell. This leads him to be part of a great experiment by the original director Wes Craven: a sort of meta-movie where Nightmares is a saga released in theaters and Krueger is the actor Robert Englund. There, the concept of the character as The Entity, a dark being, is made even more explicit. Wes Craven’s New Nightmare is an exercise in cinema ahead of its time, which the director would repeat with Scream (1996).