FREDDY KRUEGER Freddy Krueger, a fictional character to whom is a serial killer born in February 1942, he was created by Wes Craven and depicted by Robert Englund up until Jackie Earle Hayley took his place in the 2010 remake. Wizard magazine rated him 14th greatest villain, Sky 2 rated him 8th greatest villain and the Scream Awards rated the character the best villain. Freddy Krueger is the villain of Nightmare on Elm street slasher movie series; the success has empowered the storyline to become an American horror franchise; including the original series, the remake, a crossover film, novels and so forth – collecting around £290 million pounds internationally in box office.
Focusing on the storyline of Freddy, he was bought up feeling nothing but hatred with having been conceived through Amanda Krueger, his mother; being raped hundreds of times in the Westin Hills Psychiatric Institute, making him “the son of 100 maniacs”, to which she put him into a care home. Subsequently, he was transferred from one foster home to another during his upbringing, hence his torment. His masochism began whilst a young child, killing small animals, and self-harming, when he reached adulthood, due to his severe abuse from his stepfather. However, after years of suffering such abuse, he committed his first murder; serving avenge on his stepfather with a razor.
Jealousy is Freddy’s prominent cause for being such a sadistic killer; when he returned to his hometown of Springwood, he saw nothing but happy families, something that he wasn’t familiar with; he longed for it. He did manage to get a job, maintaining boilers, and settle down with a wife; later having a kid of his own. But he still wasn’t content; he was still working towards his own revenge for his awful upbringing. Consequently, he went on a killing spree; he kidnapped and murdered 23 children – resulting in an alias as ‘the Springfield Slasher’.
After years of his unknown, malicious acts, his wife - who came across his signature weapon, bladed glove, and newspaper articles of the missing children - later caught him. This resulted in her death too - which he done in front of his daughter - having done so he was arrested and charged for all the brutal acts he had committed, and his daughter placed in an orphanage. Only problem was, the officers made a mistake with reading Freddy his rights, so he was set free.
Furious parents took matters into their own hands, trailing their own revenge on Freddy; they followed Krueger to the boiler room and ignited it with gasoline. Content parents thought they served justice once and for all, which was the case being as he wasn’t alive to threaten the lives of innocent children anymore. However, what they didn’t know was that Freddy’s corruptive soul was put to use; dreaming demons imprisoned in hell. After the night of his death, he took the revenge out on the parents via stalking their kids in their dreams; what ever occurs in the dreams Krueger made possible to make it true in reality – if he killed a child in their sleep, they’d be dead in real life.
In terms of Freddy’s character type, he’s a psychotic, serial killer due to his neglectful childhood trauma, which has drove him insane. He also represents that of others subconscious fears. His phallic and iconic weapon is his bladed leather glove. He’s commonly identified by his burned, disfigure face, red and dark green striped sweater, brown fedora and trademark metal-clawed brown leather glove on his right hand. He enjoys being hurt and inflicting pain on others because that’s all he has ever known since he was born.
I personally believe that the first ever murder he committed on a human - which was when he killed his stepfather with a razor – was a factor to his iconic phallic weapon he uses on the rest of his victims, razor-sharp blades in conjunction with a leather glove. His clothing is very dark in coloration: brown, emerald green and red, to which all suggests death, sheer jealousy, possessiveness and horror.