The Honeycut: Finding Strength in Nightmares

This year on the Midnight Terrors Podcast, my co-host, Kevin, and I have covered three “Nightmare on Elm Street” movies. That’s easily more than any other franchise we’ve discussed this year, and possibly ever.

I think we all know the claw-gloved, burned-faced villain Freddy Krueger, played by Robert Englund. He is a horror movie icon and even slashed his way into the mainstream in the 1980s, during the height of the franchise’s popularity.

In fact, growing up around that time, Freddy Krueger was like an urban legend at school, right up there with Bloody Mary and whatever else we’d come up with to scare each other.

While Freddy Krueger is a frightening figure, something interesting happened the more I dug into these movies this year. I found that this film franchise has had an enormously positive impact on its fans. This week, I want to explore what it is about these movies that draws people in so hard.

My good friend and fellow horror author, Marc Anthony Brownlee, is a big fan of the “Nightmare on Elm Street” films. They have inspired his writing, and he and a group of friends even created a documentary on the fandom entitled “FredHeads.” It’s free to watch on Tubi and I’d highly recommend it.

Watching that documentary and hearing from the fans was eye-opening because of the effect the “Nightmare” movies have had on people. Many of those who spoke about the series told stories of how the films gave them strength in hard times, helped them make friends, and ultimately led them to find belonging.

Which goes back to my initial question: why? Many would say the original “Halloween” is the greatest slasher movie. What about “Friday the 13th”? There are certainly enough of those movies where one is bound to pull someone in.

Could it simply be that Freddy Krueger is a well-written villain with a quirky personality? It could be. He gives the protagonists a lot to work with.

Which leads to my next point: When digging more into these movies and their fandom, I found that a lot of people seemed to gravitate more toward the Elm Street kids than Freddy himself. At a time when the teenage characters in slasher films were paper-thin cannon fodder, the “Nightmare” films gave audiences something more.

In the first film, we follow Nancy Thompson as she builds up the courage to put a stop to Freddy. In the second one, Jesse Walsh defeats Freddy by coming into his own. And in the iconic “Dream Warriors,” we see Nancy and a group of troubled youths discover their dream powers within themselves and team up to take down the Springwood Slasher.

Much like these characters, it seems that fans of the franchise find that the things that make them different can also be the things that give them strength.

So, do people love these films because the characters are well-written and have depth? That’s certainly part of it. But I believe there’s a lot more to it. I think of what impacts me the way “Nightmare” impacts others.

We all have our own “Nightmare on Elm Street.” Something that inspires us or has helped us make friends and find a sense of belonging. For me, it’s metal music. How do people take something so positive away from a slasher movie? Probably the same way I take that stuff away from a guy screaming over loud banging.

Others may find all this through video games or books or whatever they’re into. No one can really explain it, just as I can’t give a definitive answer to my initial question. We can identify pieces of what makes art meaningful, but the why is something personal to each of us.

Regardless of what your “Nightmare” is, embrace it, keep it close, and don’t let the fire go out.