In Honor of Halloween

Because it is Halloween, I felt it necessary to post one entry to acknowledge it. Just one. And I’m probably going to have nightmares after this, just for irony’s sake.

The story I’m talking about is one that started off scary, and then gradually became the joke of horror movies, being far funnier than they are scary. Admittedly the movies are not scary at all (unless you are under the age of 11 or have a very weak stomach).  But the story itself is horrifying, and still manages to terrify me simply because of the concept.

The story I’m talking about is the classic story of Freddie Krueger, the nightmare of Elm Street.

Before you lose all interest, allow me to explain why this is scary.

A Nightmare on Elm Street manages to focus on the most basic fears of people. One is the loss of identity. Another is the loss of control. And the third is a child or innocent coming into harm’s way.

Allow me to explain further. Freddie Krueger is the son of a nun who became trapped in a mental asylum overnight and was raped repeatedly by the inmates. It is for this reason that he is known as “the bastard son of one hundred maniacs.” If the subject of rape was disturbing enough, then the product of those rapes definitely is. It left Freddie not knowing his true parentage. Nobody was able to determine who his father really was, which left him with no true sense of identity apart from being a bastard child and the product of rape. He was born without an identity, and had to carry that burden with him the rest of his life.

Freddie attacks people when they are asleep. Disregard how he got the power to enter people’s dreams, because that’s not what matters here. The part of this power that creates fear is that these people are attacked at their most vulnerable moments. They are in a dream that they have absolutely no control over. Not only are they unable to fight back, but they are also alone in their own minds and are essentially destroyed from the inside out in a way that they have no control over. They have lost all control, and are destroyed in their weakest moments.

Freddie typically preys on children, specifically the children of the people who killed him (so you’re safe. Congratulations!) The fear of children being hurt is an easy enough fear to comprehend: people feel obligated to protect those who are innocent and helpless, and don’t like seeing them come into harm’s way. That’s why Slenderman and the Toothfairy from that horror movie are so freaky. Like Freddie, they find joy in destroying young and innocent lives.

 These fears are the core of the story, and they are what make it scary without the ridiculous special effects and weird methods of deaths. They target the most common fears of people and illustrate them. That is why they are still very relevant and still very scary.