PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Slasher films have a foundation of tropes and archetypes that make it one of the most popular and successful subgenres of horror. But the true ground level that holds up the heart of the story is the relationship between the killer and the “final girl.” Their hearts beat as one, as the final act winds down in a cat-and-mouse game of survival that resembles a dance and invests the audience. That dance is clearly the backbone of A Nightmare on Elm Street.
Every antagonist needs a strong survivor to challenge them and combat their seemingly unstoppable reign of terror. Every survivor needs a formidable monster to overcome as they discover their inner strength and dig deep to become a more complete version of themselves. Today we examine one of the strongest killer-final girl relationships, in A Nightmare on Elm Street.
In Wes Craven’s 1984 classic, we see the burned bad-boy Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund – The Funhouse Massacre (2015), going round for round with Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp – Truth or Dare (2017). Nancy becomes the sleuth for the Elm Street kids and uncovers the mystery of why Freddy is out for revenge on their parents. Freddy uses her as a conduit to unearth him, and this creates a strong (and sometimes awkwardly sexualized) relationship. Nancy has to thwart him by overcoming her own fear and denying his existence, leaving him to vanish at her back. But A Nightmare on Elm Street had a lot more dreams left to haunt.
Nancy returns in part three, Dream Warriors (read our retro review here). Having learned a lot from her battles with Freddy, she now uses her trauma and experience to return to Elm Street to educate and coach the kids on how to defeat the Springwood Slasher. Near the end of this movie, Freddy poses as Nancy’s father, and actually kills her. She dies in his arms by the stabbing of his glove, signifying one of the only times we see a final girl die on screen.
But as horror headed into a new direction in the 90s, the genre became self-aware, smart, and referential. Wes Craven’s New Nightmare, saw the writer/director pull Freddy out of the dream world and reference the past films as being movies. Now Heather and Robert play themselves, and Heather’s trauma from playing Nancy starts to have an effect on her son, Dylan (Miko Hughes – Pet Sematary (1989).
Real life starts to mirror the movies, and new mom Heather gets sucked back into Freddy’s world one more time, with the stakes of protecting her child. With Freddy’s extended tongue wrapped around Nancy, the child cuts his mother loose, severing their bond forever as they leave Freddy to burn in flames, just as he first did to begin the series of nightmares.
Thus, the original child of Elm Street was able to protect her own offspring and ended a lifetime of torment from her dream demon. But a bond like that is never truly broken.
