A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET is a timeless classic. It's Wes Craven's magnum opus. SCREAM 1996 is a close second. Whereas SCREAM is a slasher film that focuses on meta-commentary of the horror genre, ELM STREET's deeper meanings revolve around faith.
Yup. I said it. ELM STREET is a religious movie. Or should I say anti-religious movie?
via GIPHY
We must discuss Craven's strict Baptist upbringing to understand ELM STREET's religious themes. His zealot mother applied her Christian teachings to her son at every chance. Of course, Craven rebelled during his youth and also while at college. He provoked the powers that be his whole life. We can see this from his wild horror films during his early days as a director.
The two films that put Craven on the map in Hollywood were THE HILLS HAVE EYES and THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT. But it wasn't until a small, desperate studio called NEW LINE CINEMA took a chance on Craven's original screenplay that he won the chance to express his true self: his longtime stance against religion.
Enter the character of one Fred Kruger.
Freddy is, in my opinion, the best human villain in all of horror cinema. Craven didn't create Freddy with a sympathetic background to make Freddy more three-dimensional to the audience. Nope. Craven just made Freddy as vicious and horrific as he could, and let the characters in the story deal with that. Too bad most films these days don't do the same. Movies now want to make a villain that's only a villain because of some societal nurture. That's boring and cliche at this point and many times implies left-wing political messages.
So, what makes Freddy so special as a villain. There's no easy way to say it, so I'm just going to say it: Freddy Kruger is symbolic of Jesus Christ.
Freddy is a Jesus Demon. In each ELM STREET film that Craven was involved with, Freddy is considered a God-like entity with religious subtext. However, ELM STREET part 2 trades the religious theme for queer subtext. Although Craven wasn't involved in Part 4's THE DREAM MASTER it even incorporates the church setting in its last 5 minutes.
For example, let's start with Craven's last dance with Freddy in 1994's NEW NIGHTMARE. Although it was written by Craven, it lacked the authentic pizzazz of the original and instead was a meta-take and overall redo of the first entry. While I applaud its metafiction element that had never been seen before and gave birth to SCREAM just two years later, NEW NIGHTMARE is, unfortunately, redundant and doesn't progress the series or say anything new about the Freddy character.
However, Freddy does, in NEW NIGHTMARE return to his Godly, villainous state. He's back to his old self. Just quick lore to establish his presence. No sympathy. Freddy's just pure evil again. He's a demon once more and we see this in his hellscape finale where Nancy/Heather must venture to rescue her son.
There's a highway scene during the third act that shows Freddy's overwhelming and Godly power. With subpar CGI, the clouds part, and Freddy appears in the sky. He hangs Dylan over a busy highway while Heather watches to see if Freddy will be merciful of her son's life, which he is. Freddy, just like the original, has complete power over his victims. He uses his God-complex to manipulate the characters. Some live and some die.
Counting backward, ELM STREET 3: THE DREAM WARRIOR also uses the religious slant I'm referring to about the Freddy series.
Craven, once again involved, but as a co-writer this time applies the nun aspect and her sexual assault by the dozens of freaks and psychos in the nuthouse. From this, Freddy is birthed and now provides the audience with a rhyme and reason for his actions.
I don't like explanations in films that had previously used subtext and symbolism to send a message. But I guess the more a series goes on, the more the audience demands answers. And so we have Freddy's origin. He's only a serial killer because his nun mother was raped by mental asylum patients. That's the nurture message I was referring to earlier.
Freddy is disposed of by striking his bones with holy water, causing him to burst light from his person and to physically spiral out of control until he explodes. Granted, that's not as clever as ELM STREET's first movie that used religious undertones to express Craven's opinion, but it'll do. I guess. The Christian subtext from the first installment has become actual context in the third.
via GIPHY
Craven's original is a masterpiece in filmmaking. It truly is. It deserves its spot as a runner for the best horror film of all time. No question, in my opinion.
Just like Darth Vader's virgin birth and corrupted Christ figure, Freddy Kruger does the same.
Freddy was a psycho serial killer. He was an evil man. But for some reason, he was allowed to be resurrected and hunt down the kids of the parents who murdered him.
That's so outlandish that it has to mean something more than what it provides. Surely, Craven, the talented director who grew up in a super strict religious household, wouldn't simply craft a story with no depth such as that.
Original Sin, like the eternal Adam and Eve story, is used here. But rather than an apple, Craven uses the murder of a serial killer by the parents. The parents of the murdered children use vigilante justice. You would think that because the courts messed up and allowed a killer like Freddy to once again roam the streets of Springwood the parents taking the law into their own hands isn't that wrong. But the story implies it is.
Lynch mob tactics are wrong, even when the law everyone depends on to protect them and their children fail. Perhaps the parents were wrong for taking the law into their own hands. But a sadistic person like Freddy was free and open to doing his crazy crimes again.
Freddy's death by the parents is the reason he was able to rise from the dead like Christ did. Whereas Christ is a symbol of peace and love, Freddy's resurrection allowed him to torment and kill, once again, the kids of the parents. Freddy's reign of terror is unstoppable. Whether he's alive or dead, Freddy is coming.
What message does that send?
A horrible one, indeed.
The creation of Freddy Kruger is a mock symbolism to combat Craven's strict religious upbringing. Jesus rose from the grave to give the sinners of the world faith and penance. Freddy's death stained the parents who murdered him. His death became their original sin. And as a result, their children must endure the sins of the fathers. Freddy was resurrected to do in death the same he did in life for no reason other than Craven rebelling against his Baptist childhood. Because his childhood, in his opinion, was ruined by religion, ELM STREET shows how that same dogma destroys other's lives.
To Craven, ELM STREET is how religion treats its members. They are always held guilty, and therefore tortured and killed without any hope.
