How Did Freddy Krueger Get His Powers

No remainder for the wicked... or the innocent.

Ane, ii; Freddy'south coming for you.
Three, four; better lock your door.
Five, six; grab your crucifix.
Seven, eight; gonna stay up late.
9, ten; never slumber again.

— The song of the series

The Nightmare on Elm Street film franchise centers around Slasher Pic icon Freddy Krueger (played by Robert Englund in every film except the 2010 reboot) and his exploits in killing the teenagers of Springwood in their dreams. The franchise features these films:

Installment overview:

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) — Directed and written past Wes Chicken. In the original picture, Heather Langenkamp plays Nancy Thompson, an boilerplate teenage daughter who has nightmares for several successive nights. Her friends (including Johnny Depp in his start acting role e'er) end up murdered, 1 by i, in their slumber — by the same man Nancy sees in her nightmares: a badly-burnt human who wears a red-and-greenish striped sweater, wields a knife-fingered glove, and calls himself Freddy Krueger. Nancy confronts her mother, who tells her that Krueger, a child murderer ^note In the original script Freddy was explicitly stated to be a kid molester; that idea was scrapped due to a rash of allegations of sexual abuse in preschools during the 80s and early 90s. This side of Freddy was still hinted at in several of the original movies, but it was just made catechism in the 2010 reboot. known as "The Springwood Slasher", died as the result of a vigilante murder by the parents of his victims afterward a botched police investigation let Freddy go free. Freddy wants revenge against his killers, then he decides to kill the children of those parents in their dreams, where their parents can't protect them. Tin can Nancy stop Freddy once and for all? Well...since several sequels followed this one, 1 can simply assume...
A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985) — V years afterward the original motion-picture show, Freddy — who wants to impale exterior of the Dream Globe — plans to intermission into reality; to circumvent the Brought Down to Normal effect, he plans to possess Jesse Walsh, the teenage son of the latest family to move into 1428 Elm Street. Franchise fans consider this either the all-time or the worst of the series, due in office to the film's increased emphasis on Darker and Edgier, Body Horror and the excessive Homoerotic Subtext. Considering none of the following sequels make reference to the events of this picture, it would take several years before fans received confirmation that this movie is office of the official franchise canon.
A Nightmare on Elm Street three: Dream Warriors (1987) — Wes Craven returns to the franchise (though only equally writer) in this film, set a yr afterwards the last. Freddy begins to kill off kids in their dreams again, with all the unusual deaths — which occur primarily on Elm Street — deemed suicides by the stumped authorities. The number of Elm Street teenagers eventually dwindles down to a small-scale handful that the authorities whisk off to Westin Hills Sanitarium, where Nancy Thompson — at present a recently graduated psychologist — works. Together with the skeptical Doctor Neil Gordon, Nancy sets out to aid Elm Street'due south final teenagers, dubbed the "Dream Warriors" for their ability to manifest special powers during their dreams, defeat Freddy once and for all. Fans unremarkably regard this pic as good, equally this pic started the trend of creative (and ironic) deaths and introduced Freddy's now-trademark dark sense of humor (including his penchant for Bond One Liners).
A Nightmare on Elm Street four: The Dream Chief (1988) — After appearing to kill Freddy off for good, the survivors of the terminal film return to their normal lives, but shortly enough, the nightmares — and Freddy — return. Freddy manages to impale off the last Elm Street teenagers (and avenge his decease), then sets his sights on the residual of Springwood's children. Only one person who stands between Freddy and hundreds of new potential victims: Alice Johnson, a shy girl given special dream powers by Kristen Parker (the last Elm Street teenager) just before Freddy kills her. Flashier and more than "MTV-esque" than the preceding films, The Dream Principal took what Dream Warriors introduced and rolled with information technology; some fans think it rolled a fleck likewise far, as this picture marks the point where Freddy became the wisecracking, death-dealing jester fans nigh oft remember him as.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989)— After his defeat in the previous film, Freddy finds a way to return to life: through the dreams of Alice'south unborn baby son, Jacob. The dream demon intends to mold Jacob into the perfect trivial host body (or murder auto; the film leaves Freddy's exact plans for Jacob vague), and to do so, he kills off Alice's friends and feeds their souls to the developing parcel of joy. This motion-picture show tried to combine the darkness of the early films with Freddy's new wisecracker persona, with mixed results in the stance of the fans.
Freddy'south Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991) — A Series Fauxnale vaguely set "ten years from at present" (which is supposed to be 2001) and originally was released in 3D, with the terminal act being the only 3D filmed role. The Final Nightmare has Freddy, who has at present killed off damn near every non-developed in Springwood, concoct a complicated scheme to escape Springwood's borders and begin his reign of terror elsewhere. Since Freddy can simply hitch a ride in the psyche of his own flesh and claret, Freddy lures his long-lost daughter to Springwood as office of the plan to escape the dying town. The Concluding Nightmare explores Freddy's own dark background while ratcheting the campiness of the last two entries upward to 11. Most of the fans usually regard this entry as mediocre due to the farcical treatment of Freddy'due south Grand Finale.
Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994) — As you lot tin tell, Wes Craven returned to the franchise — this time, as writer and director for this meta film. New Nightmare sets itself in our reality, where we call up of Freddy as nothing more than a fictional horror movie icon. Afterward Craven starts to develop ideas for a new installment in the terminated franchise, an ancient evil — imprisoned in the film serial since the first and released by Freddy's decease in the sixth — decides information technology doesn't similar the idea of getting trapped once more; one time it sets out to stop the production, it begins to target Heather Langenkamp (who the entity views as "Nancy", the only one who tin can stop it) and her young son. The arguable forerunner to Scream (1996) (likewise written and directed past Craven), New Nightmare received a degree of praise for its report of the nature of reality.
Freddy vs. Jason (2003) — Stuck in Development Hell for years, the crossover betwixt Freddy and boyfriend horror fable Jason Voorhees finally reached the silver screen in 2003. Trapped in Hell since his last defeat (The Final Nightmare) and unable to return due to Springwood's censorship of his proper noun and exploits, Freddy uses what little remains of his power to assume the guise of Pamela Voorhees and resurrect her son, Jason. Freddy sends Jason to Springwood to kill the "naughty children" there, and as the bodies pile up, panic spreads amidst Springwood's populace and fuels Freddy, who soon gains plenty strength to starting time his reign of terror all over. When Jason refuses to stop killing, still, Freddy gets rather upset...
A Nightmare on Elm Street (the 2010 reboot) — Jackie Earle Haley and Rooney Mara star as Freddy and Nancy in this remake of the original motion picture. It generally follows the story of the starting time film, though non without some alterations (including an attempt to make Freddy expect like an innocent victim of a town of overzealous parents, by and large to illustrate merely how monstrous he is).

Boosted merchandise:

Comic Books

Freddy Krueger'south A Nightmare on Elm Street (1989) — Black and white comic book released past Marvel. Contains the storyline Dreamstalker, thats only loosely connected to movie serial. Cancelled after two issues.
Nightmares on Elm Street (1991) — Six issue series by Innovation Publishing. Continues the story of Dream Warriors and Dream Child.
Freddy'due south Expressionless: The Final Nightmare (1991) — An adaptation of Freddy'due south Dead: The Final Nightmare. Third issue was published also in three-D format.
A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Beginning (1992) — Unfinished sequel of Freddy's Expressionless: The Terminal Nightmare. Only two issues published.
A Nightmare on Elm Street Special (2005) — Published past Avatar Press, set in the aforementioned timeline as Freddy vs. Jason.
- A Nightmare on Elm Street: Paranoid (2005) — Three issues continuation of Special.
- A Nightmare on Elm Street: Fearbook (2005) — Stand up-alone issue continuation of Paranoid.
A Nightmare on Elm Street (2006) — Eight issues serial released by Wild Tempest. Contains the storylines Freddy's War, Demon of Slumber and Double Shift.
New Line Cinema's Tales Of Horror (2007) — Features two stories, The Texas Chainsaw Salesman and Copycat about a series killer who is trying to pose as Freddy Krueger.
Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash (2008) — Half-dozen problems series that serves as a sequel to Freddy vs. Jason and crossover with Evil Dead.
- Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash: The Nightmare Warriors (2009) — Six issues sequel to Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash

Movie

Never Sleep Once more: The Elm Street Legacy (2010) — The definitive documentary documenting the production of the entire serial. Four hours long, it features many of the participants of the original films. Heather Langenkamp narrates.
I Am Nancy (2011) — Heather Langenkamp took Wes Craven's New Nightmare to the next logical step and made a comedic documentary well-nigh herself and Nancy.

Literature

The Nightmares on Elm Street: Freddy Krueger'southward Vii Sweetest Dreams (1991)
Freddy Krueger's Tales of Terror
- Freddy Krueger'due south Tales of Terror: Bullheaded Date (1995)
- Freddy Krueger's Tales of Terror: Fatal Games (1995)
- Freddy Krueger's Tales of Terror: Virtual Terror (1995)
- Freddy Krueger'due south Tales of Terror: Twice Burned (1995)
- Freddy Krueger'south Tales of Terror: Aid Wanted (1995)
- Freddy Krueger's Tales of Terror: Deadly Disguise (1995)
Blackness Flame
- A Nightmare on Elm Street: Suffer the Children (2005)
- A Nightmare on Elm Street: Dreamspawn (2005)
- A Nightmare on Elm Street: Protege (2005)
- A Nightmare on Elm Street: Perhaps to Dream (2006)
- A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Dealers (2006)

Alive-Activeness Television

Freddy's Nightmares — A weekly horror serial with Freddy as the host.

Pinball

Freddy: A Nightmare on Elm Street — A pinball machine made by Gottlieb in 1994. The thespian must duel Freddy and survive each night for a week, culminating in finishing Freddy once and for all. Meanwhile, the player can find souls of people Freddy has killed and liberate them from him by collecting them.

Tabletop Games

A Nightmare On Elm Street: The Game (1987)
A Nightmare On Elm Street: The Freddy Game (1989)
Freddy vs. Jason Woods of Fear Game (2010)

Video Games

A Nightmare on Elm Street (NES) — A platformer adult by Rare and published past LJN Toys.
A Nightmare on Elm Street (PC) — A Topdown View activity game for computers.
Mortal Kombat 9 — Otherwise unrelated to the franchise, Freddy (Every bit depicted past Jackie Earl Haley) is a guest downloadable fighter, having two clawed gloves instead of one.
Dead by Daylight — Similar Mortal Kombat 9, Expressionless by Daylight as well included Jackie Earl Haley's Freddy as a Invitee Killer along with Kyle Gallner'due south graphic symbol from the 2010 remake, Quentin Smith, as a new survivor and the Badham Preschool (also from the 2010 remake) as a new map.

A Nightmare On Elm Street is the Trope Namer for:

Never Sleep Again: Information technology's how Freddy kills his victims.

The Nightmare on Elm Street franchise in general contains examples of the following tropes:

Abandoned Hospital: A large portion of Westin Hills, until it gets renovated quondam before Freddy vs. Jason.
Absurdly Precipitous Blade: Specially in dreamscapes, Freddy's blades are as sharp as he wants them to be, cutting flesh and bone with impossible ease. In Freddy's Revenge, he slices directly through both a teenager's body and the door that was behind him.
Achilles' Heel: Freddy is an all-powerful Reality Warper... simply simply in dreams. In the existent world, he is as vulnerable to damage every bit whatsoever normal person, although he'southward still pretty resilient. The protagonists in the series use this to their reward several times. In the original movie, Freddy uses it correct back at Nancy, since her return to the real earth where she can defeat him turns out to still be a dream.
Action Girl: Most of the Final Girls become i.
Adults Are Useless: You lot'd think that by the 4th film, the adults and parents of Springwood would realize that something was amiss about all these deaths only instead remain oblivious at best, or downright hostile jerks at worst. Ronee Blakely, the actress who played Nancy'south mother, has said they "verge on being villains". It's not until Freddy vs. Jason that they finally have that Freddy is not just an urban legend. And even still, it took Freddy killing every child and teenager in town before they finally stopped conveying the Idiot Ball, even if information technology did result in leaving Springwood in an almost totalitarian state.
And I Must Scream: Freddy'due south victims are left in this state after he absorbs their souls.
Asshole Victim: Coach Schneider in Freddy'south Revenge, who'south implied to be a rapist. And this trope is rare in the Nightmare movies, except Freddy vs. Jason, which is function Friday the 13th, which is the exact opposite and follows this trope all the time. Even Freddy'due south foster begetter, Mr. Underwood, counts.
Bounder Bounder: Freddy isn't called "the bastard son of a 100 maniacs" for zippo. He was conceived when dozens of insane inmates in a mental asylum raped his mother Amanda, a nun who was working there. Freddy was a kid murderer in real life, and became a spectral nightmare killer after his death.
Bedlam Business firm: Westin Hills, originally.
Big Bad: Freddy Krueger.
Blade Below the Shoulder: Freddy Krueger's blade-fingered glove started out this mode, when he was yet alive and his glove was merely a homemade murder weapon. In dreams, it evolves into more of a built-in weapon, which alternately appears on his mitt whole when he sheds a disguise, or sends its blades springing out from his (or a puppet'southward, or a possessed boy's, etc) fingertips. In Wes Chicken's New Nightmare, a scene is filmed in which Freddy amputates his hand and replaces it with a razor-tipped robotic version, just this element doesn't seem to have carried over into the character'southward subsequent appearances. Run across also Wolverine Claws.
The Lath Game: 1 of the many, many pieces of trade these movies gave birth to.
Broad Strokes: Freddy's Revenge and how information technology relates to the rest of the series. Its events are seemingly ignored in productions that followed - but elements introduced in that, such as Freddy retaining possession as a power and the Springwood Slasher nickname, appeared in the residue of the franchise, andDream Warriors even follows the timeline set by it (Freddy'southward Revenge is five years afterwards the original,Dream Warriors is six). Scenes from it are also used in the montages featured inFreddy'south Dead andFreddy vs. Jason.
Body Horror: Very common in the series, both to Freddy himself (frequently for his own amusement) and his victims.
Bond One-Liner: Freddy Krueger, master of the bon mot.
Burn the Undead: Post-decease Freddy Krueger has been set on fire as a way to dispose of him more than one time. Whether he stays dead is another thing, but it's definitely karmic given that this is the manner he died in the first place.
Caffeine Failure: One of the later movies had a character actually eating coffee grinds in an attempt to stay awake and avoid Freddy. It did not piece of work, at all. Many characters through the franchise utilise a variety of stimulants to try and stay awake; they all fail eventually. Truth in Goggle box and key to Freddy's unique brand of horror: the human body tin can merely exist pushed so far before it must sleep, no matter what chemicals are dumped into it.
Character Development: In the cases of Freddy, Nancy, Kristen, Alice, and Alice's male parent.
Child by Rape: Freddy himself.
Clap Your Hands If Yous Believe: Inverted: the people of Springwood keep Freddy at bay by not thinking or speaking of him...well, at to the lowest degree non until Freddy VS Jason, anyhow...
Clothes Make the Legend: The blood-red and green striped sweater, the fedora, and the knife-glove that make upward Freddy's trademark attire (indeed, when Freddy wants to mess with a victim's mind, he'll usually appear every bit a seemingly innocent person who'due south nonetheless wearing his trademark colors). The pocketknife-glove was an invention of Freddy's during his time equally the Springwood Slasher.
Colour Dissimilarity: Freddy Krueger wears a reddish and green striped sweater as part of his signature outfit. Discussion Of God explained that this detail colour combination was called because Chicken read in an article that it's the one that the human center has the well-nigh difficulty processing, thus adding to Freddy'south unsettling advent.
Creepy Kid: Young Freddy is shown to have been pretty creepy himself in diverse flashbacks, and he loves to populate his nightmares with stake, creepy children who represent his former victims.
Creepy Children Singing: The girls singing the "I, two, Freddy'due south coming for you" song while skipping rope.
Crossover:
- Freddy vs. Jason, in which Freddy meets Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th.
- Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash, in which Ash from Evil Expressionless is added to the mix.
- Also, believe it or not, Freddy Vs DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince in "Nightmare on My Street." The duo recorded information technology for the film, with Robert Englund providing dialogue (no, Freddy doesn't sing... just he does rap). It was rejected from the soundtrack, simply they released information technology anyway, resulting in a lawsuit from New Line Cinema that forced them to destroy the master tapes of the vocal's music video. Or so anybody thought...
  Y'all turned off David Letterman - now you lot must dice!
- Freddy versus the cast of Mortal Kombat in Mortal Kombat 9. Which, if y'all have the PS3 version, means Freddy versus Kratos. Absurd vs. Awesome indeed.
- In the Fan Movie Freddy Vs Ghostbusters, Freddy is pitted confronting the Ghostbusters. The ghostbusters defeat Freddy, but Freddy wins in one of the alternating endings they shot, and does a Victory Dance.
Crusty Caretaker: Pre-death Freddy.
- Wes Craven appears as a crusty caretaker in Scream (1996), directly parodying Freddy.
- Robert Englund himself has done the same, as an Actor Allusion on Bones.
Dark Earth: Freddy's dream worlds oftentimes take the form of abandoned, decaying versions of everyday life.
Dead Unicorn Trope: In pop culture, Freddy is often referred to as "The guy with the long fingernails", despite the first picture clearly pointing out that they're not fingernails, they're knives attached to a glove. Very rarely practice other media notice that he only has them on one mitt either. Freddy's Revenge, Dream Warriors, and New Nightmare don't assist shoot down the misconception, since all three have scenes featuring Freddy sprouting blades directly from his fingers.
Death by Irony: A specialty of Freddy's.
Demon of Human Origin: Freddy Krueger's backstory involves being burnt by a lynch mob and, after dying, hit a bargain with three dream demons to return equally an undead nightmare-controlling monster, apparently so he could eventually kill the whole globe.
Diminishing Villain Threat: Freddy got less and less scary/menacing in the sequels, resorting to outright gimmicky and comical methods of doing in his victims in the later movies. (New Nightmare and Freddy vs. Jason are by and large regarded as exceptions.)
Distressed Dude: The Concluding Girl's swain tends to exist this.
Dream Intro: A regular occurrence. EVERY one of the films starts with the main character having a nightmare about Freddy earlier waking up in a Catapult Nightmare right when he'due south nigh to kill them (because otherwise, information technology would obviously exist a pretty brusque movie). The simply balmy exception is in the 3rd one, and that'south just considering the protagonist is awake for a few minutes before falling asleep. And in Freddy vs. Jason it'south considering the movie opens with Freddy himself recapping his origins.
Dream Land: This is particularly seen in the afterward films, where the children detect they tin can use hypnosis to enter the dream world together and give themselves superpowers.
Dream Weaver / Dream Walker: These tropes are what Freddy Krueger's powers ultimately eddy down to, as he tin can enter dreams at volition and modify them to his choosing.
Dream Within a Dream: Freddy loves screwing with people this way.
Driven to Suicide: Freddy's mother, subsequently hearing virtually her son'south release.
Evil Has a Bad Sense of Sense of humour: Freddy Krueger is constantly making bad jokes. A lot of the time, it keeps Freddy from being likewise scary, but other times, information technology only makes him even more terrifying. When Freddy Krueger turns you into a roach and makes a bad bug-related pun, what are you going to practise about it? Tell him he'southward not funny?
- In the reboot, his bad puns are always related to terrifying however mundane topics and things.
Evil Makes You Monstrous: Freddy Krueger somehow managed to become an undead dream-domicile human being monster just by existence really nasty to kids. Freddy's Dead reveals that he was given his powers upon dying past several nightmare demons.
Evil Makes You lot Ugly: Freddy Krueger. It's partially justified since he was burned to death, but the deal with the dream demons probably contributed to his ugly, disfigured wait too.
Evil Sounds Deep: In the first several films, Freddy spoke with a very deep, sinister voice (in the first moving-picture show for example, he sounds almost demonic). Information technology became less deep in afterward films as Freddy became more than comedic in general.
Evil Sounds Raspy: Helped by the fact that Robert Englund had a raspy vocalisation to begin with.
Expanded Universe: Various novelizations and original novels, comics, a boob tube series, a brusque stories collection, and two video games.
Actress Parent Conception: Freddy is called the bastard son of a hundred maniacs, assuming that isn't hyperbole. In Nightmare 5 one of the maniacs is shown to expect exactly like pre-expiry Freddy, hinting that this is in fact his biological father.
Fantastic Drug: Hypnocil, the dream suppressant used in Dream Warriors and Freddy Vs Jason. The latter moving picture suggests that prolonged use can put people into a coma, but Nancy took it for years between films ane and 3 without evident side effects.
Imitation Affably Evil: Freddy. He's good at making a sardonic joke every now and then, but he's scary, at to the lowest degree partially because of information technology. This is more than apparent in the sequels — in the first film, he doesn't talk much.
Flanderization: Freddy himself. Part of the appeal of the character for the first couple of films was that unlike a lot of slasher film killers, Freddy talked and would make the occasional wisecrack to his victims as he kills them. Sadly, as the sequels progressed, the writers would brand Freddy a literal wisecracking machine, with lame puns and other jokey dialogue. At the sixth film, he was completely comical and only his killing characters and his scary-ass expect kept him from being dismissible as a joke. New Nightmare and Freddy vs. Jason reversed this decline, though Freddy vs. Jason yet features callbacks to past one-liners, such every bit referring to an African American girl he kills equally "Nighttime Meat" and playing pinball with Jason. Co-ordinate to interviews before its release, Freddy Vs Jason's portrayal was intended as a sort of Adaptation Distillation. Using the wise-cracking nature of the later on movies, but taking it to levels that they summed up equally "A sick dog".
For the Evulz: Freddy doesn't have any motive for killing people beyond the fact that he finds it entertaining. Even so, the sixth film suggests that his calumniating foster father, along with several mean orphans, and the fact that his ain mother abandoned him at birth, had a hand in making him such a sadist, although his Kid by Rape (of a nun, by 100 different psychopaths) origin implies that at least some of it was Villainous Lineage fifty-fifty beforehand. The remake tries to change this and make his character slightly more of a monster than his original incarnation, adding to the fact is Freddy isn't given a big backstory in the remake.
Freeze-Frame Bonus: Different subsequent films, the gloves for the starting time ii movies were nigh carbon copies in terms of design. In posters for the second picture show, information technology'southward obvious that the bract on the alphabetize finger is cleaved nigh the "fingertip" and soldered back together, but if you pause the get-go motion-picture show at but the correct spots, such equally the reveal of the finished glove in the building sequence or the bathtub scene, you can come across that this was really a feature of the showtime pic's glove that carried over to the second film.
From Nobody to Nightmare: Freddy Kreuger was originally a perfectly homo person, with no actress-normal abilities. Post-death, he became a borderline Reality Warper.
Ghastly Ghost: Ane of the more than famous examples of this trope is the franchise's primary antagonist, Freddy Krueger, a burnt-skinned ghost who invades people's dreams to kill them in their sleep in a terrifying mode. He was a Serial Killer of children in life, and continues to spread fear and death every bit a spirit.
Ghostly Goals: Freddy started out avenging his own death, but after he succeeded, he decided to stick around and continue killing (he was, later on all, a sadistic serial killer even before he died; fifty-fifty with his revenge consummate, he probably saw no real reason to cease killing).
A God Am I: Freddy has traits of this, particularly in the dream world when he is a literal nightmare god.
Gods Need Prayer Badly: Freddy draws power from the fear of his victims. The more they fear him, the stronger he gets. Conversely, the less they fearfulness him, the less he's capable of affecting them.
Greater-Scope Villain:
- The dream demons, who gave Freddy his powers. They do make an appearance past manner of flashback in Freddy's Expressionless, but they are never directly involved in the plot.
- Freddy himself fills this role in virtually of the television series.
Happy Ending Override: As a Villain-Based Franchise, it's a given that Freddy will return to menace the heroes again in a new entry, which makes the protagonist'southward efforts in previous entries largely worthless. Notwithstanding, the meanest example is without a incertitude the Series Fauxnale Freddy'due south Expressionless: The Final Nightmare, which is ready afterwards a ten-year Fourth dimension Skip later on Alice'southward concluding come across with him. By now Freddy has literally slaughtered every living child in Springwood and turned it into a Ghost Boondocks populated simply be a few residents who have been driven to insanity by their grief, while planning to use the last surviving teenager to spread his influence to the rest of the world.
Healing Gene: One of Freddy's many powers in dreams.
Holy Burns Evil: The jump rope song virtually Freddy Krueger implies Freddy can exist afflicted by crucifixes ("V, half-dozen, catch your crucifix"), but no one actively tries to apply them to repel him, though they practise seem to make him nervous. In one pic, holy water and a crucifix were used to impale him off at the end, however. Justified equally his power comes from a trio of Dream Demons, and because he feeds off of fearfulness, having faith he can't injure you if you have one would probably protect you from him.
Hope Spot: Freddy loves these. The ane at the end of the original film is probably the most well-known. He lets Nancy believe that she really defeated him and that her mother and friends are nevertheless alive, and 2 minutes later he reveals it was just a cruel illusion.
Hurricane of Puns: In the latter films, Freddy often made cheesy puns earlier killing his victims.
Ironic Nursery Melody: The quoted nursery rhyme, a leap-rope vocal for the children of Elm Street that ofttimes puts in a creepy appearance in the dream globe as the prelude to Freddy's inflow.
Jerkass: The bulk of the parents throughout the movies are apathetic or but downright abusive towards their children, which is ironic because the reason Freddy was killed in the first place was because the parents were trying to protect their kids from him. Their abusive tendencies vary, from Marge Thompson and Dennis Jordan's alcoholism, Elaine Paker'south fail, Racine Gibson being a domineering Stage Mom, to the most farthermost instance being Tracy's sexually abusive male parent whom she is implied to take killed in self-defense. Even Freddy himself dealt with jerkasses before his conversion into a series killer. Examples include other orphans, and the alcoholic Mr. Underwood.
Lecherous Licking: At that place's a scene in Suffer the Children that's quite...agonizing.
Freddy Krueger: "Come to Daddy, Peter... *starts licking Peter'south face and rubbing it with his haemorrhage stump of a hand*
Looks Similar Orlok: Freddy Krueger's appearance is somewhat based off of this. In fact, Robert Englund even once stated that he based some of Freddy's movements on Orlok'southward.
Brand Them Rot: Freddy does this to the primary characters in the first story of The Nightmares on Elm Street: Freddy Krueger's Seven Sweetest Dreams.
Human being on Fire: This is how Freddy Krueger died at the hands of the parents of Springwood.
Manipulative Bastard: Freddy loves to distract and torture other people by appearing as their loved ones. Peculiarly in Freddy Vs. Jason, where he enters the fallow Jason'southward dreams and takes the course of Pamela Voorhees to revive Jason and get him to go wreak havoc in Springwood, all in an try to regain the power to kill again.
Motive Decay: Subverted; subsequently slaughtering the children of the parents of Springwood responsible for killing him, the motion picture franchise changes Freddy's motives to collecting souls to increase his powers, occasionally trying to notice a style to transfer his powers into the existent world, and sometimes but killing for the sake of killing. By Freddy's Expressionless, he becomes an Omnicidal Maniac, intending to impale the children in every boondocks in the world he tin spread to. This actually makes sense, as he was a psychopath in life who delighted in killing children in the offset place. It'southward a perfectly valid take that his Revenge motive was always nothing more than an excuse.
New Powers equally the Plot Demands: A running joke in the series is that Freddy'due south powers are pretty much limitless, as far as changing from movie to flick. Information technology does make sense all the same. Since Freddy has effectively become the male monarch of nightmares, his powers in the dreamscape would be nearly unlimited. On the rare occasions he manifests in the "real" world, he generally gets his donkey kicked (most notably, at the end of the first film).
Nearly-Invulnerability: Freddy Krueger is a combination of Fighting a Shadow and in some movies The Proxy. He can be pulled out of the dream globe, and so either made to disappear, or with opening an erstwhile-fashioned tin can of whoopass. Freddy'southward Dead states that every time he is killed, he will be resurrected past the dream demons who gave him his powers in the commencement identify.
Nightmare Dreams: Freddy's modus operandi.
Nightmare Fuel Coloring Book: Chalk-drawings of Freddy by dead children appear twice in the serial (The Dream Master and Freddy'south Dead: The Last Nightmare).
Non Sequitur Environment: The Dream Worlds oft don't make logical sense, easily segueing from ane unconnected environment into another. A beach could be sitting on top of an Quondam, Dark House, a police force station transitions into a graveyard, or a shed could open into Freddy's hellish lair.
Off on a Technicality: The police failed to get the search warrant for Freddy'due south dwelling properly signed off, which prompted the parents of Springwood to kill Freddy on their ain; this error was famous enough to be critiqued in the column "The Law Is An Ass". Averted in the remake, where the parents skipped the authorities and immediately went after him.
Omnicidal Bedlamite: Freddy Krueger started out equally a Serial Killer, but he became even worse over time. He was always a sadist, merely at first he pretended to want revenge for his death at the hands of a lynch mob until he but dropped all pretense and continued killing when this goal was already completed. With nil to stop him, he eventually murders every child in Springwood and drives their distraught parents to utter madness. After the entire town is destroyed, he just creates some other "Elm Street" in a neighbouring metropolis and admits that he intends to repeat this until literally everyone is dead.
Our Liches Are Unlike: Freddy is technically a sort of "astral lich". He would definitely qualify equally a powerful sorcerer, and his advent but screams "undead". Also, killing him tends to involve some rather unusual methods, most oftentimes dragging him onto our airplane, and, even then, nobody has e'er managed to kill him permanently. An easier parallel is that Freddy is some sort of ghost or a demon (he is in service to nightmare demons after all).
Primal Fear: The whole idea backside this serial was to make a film and boogeyman who is a compendium of all the primal fears that are known to exist the subject of nightmares for people in every single office of the world (drowning, falling, being chased and finding yourself unable to run away, being eaten alive, beingness forced to sentinel helplessly every bit a friend or loved one is victimized, etc.), and actually uses those nightmares to get to them. The only universal nightmare that seems left out is end-of-the-globe dreams. That might be because, every bit Freddy'south tied to the dream world itself, its ending is his primal fear.
Pungeon Master: This is basically Freddy's trademark.
Reality Warper: Freddy'southward a consummate reality warper in the dream globe, changing the setting, the laws of physics and his own nature at will. He can also subtly influence waking reality, and becomes better at it throughout the sequels.
Red/Dark-green Contrast: Wes Chicken had read that red and green are the 2 most hard colors for the human eye to see when placed right adjacent to each other, and then he gave Freddy the iconic cherry-and-green stripped sweater to make his advent that much more than fundamental agonizing.
Resurrective Immortality: Freddy Krueger is killed several times past the heroes, but he returns each time. The dream demons who are the source of his powers promised him that he would indefinitely resurrect no matter what anyone does to him. He even boasts virtually it.
Freddy: In dreams. I. Am. FOREVER! (from Freddy'southward Dead)
Revenge past Proxy: Freddy Krueger, a child killer who was executed vigilante-manner by the parents of Elm Street, decides to get revenge on them through their still-living children through their dreams.
Rubber Man: Stretching limbs are one of Freddy'south many powers.
Sequel Hook / The Cease... Or Is It?: Every film but Freddy's Dead and New Nightmare.
Sealed Good in a Can: With Freddy being the tin. Everyone he kills in the dreamworld, their soul gets absorbed into him, enhancing his strength of power. Alice manages to free them completely in Dream Main, as does Jacob in Dream Child, simply Fridge Horror comes into play when yous realize the possibility that all the other characters from the previous movies Freddy has killed... they've been stuck inside him ever since. This gets doubled when you think about everyone he killed prior to the beginning of Freddy'due south Dead. If he was potent plenty to exist able to warp reality and erase the retentivity of someone from the world...
Cocky-Mutilation Demonstration: Freddy does this a few times in the series, by and large just to horrify his victims. In the first motion-picture show, for instance, he says "Watch this!" to Tina before lopping off two fingers, leering at her as dark-green "blood" sprays from the stumps. Later, he answers Nancy's "What are you?" past cutting into his own chest, spilling green pus and worms instead of claret. In the second motion-picture show, he emphasizes his "Y'all've got the body, I've got the encephalon" line by peeling dorsum the skin on his own skull. In the sixth, he cuts off his fingers (once again) while counting the ways people take tried and failed to put him downwardly for skilful.
Serial Killer: Freddy Krueger, both in life (equally the Springwood Slasher) and the afterlife. Made even worse because he targets children, and afterwards teens as they've grown upwardly since his decease.
Shapeshifter Default Form: Freddy possesses near-limitless shapeshifting abilities in the dream world, regularly using it to impersonate other people or fifty-fifty inanimate objects. While he tin assume any form he desires, he prefers to appear equally his mail-expiry burnt self, presumably to scare his victims. His "existent" form, if any, are his skeletal remains.
Sinister Scraping Audio: Freddy loves to scrape his blades across the pipes and walls of his boiler room dreamscape, unnerving his victims with the screeching audio and sparks.
Sins of Our Fathers: Freddy originally wanted vengeance upon the parents who killed him for killing their kids... by killing the rest of the kids of Springwood.
Soundtrack Dissonance: Information technology actually seems to exist a chip of a running gag that Mood Whiplash music plays over the credits of every installment.
Staying Alive: Freddy Krueger, full stop. They've come up with a massive amount of ways to kill him off, like setting him on fire (again), excavation upward and consecrating his bones, freeing all the captured souls from his torso, sticking an explosive up his stomach, wiping out every memory of him... it doesn't affair, he e'er finds a manner to resurrect himself.
Take That!: Freddy is named after a bully that tormented Wes Craven as a child.
This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: Freddy is a big fan of the B-word and loves to punctuate his sentences with it.
Took a Level in Badass: Pretty much all the heroines, but specially Alice Johnson and Lori Campbell. Lampshaded in nearly every film. Mark turns into his superhero creation, Rick shows principal karate skills, Taryn dreams she's a punk biker chick...and none of this does anything to terminate Freddy.
Torture Cellar: The boiler room.
Villain-Based Franchise: Freddy Krueger is the only character who recurs in all of the installments.
Villain Exclusivity Clause: Freddy Krueger tries to kill horny teens in their dreams in all of the installments.
Vocal Evolution: In the first film, Freddy'southward vocalization starts out closer to Robert Englund's natural speaking vocalisation for a good clamper of it. Near halfway through information technology starts condign deeper, and past the end he regularly speaks in the trademark deep-throated growl he's known for talking in.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: Freddy Krueger is a primary shapeshifter through his dream powers. His favorite use of this is to impersonate his victims' loved ones or other related people then he tin scar them emotionally before killing them, like appearing every bit a teenager'southward murdered brother in Freddy vs. Jason or as a girl'southward sexually abusive father in Freddy'south Dead: The Concluding Nightmare.
Was Once a Human: Freddy Krueger. In one case a human being serial killer, he turned into something resembling a nightmare ghost/demon after his death.
Weaker in the Real World: Freddy may be all-powerful and unstoppable in the Dream Land, but if his victims manage to pull him into the real world, he'southward reduced to his human self.
Wolverine Claws: Freddy'southward principal weapon is a glove with blades attached to each finger. This is and so iconic that for people who aren't superhero comic fans, this trope could take been named "Freddy Claws".
Would Hurt a Child: Prior to Freddy Krueger's death past fire, he was a serial killer who targeted little kids. In fact, Freddy vs. Jason opened with him murdering a footling girl in his boiler room. There's a Gory Discretion Shot every bit we hear her scream, only much later the daughter appears in Terminal Girl Lori'southward dreams with her optics gouged out.
Your Mind Makes It Real: If you're killed in a dream by Freddy, you lot die in reality. This applies no matter how outlandish or ridiculous the manner of expiry is in the dream, though Freddy does have control over which injuries carry over into reality (for example, a boy changed into a gruesome living marionette merely seems to have jumped to his death in the real world, while Kincaid was stabbed, but is completely unscathed in the real globe).
Your Soul Is Mine!: Freddy grows stronger with each soul he claims, making him a one-villain Sorting Algorithm of Evil. This is all-time exemplified in Nightmare 4, in which Freddy conjures a pizza filled with the faces of his previous victims. Remarking that he loves "soul nutrient", he promptly devours one in front of Alice. It's her blood brother Rick.
Freddy: You've got their power, I've got their souls. Come on!
Your Worst Nightmare: These movies are probably the best example of this trope, with hapless teenagers being tormented and slaughtered by the dream-walking, 1-Liner-spouting psycho-killer Freddy Krueger.

This is a dream. He'due south backside you.