Tagged: A Nightmare on Elm Street
Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare on Elm Street
In the spirit of Halloween tomorrow and following a suggestion received from a BAMF Style reader earlier this year, today’s post explores the costume of a cinematic horror icon who needs little introduction.
Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Vitals
Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger, supernatural serial killer
Suburban Ohio, Spring 1981
Film: A Nightmare on Elm Street
Release Date: November 9, 1984
Director: Wes Craven
Costume Designer: Dana Lyman
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Next month will mark the 40th anniversary of A Nightmare on Elm Street, Wes Craven’s iconic slasher film that introduced the world to the terrifying Freddy Krueger, the pizza-faced killer who can target his victims through their dreams—a concept inspired by the mysterious deaths among Hmong refugees who mysteriously died in their sleep following disturbing nightmares.
Craven embodied the terror of a monster who can attack people at their most vulnerable in the form of Freddy Krueger, the undead spirit of a vindictive child murderer. I have to respect Craven’s own vindictiveness, borrowing the name from his childhood bully Fred Krueger and immortalizing it as one of the most grotesque monsters in horror cinema history. Continue reading
A Nightmare on Elm Street: John Saxon’s Off-Duty Sports Coat
John Saxon as Lt. Don Thompson in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Vitals
John Saxon as Donald Thompson, police lieutenant
Suburban Ohio, Spring 1981
Film: A Nightmare on Elm Street
Release Date: November 9, 1984
Director: Wes Craven
Costume Designer: Dana Lyman
Background
A decade after he investigated a series of grisly sorority murders at Christmastime, John Saxon again portrayed a police lieutenant chasing down a serial killer in Wes Craven’s horror classic, A Nightmare on Elm Street.
We meet Lieutenant Thompson when he’s called to the station late at night in response to the murder of his daughter’s friend Tina Gray (Amanda Wyss). Thompson’s police colleagues initially suspect Tina’s meathead boyfriend, the “lunatic delinquent” Rod Lane (Nick Corri). Rod doesn’t help his case by fleeing the scene, but a tearful Nancy (Heather Langenkamp) explains to her father that it couldn’t have been Rod.
Thompson has little reason to believe his daughter’s protestations, but we the audience know that Tina’s brutal slashing was the work of the disfigured spirit of the long-dead child murderer Freddy Kreuger. Continue reading
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