What with all of this talk about the remake of Wes Craven’s Nightmare On Elm Street, maybe we should get down to the fundamentals and find out….

Just Who IS Freddy Krueger?

And Why Is He Killing The Kids In Springwood, Ohio?

We first meet Freddy Krueger, born in September 1942,  in the original “A Nightmare On Elm Street” released in 1984.  This first, and best, (in my opinion) story focuses on Freddy’s attacks on  Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp) and her group of high school friends.   Freddy attacks the teens in their dreams and ends up killing all but Nancy.

Nancy manages to defeat Freddy when she pulls him with her from the dream world into the real world, where she’s set up a series of booby traps and eventually strips him of his powers when she stops being afraid of him.

In this epic beginning to the franchise, we learn a little of Freddy’s back story from Nancy’s own mother.

According to Nancy’s mom, Freddy was, at one time, a handsome man and well liked by the children at the elementary school where he was employed as a janitor.

But, as is so often the case in horror movies,  the children of the town started turning up dead, victims of a lunatic serial killer.

Fred Krueger was finally arrested, but released on a warrant technicality.  The enraged parents of Springwood then took it upon themselves to exact their own revenge.  They followed Krueger to the hideout he had used to hide the children and burned it to the ground.  And Freddy, who was inside the hideout, was killed in the fire.  (Hence, his badly burned and disfigured appearance in everyone’s dreams.)

13 years later, Freddy’s demon spirit returns to begin haunting the dreams of the remaining children of Springwood.  And, as we’ve already seen, he’s eventually defeated by Nancy.  Or is he?

In A Nightmare On Elm Street 2:  Freddy’s Revenge and A Nightmare On Elm Street 3:  Dream Warriors,  Freddy continues to murder the remaining children of Springwood, despite the fact that the children are getting stronger.  They realise that they, too, have special dream powers and in each sequel, Freddy is defeated, but “lives” to kill again.

In A Nightmare On Elm Street 5:  The Dream Child, we learn a lot more of Freddy’s history.

Here’s an exerpt from Wikipedia’s excellent biography of Amanda Krueger, Freddy’s mom:

At age 18, Amanda Krueger (1907-1968) decided to become a nun, choosing “Mary Helena” as her name in Christ. Her first assignment as a nun was to care for the inmates in Westin Hills hospital, including the infamous tower (where the most insane patients were locked up). Only a few days away from Christmas, Amanda was accidentally locked in the tower when the guards were in a hurry to go home to their families. She was left alone with the inmates for several days, and she was brutally raped and beaten many times during this ordeal. When she was finally found, she was barely alive — and pregnant. Nine months later, Amanda gave birth to Frederick Charles Krueger (aka Freddy Krueger). Shortly after, the infant was given over to the state and adopted by Mr. Underwood, an abusive alcoholic.

During his early childhood, Freddy was constantly bullied and humiliated for the way he was conceived.  Eventually, to strike back, he began torturing and murdering small animals, and, as he matured, he turned his masochistic tendancies on himself.

After suffering years of abuse at the hands of his alcoholic father, Freddy brutally murdered him with a razor.  And so began Freddy’s murderous reign of terror!

All of this information is very helpful if you’re merely curious about that Freddy Krueger guy that everyone is talking about.

But if you’d like to get to know the REAL Freddy Krueger, in all his gruesome glory, then make sure to get your copy of

The Nightmare on Elm Street Collection-DVDs!