A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET TAKE TWO
O ne of horror’s most recognisable villains, Freddy Krueger originally appeared in the Wes Craven slasher A Nightmare on Elm Street , which celebrates its 40th anniversary this November. Craven, who has called much of his work semi-autobiographical despite the outlandish subject matter, allegedly named the iconic killer after his childhood bully. Wanting to differentiate Krueger from his fictional peers, Craven, makeup artist David Miller and SFX designer Jim Doyle opted for a burnt, scarred face rather than the masks worn by Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers – and a knife-laden leather glove he uses to slice his victims while they’re asleep. A Nightmare on Elm Street ’s premise – a social outcast who haunts his victims’ dreams, murdering them at their most vulnerable – came from a combination of references. First, Craven read several reports of men who suffered nightmares and then unexpectedly died in their sleep. Second, he heard Gary Wright’s Dream Weaver , which he later used in the film’s soundtrack. He also wanted Krueger to be a child molester but, given the number of child molestation cases at the time, referred to him as a child murderer to avoid sensationalising abuse. Once they had Krueger, they had a film. In A Nightmare on Elm Street , Krueger terrorises a cohort of local teens, who reveal their nightmares to one another before being sequentially killed off. Tina Gray is the first to go, cut open before thrashing about on the ceiling, and using
TAKE 2
WORDS Katie Kasperson IMAGES New Line Cinema
We explore how teen killer Freddy Krueger came to be, while carving into the film’s crafty special effects
several of the special effects team’s 500+ gallons of fake blood. Most of the red liquid went towards the blood geyser seen during Glen Lantz’s death, while both scenes used a rotating set to create illusions of gravity. Protagonist Nancy Thompson dreams of Tina being dragged around in a body bag and, at one point, sees a centipede crawl from her mouth. Initially, Craven wanted Tina to spit out a rubber centipede; instead, Miller sculpted a likeness of her and used a live centipede – which went missing for hours on-set. In one of the film’s most memorable moments – one that puts Krueger’s perversion on full display – his glove emerges between Nancy’s legs while she takes a bath. The crew built a bottomless bathtub set atop a swimming pool, which also allowed them to simulate Nancy drowning. Between that, pancake mix as a melted floor and spandex as a stretchy wall, the effects team had more than a few tricks up their collective sleeve. Often overlooked in terms of critical respect, horror is arguably one of the more creative genres when it comes to production design and practical effects. Craven dreamt up a monster whose image still haunts popular culture today, but it’s the crew who ultimately made his vision a nightmarish reality.
IN YOUR DREAMS With an estimated $1.8m budget, the film grossed $57m globally
57
definitionmags
Powered by FlippingBook