As if we needed another reason for Freddy Krueger to be disturbing, Michael Kennedy of ScreenRant grants us another one by furthering the explanation of why the notorious slasher’s sweater was that horrid mix of red and green. Yes, it was red and green, not red and black as some people might think, and that’s a part of the trick that Wes Craven added in to make the character even more visually disturbing. Apparently Craven read somewhere that the clash of red and green is somehow disturbing to viewers and, as you can guess, it was like pouring honey into his ear that was spewed forth in a crispy-fried nightmare that became Freddy Krueger. You’d think with the beaten fedora, the sadistic finger knives, and the burnt appearance of his face and body that Freddy would have been disturbing enough, but you would have been wrong of course. The idea of his sweater being just another part of his arsenal, however passive it might be, or aggressive depending on how people view it, this was a rather brilliant stroke by Craven since a lot of people might just think he looks extra disturbing but can’t tell why. Well, now you know.
Seriously though, Freddy is disturbing anyway since from his appearance to his weaponry the guy spells bad news all around. The fact that he likes to play games is something that came along as the movies continued to roll out, since in the beginning Freddy was more of a slasher that liked to stalk his prey, building up the fear so that he could feed off of it like a leech. As the movies went along though and people kept forgetting about him his power rose and fell along with the belief that he could rely on. At one point it really appeared that he might be gone, but of course given the fact that it happened so early in the movie there was no way that he’d be counted out that quickly. All it usually took was a good scare to get Freddy back in the game as it was seen in the initial movies and in Freddy vs. Jason. Once people are afraid and start to speak his name again the gloves are off and it’s time to start writing out your will or learn how to combat him in the dream zone or pull him into the real world as a few people have learned to do. In the real world he’s still disturbing and highly dangerous, but he’s able to be damaged when he’s on the corporeal plane, even if upon death he might go back to being an all-powerful dream demon once again, depending on how the continuity is being used.
In a way, Wes Craven’s New Nightmare was a movie that took things beyond the original scope of the movies and made it even darker as the unseen force behind Krueger, the darkness that was a main part of the movie, was so much more terrifying than Krueger could ever be. The fact that it took his form was obviously for the movie since it knew just what would terrify those it was going after. In this manner the creation took on a life of its own and began to stalk those that had brought it to life, almost like parricide in a way. For those of you that are wondering what parricide is, it’s when an individual kills off their parents, which is something that tends to be kind of fitting for the movie in question. But even in New Nightmare the fiend that wore the face of Krueger wore the same garments as before, taking on the full form that Craven and Robert Englund had made so popular over the years.
This iconic look is something that a lot of people have come know Freddy by since despite the fact that at one time his sleeves didn’t feature the customary stripes, they were added in since as you can guess, Craven was the type of guy that just had to go for the most effective method of making people uncomfortable. A lot of us can at least admit that it worked since Freddy scared the living hell out of so many of us as kids and even as teens. Today’s teens don’t tend to be scared as easily by a boogeyman like Freddy, but his legend is still great enough that perhaps one of these days we’ll see a worthy return to the character with someone that can at least recreate a portion of the magic that Englund and Craven poured into him. It might take a while, but there’s still faith that it might happen.
The one thing that has to happen, in order to insure success, is that he look can’t be messed with that much. Without his customary look, Freddy becomes just another slasher. Brent McKnight of CinemaBlend has more to say on this matter.
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