Freddy Krueger: In Life...

I have often argued that Freddy is my favorite classic horror movie villain.  My reasoning has always been that he is a multilayered, complex character as opposed to a regular madman just running (or walking) around killing people.  Now, this being my thinking, I decided to do a little research on the biography of Fred Krueger.  And I was right, there’s a tantalizing tale of terror that tortures and torments this soul from the very beginning.

I have to be honest and say that I am only very familiar with the first four movies.  The rest of the movies in the series I have only seen once or some not even at all.  But, that doesn’t mean I’m not a fan of this character.  Just from the first four though, I was already able to determine that Freddy was purely just one messed up individual.  I mean, this is truly one maniacal soul.

Freddy Krueger, born Frederick Charles Krueger, had a rough childhood.  He was conceived during an assault by multiple mental patients on a poor nun that got locked in with them over the holidays and adopted out right after birth.  He grows up with no maternal influence and his only parental influence is the man he was turned over to, an alcoholic who abuses him and teaches him how to cut himself.  He is bullied relentlessly, harms small animals and in his teen years, kills his “father” using the very razor he learned to cut himself with. (Interestingly, he also learns all of this from his “father”.)

As an adult, he gets a job, gets married, has a daughter and tries to live a normal life.  However, his homicidal urges cannot be suppressed and he becomes The Springwood Slasher, killing 20 children in three years, the children of his former classmates.  He also kills his wife when she finds out he’s a serial killer.  His daughter is sent away for adoption and given a new name. 

After his arrest, he is released on a technicality involving the arrest warrant and an inebriated judge.  This, of course, is deemed an outrage by the parents of the town and they form a vigilante mob and take him down to the boiler room, where he tortured and mutilated his victims, and they burn him alive.

Okay, so, that’s where I am going to stop on his history because THAT is what happened to him when he was alive.  Everything after his death will be discussed at some point but, for now, let’s stick with the HUMAN aspect of Freddy.  We’ll get to DEMON Freddy eventually.

Let’s address his childhood first.  Being born to a nun raped by 100 maniacs and sent away immediately after birth really does have to weigh on a child’s self-esteem.  Knowing that you came from that kind of mental history has got to make you wonder at some point if you will end up like that too.  It might also make a child feel like behaving badly is acceptable because “it’s in their genes” (for lack of a better term) and therefore, they can’t help it.  It’s their way of justifying the bad behavior.

Being abused in so many ways as a child can also having a long-lasting change effect on their personality plus mental and emotional growth and processes.  Enduring the kind of violence that he experienced as a child, he could have likely been a very frustrated little boy and, subsequently, a very angry young man.  The killing of his school’s classroom hamster with a hammer would be my argument showing his lack of emotional verbalization ability, his pain and frustration in feeling weak and the desire to be in control of something, the lack of any ability to regulate emotions and a severe lack of empathy.

The lack of the maternal influence coupled with the type of paternal example he had, left him with no nurturing value in his life at all.  He would probably not have been taught any form of love or affection, leaving him unable to identify with or develop these kinds of emotions.

The self-mutilation as a child/teen would be an indicator of how he chose to deal with his emotions and how he really thought of himself as a human being.  This partnered with the abusive parent would further my assumption that he has an entirely crippled self-esteem. 

After meeting a woman, he falls in love (as much as he can, in my opinion) and gets married and starts a family of his own.  He and his wife have a little girl and for a while he’s able to wear the mask of a normal, everyday individual.  He goes to work, comes home, interacts with his family…a typical person doing typical things.

But, eventually, the flaws in his personality, the scars of his childhood, the anger and rage that boil so deeply within him all seep to the surface and he becomes a child molester and murderer.  His ability to harm these children in such a horrific manner, treating them as if they are objects for his amusement and experimentation, in my opinion, again points to his inability to empathize. 

However, I don’t believe that children were Freddy’s main sexual preference.  I do believe that, while this was part of his torture of the children, it was not his main focus.  It’s not something that carries over into his further activities after his death.  And though I believe he enjoyed his crimes, I do not believe that was the only way for him to be sexually gratified. 

He’s truly, generally, a killer.  He taunts, mutilates and murders his victim.  Sure, there are other aspects that lend themselves to complete his psychopathy.  He’s definitely what I would call a narcissistic personality.  Now, you might be wondering how one with such a low self-esteem, such as I’ve described, could also be a narcissist.  Narcissism seems to oftentimes be a cover for feelings of inadequacy.  These people can believe deep down that, if they don’t demand the constant attention and accolades, etc., people will not be around them or pay attention to them on their own.  They can feel that they are not truly worthy of anything positive and therefore, force, take or manipulate to get what they want.

With a history on Earth such as this, it’s no wonder demons chose him to continue his depravity in the afterlife. 

More to come in part 2 of this in depth look at Freddy Krueger.  But for now, thanks for reading…and sweet dreams!!!