Tis the season to grab a pumpkin, a bucket of candy, and settle in for a night of watching a burnt version of Edward ScissorHands torment a bunch of attractive, sexually charged, angsty teenagers. After giving our hearts a cardiac workout, most of us, no matter how scared we get, can reason with ourselves that while terrifying, these scary movies aren’t real, but just the creation of Stephen King’s of the world. However, what if there is some truth behind our darkest fears?
The Nightmare on Elm Street can be argued as one of the more iconic, classic horror franchises out there–and for good reason. It toys with the concept that even in the security of our own dreams, we aren’t safe from a crazed lunatic in a striped sweater. It makes one wonder were the inspiration for a character, like Freddy Kreuger, came from.
Wes Craven, the mastermind behind the original “Nightmare On Elm Street” actually based the film’s main concept on an article he read. The article depicted a story about a family who had come from Cambodia, after escaping the Killing Fields. Once safe in the states, the family’s youngest son became terrified of going to bed, telling his parents that if he did, a monster would chase him down and kill him. This led the terrified boy to do everything in his power to not fall asleep, an action shown in Wes’s film, but he could only keep this up for so long. Eventually the young boy did fall asleep and his parents were awoken to him screaming out in terror. When they went to check up on him, he was dead. While it’s unclear what actually caused the death of the child, Craven took this tale and ran with it, creating a movie that continues to scare people of all ages and make us think twice before turning off the lights and falling asleep.