Dream,After Dream: What happened to Nancy after ANOES?

As someone who absolutely loves the character of Nancy, I often wondered about what happened to her after the car drove off into the foggy morning and the credits rolled. I hoped she would have returned in the first sequel , and was saddened to see that she did not. Like Halloween II, I wanted to see what happened immediately after. I wanted to know what happened to my Nancy. When her return in Dream Warriors occurred , I remember feeling such elation ,goosebumps, and love .
However……

What happened to Nancy after the original Nightmare on Elm Street?

When she woke up the next day…..having lost her boyfriend…her mother…and most likely, her sanity…what happened next? 

             Oh,The schoolyard stories that would have been told about Nancy....she too could easily have become a playground song ALA Lizzie Borden and the jump-rope song. What her situation must have looked like to the outside world. The game of telephone that would have been played with the telling of her story would certainly have led to exaggerations of the facts.In the first sequel she and her house is already a playground gossip story. "She went crazy when she saw her boyfriend get murdered across the street." "her mother killed herself in our living room". Did Marge burn to death in reality? Would be a fitting revenge for Freddy .

             I’ve occasionally thought that the “morning fog” that Nancy sees outside in her final dream moments is actually the smoke from her Mother’s burning body influencing her dream as it fills the house. So that would place Marge still on the couch drinking herself to death. Maybe she passed out with a cigarette there and accidentally toasted her own marshmallows in her drunk stupor.

At what point in the film do you think Nancy actually entered the final nightmare? I always figured Nancy was deep in the dream the moment she started building her booby trap survival items...in five minutes....

But the movie can be looked on as having many dream possibilities :

• Nancy is slipping in an out of the dream state near the end,as she has been awake for roughly seven days. This would account for those random moments where things that could only happen in a dream are occurring in real time. The unplugged phone ringing.Nancy sensing Glens death as it happens. 

• Nancy slips into a dream midway through the movie some time after the visit to the dream clinic and the last half of the movie is in a dream even though our Final Girl doesn't acknowledge or is aware of the fact.

• The entire movie is a dream -Nancy is dreaming the whole thing.And perhaps even in a loop. Glens car drives off into the fog at the end only to reemerge back at the beginning, pulling up to school on the first day of the film.

If Nancy was in a dream, were any of her family or friends sharing the dream for real? Or was this just Freddy tormenting Nancy in her mind? Did her Father really see his ex wife burning alive under Freddy or was he just an element of Nancy's imagined dream? 

         If so , that means he would still think his daughter has lost her mind when the Mothers body was found and she woke ranting and raving that "it was Fred Krueger,Daddy." The whole lot of the parents seemed to be in denial .Understandably so at first. Ive entertained the idea that the children who were taken by Krueger had their memory hidden by the parents. Marge says the line " ..where he used to take HIS kids" ..so if Nancy did indeed have a sibling....Maybe Marge feels as if she no longer claims that child as hers after it has been tainted by Krueger's touch. 

        But when his daughter starts using the name Fred Krueger, this should have triggered an alarm in Lt Thompson. It felt as if the family had done their best to hide the history.So for Nancy to know what Krueger looked like,wore,the glove details should have been extra alarming. Though they act as if they are shocked to hear their daughter talk about someone they know all too well but have tried to hide from her. Both parents seem to react strongly to Nancy's description of Krueger when at the funeral for Rod.If Nancy is deep in the dream at this point, her mind wouldn't have the answers to put in her parents mouths

        I recall hating the theatrical ending when I first saw it. It felt wrong to me. The movie deserved better than the over the top final scare. I think New Line's Producer Bob Shaye was interested in the lets give them one last good scare before the audience leaves the theater Something to send them off screaming, laughing , and talking about "that last scene". I wonder how much of it was sequel oriented?Even in the year NOES was released , were sequels to horror movies the norm?Sure Friday the 13th was tossing out one a year, but other than Halloween II , where there many others at that stage? Heck, New Line barely paid for the first one , so I would be surprised if they were thinking about doing a sequel at that point. 

       I've always been a fan of the non sequel set up ending that was filmed but eventually cut.The quiet eeriness. The theatrical ending has its charm, and works as a final wtf jump scare emotional release moment to send the audience on it's way. But I'm more of a fan of the subtle version that creeps you out with its Is he or isn't he still out there ?The jump-rope girls telling us that - yes he is still coming for us.

Though ,there is one camera shot in an outtake that works well for me. A closeup on the car window as Nancy looks out at her Mother.Nancy then sits back in her seat ,revealing Freddy grinning at the wheel. 

       However, I've softened on the theatrical ending over time and hundreds of viewings. I've tried to reconcile it as Nancy asked for her Mother and Friends again. She wanted them alive again in her mind, not taunting corpses in the corner. Not dead and butchered every time she saw them .And she got it .If only for a moment. But Freddy was having none of that and with some of his last remaining strength , he snatched Marge from Nancy's happy dream.So now, maybe , every time Nancy dreamed of her Mother, she would only see the burnt remains. Dreams of her childhood would be tainted by the constant vision of her Mothers corpse. Although Nancy has defeated and weakened Freddy , he still has just enough energy left to reach out for one last scare. He causes the car to startle her, letting Nancy know he’s not gone yet, feeding her fear that he feeds on. And although she has her friends alive again in her mind( though dead to the real world) Freddy still takes one last something away from her by snatching back her Mother.

     But what when Nancy wakes? She has lost so much in such a short time at such a young age in such an unimaginable horrifying way. It would leave anyone unstable. Let alone the now constant threat in her mind that it could happen again the very next time she falls asleep. Nancy would be sure to have sleeping issues. Never being able to rest properly. Always afraid to go to sleep. And how would she process all that she has experienced? Post traumatic stress disorder would be assured.(though there is nothing really post about it as she is still under real threat of Fred in her mind)

      Her Father would only see things as a cop. He never believes Nancy . What would he think of his ex-wife being found dead in a locked house with his daughter? For all we know, Lt Thompson could have been across the street dealing with Glen’s death all while Nancy was fighting Freddy and only arrives to break into the house and wake Nancy after smoke is seen coming from his old home across the street. Since he would have been part of the waking world, He could very well have found Nancy asleep upstairs and Marge dead in her bed. Never having actually seen Freddy. And left thinking his daughter may have had something to do with his ex wifes death.

      He probably thinks his daughter is completely crazy. And now having to care for his daughter full time , he would be unprepared to cope with a child who is losing her mind in grief and terror.Nancy would still wake into a world where all her close friends and Mother are now murdered. This would be overwhelming in its sadness. And add to that no one would listen to or believe her in the real threat of Freddy, she would be all alone.Her Father would be off working long hours as a cop and have no desire to support her “fantasy”. He would most likely have her admitted to a hospital, kicking and screaming and raving all the way.

     Though in her dreams Freddy is not strong enough to terrorize Nancy, she would still be thinking about him and fearing his return. Feeling his presence in every shadow.This fear would keep the home Freddy fires burning just enough, that he wouldn’t fade away. She would always be afraid of the dangers of sleep.Her mind never allowing for her to rest because she never knows if the next time she lays to rest if it will be her last. While inside the hospital, Nancy is sure to have exhibited experiencing normal night terrors under the influence of the memory of Freddy to such an extent that under supervision it would lead to her at least being prescribed the Hyp-no-cil. Eliminating the intense dreams she is experiencing that the Doctors feel are affecting her mental state. .And for her, eliminating the real threat of Freddy for the time being.

     And now that the dreams have been removed from the equation, Nancy can sleep, mourn and begin the healing process. But what next for our girl? When she is allowed out of the hospital, would anyone who knew her in school want to associate with her? Would she have anyone to talk to about her friends passing? How many years would have passed? I picture Nancy going straight into college after her release from the hospital. Not wanting to stay at home with Daddy, who most likely developed his own drinking problem during these post movie years. Unable to solve the major crimes of these kids deaths, his own ex-wife's mysterious death,Lt Thompson probably started to make mistakes on the job. Missed shifts, anger issues, procedural mistakes ( Ive often wondered if it could have been Lt Thompson who forgot to sign the search warrant in the right place-not a law an order watcher so couldn’t tell you who is responsible for these matters) .His behavior , leading to his demotion or dismissal and leading to his becoming a security guard.

     Because of her intense experiences, Nancy would find herself adept at dream studies and research. Seeking knowledge about all types of dream control, symbols,rituals etc. Herself having a unique perspective on the dream state,perhaps she sought to do research to find the answers on how she could control her dreams if Freddy ever returned. Leading her to seek out a career in Psychology and dream studies. Her insight giving her the skills to maybe even advance quickly through the courses. Her own experiences might also lead her to seek out kids who are experiencing awful dreams as she does truly understand what they might be going through. Though, would she suspect Freddy might be at work before she meets Kristin Parker? Would enough years have passed that she would not connect the random “suicides” of Springwood's teenagers with the possibility of Freddy’s return? Would Nancy not know how many parents were involved in Freddy’s death and therefore not think that he would be seeking out the other children?

      Did Nancy try to question her father as to who the other parents that were involved in their suburban vengeance on Freddy? Would he have told her anything, or deny it, fearing that it would only fuel his daughter’s insane fantasy? I always appreciated the sense of history that was given to the lives of the adults. How their involvement in this has damaged their lives and themselves. Marge disappeared into the bottle. The Thompson's divorced. Tina's parents were divorced with the Mother often abandoning her daughter for personal needs.Glen's father looked like a shouter, and the type to smack his kid (and wife) around when angry. The Parker's(from Dream Warriors) appeared divorced with the mother self involved in her dating and life style activities avoiding the reality of her daughters pain to the point she even makes jokes about it.

            Would Nancy have sought out newspapers and news footage of Freddy? To try to learn as much as she could about him or would she been afraid to, fearing that knowledge would give Freddy power, she would have more to fear the more she knew about him. It's implied in Dream Warriors that she really hadn't learned much more about Krueger than the basic information her Mother had told.

            At some point she did learn that they had hidden Freddy's remains .Though, where that information came from is questionable. Her Father wouldn't talk. Her Mother was dead. Unlikely Glen's parents would be willing to even talk to Nancy after what happened to their son.I can see Glen's father easily blaming Nancy for bringing this sadness upon his family.Though in the original script there is a line where Glen's father tells Lt Thompson that he believes it was Krueger who killed his boy but the movie never gives any indication that he thinks this. Did she get this information from Tina's Mother?I could see Nancy  visiting Mrs Grey and talking about Tina.And Nancy being the type to ask THE questions.  Tina's Mom might let slip what she remembers about that night. 

           Could Nancy even find anything in a newspaper that would be helpful? Odds are no one knew much of Krueger before his capture, and learned less after.

Just a few thoughts on the matter……. 

.

Come On Baby, Light my Fire: or How Many Parents Do You Think Burned Freddy?

How many Parents do you think burned Freddy?

Question with no answer , I know, just a curious thought for discussion.

 First:

What do you think the time period was within he took the twenty kids?Years? A single year?A few months?How much time passed for the Parents combined fear to grow to such a degree that they took to committing a vigilante crime?

I imagine Freddy began with a slow burn, building to a raging fire. At first one kid , here or there, snatched as opportunity allowed. With a cool down period between the firsts. But once Kruger gets a taste , he wants more.And the taking becomes more frequent. So much, that the children go from playing outside to being kept indoors as often as possible. The playgrounds and school yards child free. So Krueger has to move closer to home. Taking them from backyards and bedrooms as the terror among the town grew. This risky child napping, might make him even go for younger kiddies. Snatching infants from cribs ( less fighting back on their part) .Maybe doing the dirty deed in the child’s room while the parents slept across the hall, leaving his handy work for them to discover the next morning.

We know of at least eleven parents(single or coupled) who were involved in the lynch mob.

But , how many in total do you think might have been part of the group? Even eleven couples would be a lot of people,more than enough,and certainly would have made it easy to spread the gasoline around Freddy's boiler room quickly for good effect. More the merrier would have ensured he was toast. ( wonder if any suzie homemakers brought marshmallows?)

Perhaps in some cases , the Mother or Father could not bring themselves to be involved in the crime, so only one partner participated. Decisions that would have led to a divorce in later years as arguments,trust issues and disdain for the deed increased.Divorce,Of which there were a lot among these families,was yet another way that Freddy hurt these families and the surviving children.Still mucking up their picture perfect suburban lives even in with his death. The guilt of both being involved in the crime broke up a few homes in this for sure.

Might there have there been more? We get hints of other kids dying from severe sleep disorders via Dream Warriors.They could have been other Elm Street Children who Freddy got to off screen

And how might these folks have all met? I could see a small group of neighbors coming together and conspiring such an idea in their backyard at weekend barbecues(heheh). But how would it spread to all eleven or more?

The group probably didn't meet at the courthouse during Freddy's trial. Why would they ALL be there?....unless..... we take the original scripts deleted story that Glen ,Nancy ,Tina , and Rod et al had a sibling taken by Freddy.......then these Parents would be severely invested in the outcome of the trial.Appearing in the courtroom,testifying.Sharing their grief.

Then that might place the mob at 20....

Marge mentions that the children who were killed were "kids we all knew" ....and what better place to meet these kids AND their parents but than at school functions ,PTA meetings.Car pools.Bus stops. Elementary school plays. Sports events, Parks.

The Thompson's probably knew the Grey's as Nancy and Tina felt like longtime best friends. They might have met the Lantz's, as they lived across the street from each other. But would any of them have personal lives where they would cross paths with or know or hang out with the Lanes? or the Parkers?

But all the others? They all didnt live on the same few blocks on Elm Street. Freddy would not restrain himself to just one streets worth of children. Some lived on the rich end, the poor end or somewhere in the middle and could have known or even been friends with each other from their own childhoods. If each had a child before the ones we met in the movies, they could have certainly known each other from school interactions. 

If the background information introduced in Freddy's Dead were to be brought into the thought, what if Freddy lived with his family on Elm Street.And he took the kids of his neighbors who looked down on him or his family, or treated his child with disrespect. His familiarity in the neighborhood might have made it easy for him to get close to the kids when it came time to take them.

Side note:never looked closely at the timeline , but seems like most of these parents had a child to replace the one Freddy took shortly afterwards .I cant imagine each family having a second child at the time as they would have had to left that baby home alone with a sitter while they went out to torch a maniac. And, I imagine after Freddy's release, they would not be keen to leave their living children alone and unprotected. 

While it was omitted from the movie, the characters of the Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street were to have a younger sibling in the original script. It was a scene that was even filmed. But it boggles the mind that if true that the subject of Freddy and their former brothers or sisters deaths never came up. Either in direct conversation or playground rumor. It seems odd that none of our characters really know of Freddy before the events of the movie. Something like what he did in ones town would remain a part of the spoken history forever. Especially if the kids had their own jump rope song in regards to the event. It always struck me as odd that none of the kids in the movie had more than a passing familiarity with Freddy's past.Perhaps the parents went out of their way to hide the history. All pictures of the previous child put away. Forever tainted by Krueger's touch in their eyes. No longer their kids, now his. Group promises to not let even the memory of Freddy to touch their new children. But someone outside this group would be talking about the past. Newspapers ,neighbors, gossip seekers. A whole town would not be silent of the slashers sins.

Another question comes to mind......How soon do you think they came up with the idea to torch Freddy and then take action? They couldn't have waited too long after his release as Freddy would be anticipated to leave town and get away to start all over in new town with new kids. Would Freddy have been released immediately after the ruling? or later that evening?next day?

And since they couldn't have known each other as one group of friends, how did they all come together? Sure, Word of mouth could have spread from one pocket of parents to another ( "did you hear what the Thompson's are planning to do? " "Im in!" ) .Some of them might have come up with it immediately after the courts ruling and had a quick discussion, and then reached out to others......."you each bring one parent to the meeting....and they each should bring one parent "...and so on .

Maybe as soon as LT Thompson ( or what ever level of cop he was at the time) was seen to be part of the group, others joined in quickly. Maybe it was he who had the idea in the first place.

(Ive always wondered who signs a search warrant...and if LT Thompson was involved in some way or not , what if he was the one who forgot to sign it so would have felt a greater need to right his wrong)

Eleven or more couples are a lot of mouths , and there would surely be a loose tongue or two in the bunch,how did they keep this all a secret for so many years? 

“Poured gasoline all around the place, made a trail of it out the door , and lit it up and watched the whole place burn”

A fire of any kind would attract attention not to mention firemen and other police even if they had found him in an old abandoned boiler room ,most likely out on the edge of town . If the building in Nightmare 2 was the place in question, that would be a huge fire .Unless they consolidated most of the gasoline around the area where Krueger slept on site with a small trail to the outside so they could light it from a safe distance. Burning his escape routes and forcing him to run through walls of fire. But even controlling that fire would be a serious undertaking.

“The burned him in his boiler room and they hid the remains. “ Why they didn’t just shoot him and bury or burn the body? Why the elaborate execution? Sure, I understand their desire to make him suffer for what he did to the children? But why the risks that come with fire? Could it have been a symbolic choice because Freddy burned the bodies of “his” children? Or was it a cleansing ritual? Burn him from existence .No gravestone, no memory.

How the heck did they manage to set a place on fire AND collect the bones? Sticking around after Krueger came bursting out of the fire , screaming vengeance only to be shot down by Marge? Did they sing campfire songs, roast marshmallows on his twitching corpse while they waited for the fire to be put out?

Perhaps Donald Thompson managed to have removed the bones from evidence after the fact? Alter the paperwork. However, why did they choose to hide the bones in the middle of a junkyard in the first place? For what purpose ? So they could visit them whenever they wanted?

Sure, one would think middle of a junkyard would be a great place to lose something, but there is still the risk that someone would discover the remains. Seems fitting that the junkyard owner was involved in the crime.

But why not just bury the f#%king thing in the first place and be done with it. Maybe the bone disposal was a last minute decision. After the fire, they might not have many choices with the town and other police watching. Perhaps they collected the bones so the fire would have looked like an accident or arson and not a murder but they had little time or options to dispose of it at the time.

Interesting that Donald could remember EXACTLY where the bones were left. It's not like junk in a yard would get moved around.

Maybe he WAS actually a part time security guard for the junkyard,with a key. Taking the job so he could keep an eye on the remains. Because to him that would be the only way he could continue to convince himself that Krueger was really dead,despite all that he had witnessed with his daughter and her friends and the other deaths that must have followed after the first movie.
   

Now, the thought intrigues me : before they burned him.....how did they catch him? 

The Trial of Fred Krueger

Marge: 

It drove us crazy when we didn't know who it was, 

but it was even worse after they caught him

Nancy : 

Did they put him away?

Marge: 

Well all the lawyers got fat and the Judge got famous, but
someone forgot to sign the search warrant in the right place 

and Krueger was free just like that

 

Every now and then I find myself thinking about one of my favorite movies and the potential of various what ifs of off screen events .The "woulda coulda shouldas" , if you will. And one of them recently was on the events of the Trial that would have taken place before Wes Craven's original A Nightmare on Elm Street.  

One of aspects I always admired about Mr Craven's film was that the world of the characters had a history of a life before the movie. A history that was never nailed down in detail by him in any of the Freddy movies he participated in making. Ive often wondered if he had his own Freddy Bible. A list of rules and history of events that Craven created to give himself something to visualize the story, but never needed to put into a script. 

If they ever were to make some form of entertainment out of the Trial of Fred Krueger, I would hope it would be done as a miniseries. Something like 13 episodes. How could they best build up tension and drama when we know how this story ends?
However they chose,they would need a good length to explore all aspects of the story. Let moments breathe. Introduce characters we can care about.

A prequel as a movie choice would have to severely edit story elements to fit within the constraints of an hour an half to two hour film. There is so much dark history leading up to Krueger’s first kill. Let alone exploring the terror he created and following it as it spread through the community with each missing child. Then there is the trial itself. And finally, the act of vengeance.

A lot of ground to cover.

And from whose perspective would this story be told?The Parents? Specifically, any of them from the first movie? Who to follow from before, during, and after the kill?

Follow Freddy? Could watching him as a character really sustain itself ? Cant imagine him having a lot of people to talk to and relate to- so it would it be him at work, and at play-stalking and killing- a lot of dialogue free scenes until his capture ,interrogation and trial where he gets to speak . A straightforward biography movie of Freddy would be a tough choice to pull off .We already know how that story ends, and there would be no way or need to make him a sympathetic character. If we stayed with him for the duration of the story, then all the other characters would most likely lack depth. And the less we try to bring the backstory that was written for Freddy's Dead into the mix the better. Freddy as a father? It certainly could be done. For all we know he could have been a person who hurt the kids who bullied his own child. A parent who took protecting their child to crazy extremes. He meant well, but was never well in the head to begin with so he didnt know when to stop ....ad he liked his work. But Ive always ascribed more to the idea that Freddy was a loner . One of those people who walked through life unnoticed....until the day he decided to make the world take notice.  

I've explored random ideas of his birth to burning in a previous post on here before. There are many ways to approach the events , with or without Freddy's Dead tackled as canon.

Could they pull off the story by keeping Freddy in the shadows for most of the story? His big reveal at the moment he is captured? And exactly how did he get caught? In the act? Or tracked? Ive often thought that ,as his killings and the found bodies and numbers of missing children increased, the Parents fear grew. 

Freddy would begin to snatch his children from street corners and school yards and whenever opportunity gave him a gift. Perhaps picking out the quiet ones and latch key kids at first.. A type of kid he was probably familiar with having most likely been one himself. So he would know how to spot the potential easy marks. 

Or choosing ,at first, kids whose disappearance might not make as much noise in the papers. Playing on prejudices and preconceptions that he thought would be made about his chosen child. But his real intent came from taking the children from the perceived "perfect" families. He would take pleasure in soiling these white picket fenced happy homes.Shoving in their faces the horrors of the world that they thought were not meant for them.Maybe Parents who treated Freddy with disrespect  by day found their children taken by night.  

Eventually the Parents would pull the kids back to their own yards.....but that would not stop Freddy.  He would continue his terror until playing outside was forbidden. The playgrounds and school yards would be empty. So then Freddy would have to creep inside their homes and take the children from their beds.....or leave them there for Mommy to find in the morning. 

It's indicated that he took the kids to an old abandoned boiler room for his brand of fun. But it's never mentioned what he did with the bodies afterwards. It seems in line with his character that he burned some of them  Partially to hide his handy work, partially to just watch them burn. But then his twisted sense of being would want to extend the horror to the homes. Horror tableaux left on playground toys or in bedrooms. Foul things written in their children's blood on the walls above the baby crib. 

Eventually all this need to snatch them from inside would place Freddy in greater danger of getting caught. It would force him to keep coming to their neighborhoods .And in a small town when they are paying attention and looking, someone like him is sure to be noticed. Suspicion leads to search warrant.

And what of the trial? How long do you think it lasted before he was set free? Did the parents we have already met give testimony while Krueger grinned and stared them down from across the courtroom? Giggling at their pain. Licking his lips and rubbing his crotch as each child’s murder was presented.

Marge spoke of it being much worse after Freddy was caught. How so? Not knowing if your child was safe at play would surely be awful. But having to spend day after day seeing Freddy in person would be a terrible emotional experience. Sure, he was under lock and key, but now he was more than just lines on the pages of a newspaper. Hearing every gory detail that each child experienced would be heartbreaking, more so if they knew the child personally. The painful testimony after testimony of each parent as they tell about their child before they were lost and in some cases, how they were found .Every time you  opened the paper, there he was staring back at you,always grinning in joy from the pain and suffering he has caused with his own gloved hand.And there was another child revealed as attributed to being tainted by his touch.

I imagined Krueger would mock the parents in the courtroom……

FREDDY :

Awww that was your child? Sloppy Seconds Susie?

….she had sweet lips…

(glares at Susie’s Father) 

...........but then you knew that didn’t you,Daddy?” . 

 Another Parent in regards to their child-” WHY?!? WHY?!? ….

FREDDY 

(staring directly into her eyes):

Just so I could watch you cry

The media would have a field day with this sensational trial .As the whole town would want to know what was going on. Understandably so. Everyone in town would have something to say about the situation. From people who actually knew details to attention seekers making up stories. “You know the Shop And Bag out by the mall? I stopped at the light and saw him walking in that field behind the Lost River Drive-In on the day that that Lane kid went missing”. Reporters showing up on doorsteps all times of the day. The horrors being relived and reported over and over with no escape for the parents directly involved.

What of the lawyers? Imagine having to be the representative for Krueger? I bet there was a certain amount of harassment that person experienced. And after they used the search warrant signature error to get Krueger off? I’m surprised the parents didn’t burn the lawyer too.

What of the Judge? Did he work the trial to his own political advantage with all the attention it was bringing?Take payments to keep certain people/businesses out of the trial?

And what of the search warrant? Who failed to do their job correctly?What if it was the Judge himself? That would surely make him famous for making such a mistake. Or maybe the search warrant was fake in the first place. What if Nancy's father from the original movie was involved in the mishandling of the search warrant

I could see the Krueger case developing to a level of hysteria that he had to be "protected" .Kept in a cage of glass or bars. It would lead in well to the concept of the the avenging parents if they were already driven to try and hurt Krueger in the courtroom before his release. Several attempts and or threats could lead the court to determine it was the only way to give him a fair trial is to prevent further interruptions.

Of course this would just piss off the parents more. "He's guilty!He deserves to be punished.How dare you protect him after what he did?Where was this protection for our children?"  

And then there is fiery events that occurred after the trial.........