One, Two, Freddy's coming for you.
Three, Four, Better lock your door
Five, Six, Grab your crucifix.
Seven, Eight, Gonna stay up late.
Nine, Ten, Never sleep .......again
One of the many aspects of Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street that fascinated me from my first view was the use and presence of the children's jump-rope song.
It's haunting,catchy, and creates a sense of history.
When we first hear the song it is early in the movie immediately following the first horrific Nightmare of Tina Grey. As she lays back on her bed,sweating from fear,clutching her crucifix to her now razor torn nightgown,she prepares for a sleepless night.
The implication to me has always been that this song is going through her head and follows her into the morning. Is it something she heard in her dream or is a subconscious memory from childhood coming back to her? A child's prayer to ward off evil spirits?
As the night fades into the morning on screen we are actually shown four young girls in their white party dresses playing jump-rope and reciting the song. Could this too be a memory of Tina's recalling reciting this same jump-rope tune as a child when playing with her friends? The young girl enthusiastically jumping rope is blonde like Tina.
Or is it simply the Nightmare seeping into her daily thoughts? Clawing it's way into her waking thoughts .Continuing the fear.
An effective method that has been used many times in horror movies is the use of children singing a creepy tune.It's often unsettling as the child singing is traditionally presented as looking as if it's innocence is tainted by the very evil of which it is singing.But the use here to me is something more than a familiar scary movie trope. This song and the fact that it is children singing it actually has a historic reference to the story of our characters.
As we all know ,Freddy Krueger is the Santa Claus of slaughtering children. He terrorized kiddies from parks to playgrounds,backyards to bedrooms. His murderous efforts were the stuff of urban legend even before he was caught. But after they caught him, it became something much worse. The terror had a face....and a name.And his name was spoken everywhere once he was caught.Freddy's name and face and even his exploits would now invade the homes of every child thanks to the nightly news,papers, and overheard conversations of parents. Children would go to bed with his name echoing in their heads.They now would have a name to the one who murdered their friends.
And children respond to fear in their own way. It would not be out of the ordinary for them to use one of their choices of childhood play to cope with something dark and scary like death.
Rhyme chanted by children while skipping has been around for ages. Examples of English-language rhymes have been found going back to at least the 17th century.Often utilizing folklore.
The nursery rhyme "Ring Around the Rosie" is itself an urban legend of childhood play that is thought to be about The Great Plague. If true, this historic use is creepy in itself. Imagine kids playing outside your window singing this little ditty....for fun.....while friends and family were dying in great numbers and your chance of catching the same sickness they sang about was just as great?
The legend of Lizzie Borden found its way into a jump-rope song
Lizzie Borden took an axe
She gave her mother forty whacks,
After she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one.
The Nightmare Jump-rope song is itself an adaption of a children's nursery rhyme , "One,Two,Buckle My Shoe" .A corruption of it's former innocence.
But when did the Children of Elm Street begin to sing of their neighborhood boogeyman? Soon after his capture? Years later?
While the exact timeline of Freddy's murdering of children,his death by fire, and his subsequent return in the Nightmare is never concretely established in the first movie, it's possible that Nancy Thompson's childhood would have been not far from the actual events that lead to Krueger's death. I've always liked the omitted story idea that Nancy was the second child of Marge and Donald Thompson. That her other sibling was actually murdered by Freddy and she was conceived after the event when her parents felt the world would be safe once again for their child.A celebratory second chance.
So this would mean that even five or so years after the death of Freddy, the children of the playground would be still speaking of him,even if only in play.
And HOW did it all begin?
At this point I imagine a montage of Springwood's Children emerging from their restricted homes after the death of Freddy,at first a bit hopeful, happy to be allowed to play outside again but still, in the background ,there remains the dark cloud of Krueger.
It begins slowly as big kids and older brothers start scaring little kids/younger siblings with tales of how Freddy's gonna get them.
I imagine these older children teasing their younger brothers and sisters with "Freddy's coming for you" ..."gonna get you"....."take you to his boiler room". Even chasing them around the living room with butter knives clenched between their fingers.Their intent is playful spooking with no real maliciousness but it creates real fear in the minds of the little ones who may not be able to let go of the real life terror behind the mockery.Burning embers of fear for Freddy to feed upon.
Over time, this would lead to the birth of the jump rope song the kids sing for "fun".
Always keeping Freddy present in the minds of the kiddies. Never letting him fade away.But remember,not every kid is having fun. Some are having normal nightmares of this "Freddy" they keep hearing about.The fear is building.
And it is within these dreams Freddy may have found a way to cross over.
Did the song instill the beginnings of the fear that Freddy needed to return? Did it create the link that Freddy needed to get inside their dreams since he was already spending time inside their minds from childhood? I imagine Krueger watching from within the dream, unable to touch and take the child before him, personally tormented and enraged that he is trapped in this limbo. A mere shadow on the wall of the dream. Impotent.For the fear is not strong enough.....yet
What started as a playful game .A means to cope with the internal anxiety of the unknown of the imagined threat of Freddy. Becomes itself an instrument of fear. One that Freddy would years later turn back on the children and use for his own purposes.
The last line of the jump-rope song serves as a curious harbinger of what was to come.
But which came first ....the chicken.....or the egg?The Nightmare or the dream of killing in the afterlife? Either way, this chicken came home to "roast"
"That's what it reminded me of that old jump-rope song"
Might Krueger have heard this children's play tune before he died? Or did he pull it from the subconscious of his intended victims? Taking a long forgotten childhood memory and throwing it back in their faces.The memory itself a frighting subconscious thought in their young minds:Freddy's been in their lives forever.
The rhyme appears repeatedly in The Nightmare world of the movies.Performed by young boys and girls who presumably are previous victims of Freddy.Dressed in their funeral best?
Pristine white party dresses and clothes. Suggesting innocence. But also, there is an element of class depicted in this representation. Dressing up your children in specific clothing to go to a social party is something often seen done by wealthy families.Krueger is often said to have hated these well to do Springwood families who act and appear as if the darkness of the world can't touch them.That he would show them the evil this world has to offer, that he himself has seen first hand.Taint them with his touch.
I've wondered about these children. Are they spirits of the murdered? Souls trapped in The Nightmare to wander and play in the dark forever.
Is Freddy using them?.....placing them in the paths of the dreamers to amplify the fear they already feel?
Are they conscious souls or just figments of his twisted imagination. Memories of children past?
Does he stalk them again for fun in his down time between new victims?(I've thought waaaay too much about this,ha!)
If they are previous victims,When did they first hear the jump-rope tune? Who taught it to them?
It stands to reason that the song originated after Freddy was captured but maybe before he was burned.Though for how long it survived on the playground after his death is debatable. In a town like Springwood,so close to the fire, the memory of Freddy would never burn out completely.It probably emerged as a playground staple within the first year of Freddy's discovery and death.And then shortly thereafter became a playground staple for a good three to five years.Fading in popularity as the next fads took over the kids imagination. Jump-rope as a play activity grew in popularity in the 50's but started to decline over the next decade as the temptation of television pulled kids back indoors.But some things never die away completely.Trends and fads reemerge as next generations discover them in their relatives record collections.Old songs get sung again. All it would take is for one kid to come to the playground and tell his friends :Have you ever heard of Freddy Krueger?.Freddy's story was likely to be the top ghost story told at the sleepovers in Springwood." My big brother told me a story about this guy who used to murder kids right here in Springwood.He had knives for fingers...and he would come for you at night,snatching you from your bed." Always ending the story with the song" One.....two....Freddy's coming for you...."
And so the legend of Krueger would be passed on and on.Never forgotten.Despite the parents of the town trying to hide the past.
Still,Kids in the Nightmare sequels were not aware of Freddy and his past ,let alone the jump-rope song. It was not part of their childhood.In each sequel someone had to do research to learn Freddy was in fact real,to explain his past and how it might connect to them and that he was not a figment of an overactive imagination.
In Part 2 Freddy's Revenge, Jesse Walsh is new to town so it's understandable that he is unaware of the gloved one. But ,presumably, Lisa Weber,Jesse's friend, has lived in Springwood for a good part of her life and even in the neighborhood of the Thompson home as she walks to meet Jesse at 1428 Elm St for a car ride to school. Yet she mentions in regards to reading Nancy Thompson's name in the diary that she didn't know her as it was " before my time".Grady knew of Nancy and even what happened to Glen across the street.But neither Grady nor Lisa seem to be aware of Freddy Krueger?
How can one live in this town and NOT know of this violent past,even in passing enough that mentions of razors for fingers or red and green sweater would trigger awareness? Has the town already started to cover-up it's horrible history?
In Part 3, Kristin seems to first hear and then partially recall the jump-rope song from her Nightmares. When Nancy arrives to the hospital and hears Kristin reciting that tune familiar from her own childhood, she is surprised and concerned: "Where did you learn that rhyme?" .
This to me indicates that the jump-rope song had long since faded away from the playground.Nancy is alarmed that someone would know this rhyme from her childhood, one that she herself probably heard very little in the years leading up to her first encounter with Freddy Krueger and even less since. Kristin knowing about this rhyme indicates something is seriously wrong:Freddy's back.
This is Krueger's revenge of it's original intent.In Dream Warriors,Nancy replies to a question about what was that rhyme by explaining that it is "something we used to say to keep the boogeyman away".
When did she do this? In the original Nightmare she is seen dreamily reciting the rhyme while slipping into sleep in the bathtub.Almost as if she is subconsciously sleepily recalling the rhyme.And it's supposed security prayer purpose.
By this point in the movie she hasn't emerged from her dream with the fedora from Freddy's head with his name written on the inside.Her mother hasn't taken her to the basement and revealed the terrible history of her family and direct connection to Freddy.
Nancy,when confronting her Mother with the hat, even exclaims "Fred Krueger, Mom. Fred Krueger. Do you know who that is, Mother? Because if you do, you better tell me because he's after me now" .Even at this point Nancy doesn't know a thing about Fred Krueger,nor does she directly correlate him with the old jump rope song.
She has only had the the school Nightmare where Krueger says to her "Come to Freddy" and heard Tina drawing a connection from her own nightmare to the jump-rope song of their shared childhood in an almost throwaway comment .
It is implied that both Nancy and Tina had their first Nightmare on the same night of the beginning of the movie.Freddy having visited them both in a similar fashion,yet both survived the first night.Nancy seems relatively unaffected by the Nightmare she had.In the original script its implied that Krueger just walked into the room she was in,scrapped his knives along the wall and walked out the other side as if he was just checking up on her.However, Tina is still freaked out the next morning and was likely eager to discuss it with her best friend before school.
What might Nancy have known of Freddy,other than the rhyme from her childhood? Wouldn't Nancy, as a inquisitive child, have asked who this "Freddy" was and why he was "coming for you"? out of curiosity even back then? Nancy's Parents would never have discussed Freddy in her presence.Can you picture their faces when the first time they heard her SINGING about Freddy?!
She probably learned the rhyme on the playground as a child. And even heard stories about the man who inspired it. But as she grew up, it must have faded to the background of her memories.
This thought that Nancy was well aware of the jump-rope song even at a young age,long before she was first visited by Freddy in her Nightmares means that he has always been a part of her life.Despite her parents best efforts he would still get to her.Touch her innocent mind as a child.
But just when did she use to sing this rhyme for protection from the boogeyman? Or was that just her way of avoiding the truth with this Dr Gordan she just met? On that subject,just how exactly does the rhyme work as a means of invoking protection? Does reciting the rhyme mean you are aware of Freddy,and the awareness means he's no longer stranger danger?We are often afraid of the unknown.
1...2...Coming for you
(The threat is real!)
(You are not safe even in your own home!)
5...6...Grab your crucifix
(Pray for safety,help!)
7...8...Gonna stay up late...
(Stay awake!....stay alert!He comes at night...grabs you while you sleep from your own bed!)
9..10...Never...sleep......again
(You WILL be too scared to sleep!)
