1428 Elm Street

What is it with that house ?
Understandably, it is central to the story in Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street.It's the home of our heroine ,Nancy.

It's where the past comes home to roost (roast?heheh)

But why would they continue to use it in each of the sequels?Bad writing?Lack of imagination?Horror movie trope(it appeared in the previous movies, so it HAS to be in every one)?

Krueger had no personal connection to that building prior to the first movie.His home was in the boiler room. That was where he used to take his kids.Why wouldn't he want to continue to chase his new victims around the steampipes and dark and dirty metal corridors of his past.

Part 2 could have taken place anywhere on Elm Street.Anywhere in Springwood for that matter.But I do think ,for at least the first sequel, there was a purpose of having the story take place at 1428.

I always like to believe that Nancy's defeat of Freddy in part one trapped Kruegers spirit inside the ,for lack of a better word, soul of the house. When Nancy brings Freddy out from the Nightmare he is not at his full strength despite his recent three soul kills,and who knows what effect the transition from dream to "reality" would have on him.Might in this form he be experiencing real physical pain as when he was alive.Pain that weakens him even more.

And when Nancy turns her back on him and defeats Freddy by taking away the power she gave him, he fades away and disappears into the floor.(and into Nancy as well).You can here him falling back into the void while fading away.

So when a new family moves into 1428, Freddy has influence over the house and the people inside because his spirit is now part of the house itself. The house is heavy with him in the halls.Even the temperature inside the place is corrupted by his presence. And Jesse is his door out.

But then ,why appear in Dream Warriors? Now, I love the decrepit rotten haunted house look of 1428 in the sequels.But it doesn't make sense for Kristin to be dreaming of the house at all.

 
Unless ,perhaps ,Krueger is still tethered to the house and the connection influences the Nighmares that he presents to his victims.A lot of the sequences in Dream Warriors show the kids walking and running through broken down furniture littered hallways and not Krueger's traditional boiler room setting.

But again, after all these years? Why would Kruger use 1428 as a Nightmare element? I would think there would be more fear to generate from placing his victims in the terrifying unexpected unfamiliar shadows of a boiler room.Or turning someplace they know and love against them.Not some strange broken down house.Granted, it is spooky.
 

   
The use of the house does serve as a connection to Nancy and her past.Her seeing the paper mache house for the first time after just days before hearing the old haunting nursery rhyme must have really started to connect the dots that something terrible was going on.And that something might have to do with Freddy Krueger

For all we know, she has not had a Nightmare since surviving the first.Freddy has stayed far away from her, or has not had access to her because of a broken connection or the use of Hypnocil.So the fact that a total stranger has made a replica of her childhood home would be disconcerting.Despite her Freddy free nights,I imagine that Nancy never once went to sleep without thinking about the man of her dreams,and wondering if tonight would be the night he returned.

In an early draft of Wes Craven's Dream Warriors I seem to recall there was an attempt to make 1428 directly connected to Freddy Krueger.Something about the address being a halfway house that he was born in.I recall hearing some other tale that at one point it was going to be discovered that Krueger lived in that house when he was murdering the local children and after his death Marge and Donald moved in to coverup his mysterious disappearance.

It's possible that Kristin had seen the house at some point.She does live in Springwood.She could have heard stories of the two families who had troubles there while growing up:The girl who went mad when she watched her boyfriend get butchered across the street the same night her mother burned herself to death in the bed upstairs.The boy who went mad and killed a teacher and bunch of kids. So it could be childhood fear that is part of her subconscious ...and we all know how Freddy likes to play with the hidden horrors. But as she says to Nancy, the former resident of 1428, "It's just a house I dream about" . So it appears that Kristin doesn't have a personal connection or remembrance to the house.She doesn't even know who Nancy is in relation to that house.I'm guessing here , but Kristin was probably about 8 or 9 years old when the events of the first Nightmare occurred.Way to young to hear about the house and it's events.She also never heard about Freddy.

         On the flip side, Kristin's Mother seems to know something about the former Thompson house( and potentially it's connection to the Krueger history as she was there that fateful night with the Thompson's when they burned Freddy alive).She is adamant that her daughter get away from that house.Does she think it's cursed? Or is she more concerned that nothing good can come from her daughter digging up these old memories?It's probably more of a concern about the neighbors talking about her crazy daughter at it again,talking about Freddy.

How did Mrs Parker happen to be in the area in the first place? Kristin most likely sought out the house after the events of Dream Warriors and before the events of Dream Master, in effort to connect to Nancy and learn more about the history of Freddy.So she learned where the house from her dreams actually resided. But why would her Mother just happen to be driving by? Is the Parker residence located nearby? And Mother just happened to catch the daughter on her way home from a round of tennis? I'd say it's unlikely that 1428 Elm Street and the Parker's place are near each other.If close,Kristin would then have had some awareness of it considering it's history,especially if it was even slightly run down as in her dreams. She was even compelled to make a paper-mache version of the house that she never saw before but in her dreams.The house,and the Nightmare, left that much of an impression on her.

By this point in the houses real life, it could be boarded up and abandoned and not looking too far off from it's dream variation.Two traumas associated with murders and death would be enough to scare off any potential new buyer.With no one to care for it,it's appearance would be left to rot. And whose to say that the influence of Kruegers spirit trapped within it's walls didn't speed up that process.

In Dream Child the house appears once again, albeit briefly.It is seen in a drawing by Mark.And once again, these new characters are further removed from the Houses history. Alice never dreamed of the house.Though she visited it with Kristin in real life before she died.Mark may have seen a picture and learnt about the house from Alice telling her about Freddy's history and what had happened to her,her brother, and her friends over the last two years and how it's all connected to a terrible past of the town of Springwood.This in turn could have subconsciously influenced Marks dream.And then Freddy invited Mark over to his house to read comics.

But why the house again? Is Freddy still trapped there thanks to his original defeat?He has worlds of horrifying places to send his victims into upon their entering the Nightmare,why still return to 1428?

And once again in Freddy's Dead, the house appears. Krueger even hides it behind a false facade for some reason?The kids who find themselves entering Springwood would have zero knowledge of the house,it's history.So why would Freddy draw them over it's threshold in disquise?

 
The appearance of 1428 in Wes Craven's New Nightmare does, however, make complete sense.It's saved for the perfect moment where "Heather" accepts her role as "Nancy" in the final confrontation.Kudos for the art director getting the right color of the blue front door to match the door in the first film and not the red of the sequels. I do wish they had kept the interior the same once she entered the house.And we saw her walk up the steps to her former characters bedroom to find her old bed that she uses to go after Freddy.

Can Freddy prevent you from waking up from the Nightmare?

Fred Krueger has many skills.
He has cheated Death itself to live on in the Nightmares of his potential victims.Continuing the horrific acts that gave him so much pleasure when alive.Now... with more freedom and more potential to make the pain personal.

He can cause physical harm to himself without any damage.Something he gleefully presented in the first movie as a frightening way to show his victims that "there is nothing you can do to hurt me.And if you can't hurt me, how are you going to stop me?HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

He has the skill to not only invade the most private dreams,that personal space that no one in your life has access too, but also to understand that which you fear the most and that which you love and turn it against you in your mind.

How does he have access to this useful information? Is that part of his dream s-kills? To read your thoughts and pick out the fears that he can focus on to maximize your screams?

Or does he watch you from the shadows? Learning what he needs by glimpsing into your private moments.Seeing what Nightmares your normal mind gives you and picking out the details to best cut you to the quick.

Strangely, in the original A Nightmare on Elm Street, the Nightmares Freddy presented his victims were not based on any personal fear.Other than survival from a boogeyman while trapped in a strange boiler room.The occasional taunting of Nancy with the bloody body of her friend.

It's actually surprising on reflection that none of the Nightmares had any  personal connection to the intended victim. Perhaps at this stage of his powers Freddy did not have full control of certain dream s-kills. And he was just having too much fun chasing and killing his victims like he did when alive, this time without any chance of retribution.

It's assumed that Tina was his first kill in the Nightmare.The night of Tina's first on screen terror we are led to believe that Freddy also visited Nancy,Rod,and Glen based on their reactions and conversations the next day.

In the original script, Nancy talks about Freddy entering the room she was inside of in her dream,glaring at her,scraping his knives along the wall and then exiting out the other side of the room.As if he was just checking in on her and had somewhere else to be.

I wonder how long he had been watching them before he decided to play?He was burned to death over a decade ago but he's just now dream stalking his victims?I would think that taking  the lives of the children of the parents who burned him,so soon after they thought they stopped him, would be more enjoyable.Immediately showing them that they failed, once again, to protect their children. Rather than many years later when most of the parents had pushed the memories of Krueger to the back of their minds and moved on with their lives.

Freddy liked his victims young,I wonder if he watched little Nancy and Tina growing up in their dreams.Waiting for that day he could have them for himself.Perhaps he had to wait till the Elm Street children reached a certain age before he could cross over into their dreams.

And once in, why would he want to give up the fun of terrorizing them nightly? I'd wager that he couldn't be confident that this opportunity would last forever.So he had to get in, and gut them out before it was too late.

Freddy knew he had powers, and in these first Nightmares he was testing out their limits.

And one of the skills that I found myself contemplating if he possessed was the power to keep you trapped in the Nightmare.To prevent you from waking up and getting away.

What made me think about it was the moment when we see Nancy's first Nightmare at the school. She is cornered and she knows it.Freddy is slowly moving in closer for the kill,delighting in dragging it out, when it occurs to Nancy to press her arm up against the sizzling pipes that pervade the boiler room she is trapped in. She must have felt the oppressive heat in her dreams and her smart mind did the math:If I can feel the heat, if I believe that it is real,then the sudden pain from burning myself will wake me.And she was right.

But Freddy's reaction to this is what got me to thinking.

Immediately after Nancy scalds herself awake we see Freddy's raised glove shake as if startled,frightened even, and then drop dramatically out of frame. His vocalization even suggest that this sudden act has caused him some discomfort.

Freddy was not expecting that the rules of the Nightmare could be used against him.And certainly not this early in the cat and mouse game.He needs his victims to believe in the realness of the Nightmare for him to have power,so that he can hurt them for real.But then it's Nancy's belief in the realness of the scalding pipes that helped her escape.The shock of Nancy being pulled out of the dream and Freddy losing control of the Nightmare was so much that it even caused Krueger pain.

Up until this moment, Freddy has been in control of the Nightmares.He shaped the dreamscape around his memories of the abandoned boiler room that he spent so many fond murderous times in.He created images of corpses to taunt the mourning.Popped in and out from anywhere.Complete control of his fate and his victims.Designed and directed by his gloved right hand.

And this is the first incident of someone fighting back to the realization that they are in a dream.Breaking his hold.It must take a lot of concentration and power to create the dream worlds.To mold it and constantly retain enough control to hold it in place.Freddy is inside someones mind during all of this and he is up against their own minds will to dream about whatever it wants to dream about. Or would try to dream about in effort to escape the Nightmare.Fighting off the possibilities.

So could this mean that Freddy can not only invade your dreams,control the content, but then also lock you in the Nightmare? Preventing your mind from just thinking of someplace fun.Thinking about a happy memory.Dreaming up a weapon.

Could he also prevent you from waking and escaping as long as you were mentally paralyzed by fear? And even if you weren't controlled by your fear,could he, by being inside your mind, block that part of your thoughts that would make you realize this is just a dream and all you need to do was wake up,taking away Freddy's power to hurt you.

How was Krueger Caught?

We all know that the reason he was released from jail had something to do with a search warrant signature.But how was he caught in the first place?

We know he wasn't caught in the act, as that alone would have sent him off to jail because the evidence at the scene of the crime wouldn't need a search warrant to be collected and used to convict him.

No, the reason for him being arrested had to do with what they thought they would find WITH the search warrant.But what did they think they would find?Why would they suspect Krueger?

Note to reader- this conversation excludes the ever evolving details of Fred Krueger's background that was explored in the sequels. Specifically Freddy's Dead-Despite the movie being part of the series, I have just never subscribed to the idea that Krueger had a family.

His sinister work required for him to have a lot of time alone to himself.Even that lone wolf nature is part of what drove him to become the monster he became.He was abused and abandoned by the world until he wanted to strike back.

While it is disturbing and frightening to think there is a mass murderer living next door...with his own child .It just doesn't feel right,for me,as being part of Kruegers psychological and personal makeup.

For one,the time it takes to kill.
This would make it hard for him to have a home life.For Freddy to stalk and find his victims while alive and well, that alone takes time,planning and immense patience .He can't just snatch ANY child.

In the beginning, he could very well have selected some of his children by chance.Finding that one lone child on the swing-set in the playground on a spring afternoon.But,He wouldn't always get lucky to find them by mere chance.Even in the beginnings of his spree, all this selecting and snatching of a child would take time to create opportunities.Time he wouldn't have to himself if he had a wife AND child.

Before the threat of the Springwood Slasher became a real fear, he would have more opportunities to find the kiddies outside.From playgrounds to parks,school yards to backyards.Krueger could capture kids who were left alone.And there are always kids left alone.Kids walking to school that was only a few blocks away.Latchkey kids(Watches for patterns,same kid always alone at the same time).Kids who have run off in a tantrum(Crying kids offered candy).Kids waiting for their Parent to come pick them up from school.("I'm your uncle Freddy,*reads name written on kids backpack*Andrew, your Mommie sent me to get you")

After he became the town terror,as the numbers of the fallen and the fear of the parents grew, Krueger would have to seek out his new victims closer to home.Parents would start to lock their children away.Not even allowing them to leave their own front yards.Getting to new kids in their backyards....and even their bedrooms would take even more planning and time than before.Only some of those kill opportunities being the result of a unlucky open window.Can you imagine if Krueger was able to slip inside a child's bedroom and slice them up in their sleep only for the parents to discover the bloody bed the next morning?

And then there would be the playtime.

He wouldn't just cut and run. Freddy would play with his new toy.Savor the slaughter.Chasing his victims around the abandoned boiler room in his demented version of "Tag,...you're IT!". Imagine the children he took waking within the dark and dirty, hot and sweaty confines of the boiler room.Krueger watching them from the shadows.Laughing out at them from in the dark as they cry for their mommies and daddies.Whispering the filthy things into the silence that he will do when he catches them.Scraping his blades along the metal to send them run blindly to be trapped into corners.

 Watching,admiring how the blood emerges and drips from each fresh new cut on the bare white flesh.The murder of each child would take time. It would be increasingly difficult for him to work a full time job,take care of his home life ...and... stalk and slice 20 plus victims.

Krueger HAD to live alone.Away from the public eye.In Wes Craven's original Nightmare,there is very little information given to us about Freddy other than just a few details of his past and death. We know he killed multiple children from the neighborhood.So he was around for some time.We know that he built the glove himself.We know he has a history with the boiler room of the dreams.

But that's about it. We never actually learn much of his capture or his personal past.Certainly not that he was born to a nun from rape.Just that the parents tracked him down to the old abandoned boiler room and set him on fire."Tracked him down"....

Now,it wasn't till after Krueger was caught that they learned of the boiler rooms connection to this story. If they knew before ,they wouldn't have had to track him to it in end.And they certainly would have not needed a search warrant to investigate an abandoned property.

To be honest, I know very little how a search warrant actually works.My assumptions are that it is first requested by an officer of the law who is trying to prove a crime has been committed by a specific individual based on what evidence or witnesses have been collected and it allows them to search for that specific evidence that is the key to conviction.The warrant even has to state specifically what they are looking for, not just we want to search your private property because of...stuff.Perhaps the part that was not signed in the right place was the listing of exactly what piece of evidence to be allowed to search for inside Krueger's property.They found something while they were inside that pointed directly to one or more of the lost children, but since it wasn't listed as a specific,and it was the only physical evidence collected that proved their case, they had to end the trial.

But even then, there has to be enough evidence or witnesses beforehand to point that the answer lays beyond the legal threshold of one's property.

And that raises another question.The abandoned boiler room would not have been Krueger's property.Sure,he may have spent a lot of time there.Even slept there.Or most likely passed out in a drunken haze after the adrenaline rush of his kill wore off.But it wasn't his home.So they wouldn't need a search warrant to access the abandoned property.No, I don't think they knew where Freddy took his kids.Even after he was arrested.I doubt Freddy confessed to anything.He probably just sat there and smiled his creepy grin in silence.The whites of his eyes gleaming from beneath his grimy face.

Though, on the day he was set free the Parents soon learned where their children came to die.Someone surely followed him "home".Or followed him through town.Probably watched him load up his car with intent to escape Springwood and start over in a brand new town.Watched him casually eat a meal from a burger joint.Buy booze and then drive off to the edge of town.Pulling his van behind the old property and then going inside.After hours of waiting and watching to see if he went anywhere else,maybe the person or persons who followed Freddy peeked inside the boiler room to see Krueger drinking himself into a stupor.Giving the parents of Springwood the opportunity but also the time sensitive need to do away with Krueger.If they didn't kill Krueger while he was passed out drunk tonight, then he would get away and more children would die tomorrow.

So for what personal space of Krueger's would the search warrant have been written?

His person?It's unlikely he would have the glove hidden on him in public.And they wouldn't even know of the glove because anyone who saw it, never survived it.If they saw blood, that would be out in the open evidence that wouldn't require a search warrant.

His vehicle? I imagine he drove one of those white windowless child molester vans.Had it been seen driving around the small town of Springwood ? Did folks recall seeing it in the area before their child went missing.And its reoccurring description showing up in statements over and over start to point the police in Freddy's direction? Was it's nondescript appearance actually not so nondescript? Did folks start to notice it more and more because he got careless and drove by his victims homes afterwards hoping to soak in the sadness?

But what would make them think there was something inside the van that would confirm suspicions of Freddy as the Springwood Slasher? It's presence near crime scenes wouldn't be enough.Might one of Freddy's failed snatches have told their parents about an interaction with the strange man in the van? Did they describe seeing a dress worn by or a specific toy belonging to a previous victim on the floor of the van when Freddy opened the door to tempt the next child to come to him?

But would that be enough?The smallest observation from a child would likely be taken completely serious considering the temperament of the town drowning under the rain cloud of Krueger's terror.

Would they go for where he slept at night?I never pictured Krueger as actually owning a home,let alone even living in an apartment.Maybe he crashed at a flophouse and one of the other residents spotted something suspicious.

Honestly, I pictured him more as a drifter.A homeless person with no one and nothing in his life but hatred for innocence and an all consuming desire to cut it down.Someone who was so poor he slept in the abandoned boiler room.We are shown what looks like Freddy's cot and various belongings strewn around one corner of the boiler room in the Nightmare.(Could many of those items have been souvenirs of his previous victims?-he did keep Glen's headphones).I do wish clearer photos of the set design where available to see even after all these years.

This living quarters of his felt to me like actually a memory of Freddy's that was imprinted on the Nightmare world he inhabited.It was what he knew as home and in this void even he would want to remember the familiar.

But if he also slept where he slashed, then the cops would have certainly found some kind of evidence with a search warrant that with which to convict Krueger.Burnt child's bones in the ashes.Sliced children's clothes and toys.The glove whose bloody blades match the cuts found on the discarded bodies of the babies.As abandoned property they could have simply investigated the site and discovered the horrors. This makes me think that they didn't discover the lair till the night they burned him alive.

So what triggered the warrant? Did they just have suspicions and a deep desire to capture and blame someone,anyone, for their failures to protect their children? So they took advantage of the local weirdo seen in the red and green sweater?Wrote up a search warrant but never asked a judge to sign it because they really only had the barest of circumstantial evidence Thinking that ,once they found the evidence they needed to prove he was the killer, a Judge would easily sign it after the fact in secret and pretend that he had done it beforehand.Just to finally get the bastard.

Might Freddy's famous sweater be what done him in? As previously stated,I imagine Krueger as a drifter,as a deeply poor soul who owned very little to his name. And one of those items was the now iconic Red and Green Sweater. An item I imagine he picked up at a homeless shelter one cold winters night after spending a night freezing on the town.Someones donated or discarded old christmas sweater.He wore it often.Not so much by choice, but more necessity.This being one of the few items he actually owned.

I picture Krueger as maybe having worked a variety of odd jobs around town.And on these various jobs he would find ways to watch and sometimes speak with children.Picking his victims.But also on these jobs he would be seen wearing that sweater.Maybe even using it to his advantage later with the kiddies who had already met Freddy."Remember me?"

Since he was often seen wearing it.It eventually stood out to those who were finally looking in his direction.

And this sweater would stand out.For it's color,for the oddness of choice to wear,or the fact that he always wore it because he had little else. Since he was often seen wearing it,so much so,the sweater became associated with him with the townsfolk of Springwood.Whispers of "That weirdo in the red and green sweater was seen stumbling drunk through the field behind the Lost River Drive-In.Swinging his arm back and forth at nothing"

It probably smelled terrible ,too.Caked in sweat and ash from the heat of the boiler room.Underneath that filth, maybe bits of blood from a child.Might someone have seen what looked like blood on his sweater? And someone took that suspicious thought and ran with it?

Krueger most likely spent what ever little money he earned on alcohol to then drink himself into slumber.And maybe he was seen drunk around town,even arrested every now and then for public intoxication. Maybe he got a little too drunk one day and passed out in a park.And someone saw blood that he forgot to try to remove. Or kids who were playing nearby came across him and he said something threatening-"I'm coming for you" Something that the kids repeated to their parents. And when they asked who the man was or what he looked like the kids called him "the guy in the red and green sweater".

Maybe the search warrant was for the sweater.Someone saw it near a potential crimes scene.Maybe someone saw it flash by in the backyard of a house with children where an attempted break-in occurred.The cops were called.And since the eye witness said they saw a man in a red and green sweater the search warrant was for the actual sweater.Since they couldn't be 100% sure to find Krueger wearing the evidence on a sunny summer day.And they hoped to have the witness identify the sweater as the one they saw in the backyard.

Maybe the search warrant came after he was arrested.As a means to gather more evidence to connect him to the crimes.But then all that evidence collected became mute due to the lack of that all important signature.

What made them suspicious?

I imagine that at first Krueger disposed of the bodies in the fire of the boiler.Leaving very little to no evidence of the crimes he committed.Burned it all away.But smoke coming from an abandoned boiler might attract unwanted attention even on the edge of town.If that gave the police enough motive to arrest Krueger, wouldn't the body evidence be enough to put Freddy away? Again, I don't think they ever caught him in the act.

Freddy probably later discovered that he could add to the pain of the parents by letting the bodies, or parts of them, to be found.Leaving their slashed naked corpses out in the open and then standing in the background to watch as each new horror was discovered.Scattering parts around the playground to be seen by the schoolmates of the victim in a twisted easter egg hunt that would add to their fears.I could see Krueger even leaving one of the bodies on the parents front porch to be discovered with the morning paper.Imagining the parents horror as they discover their little girl with the morning milk.Relishing the thought of their screams as they clutched their child's limp lifeless body to their chests.Knowing that it will only get worse for them when they get to see his handiwork up close.Because he knows they will look.They always look.

And maybe he wanted to look too.That he wanted more than just the mere dream of them finding the body.He wanted to see them find it in person.

And maybe he was seen once too often enjoying the fruits of his labor.His image connected too often to the vicinity of the scene of the crimes.

At what point did they decide Freddy was the killer and go forward with arresting him? Where did they arrest him? Who arrested him?

Might Lieutenant Thompson have been directly involved? It would be interesting if he was the officer who requested a search warrant... and then forgot to sign it in the right place in his rush to cuff Krueger.That one mistake resulting in Freddy's freedom and then later forcing his own hand to commit murder.Which in turn placed his daughter, Nancy, in danger.

It would be even more intriguing if the warrant was obtained under false means.This act would tie into his willingness to join in on the burning mob.I've occasionally wondered just how involved Donald Thompson wanted to be.Say perhaps he even found out about the mob murder of Krueger after the fact from his wife and to protect his family reluctantly helped in the cleaning up afterwards.

His personal involvement in the plan of setting Freddy on fire would have made the others participating more likely eager to act.They had a cop on their side so their anger would not have to be held back.

Side thought, I wonder how his involvement in arresting Krueger helped or hindered Donald's career.If he helped in capturing Krueger that would have been a hell of a feather in his cap.But if it was his screw up that resulted in Freddy being set free , that would have hindered any advancement.Also, Lt. Thompson seems like he has a bit of a temper.

Regardless Thompson's level of involvement,they never found Krueger's body.The fire would have been reported.But no one would have know Freddy's real fate.It might have looked as if he himself had burned his lair in effort to destroy any remaining evidence.

But it all still begs the question.How was Krueger caught? When and where  did they arrest him?What was their lucky break?