As long as we have movies to watch, there’ll always be fan theories to go along with them. And as any fan of horror flicks can tell you, that genre will never die, either. So, what do you get when you combine the two? Why, horror movie fan theories, of course, which are the best kind.
When the reboot of A Nightmare On Elm Street arrived in 2010, it broke box office records for midnight showings. But it performed so poorly after that a sequel was never made. Despite all that, the backstory of Freddy and what he did to those kids, and how the parents got their revenge is some crazy stuff, but something that’s never really been discussed is how the villain could do the things he could do in the children’s dreams.
A horror move buff from Reddit who goes by the name Softhandsam wrote a small but interesting theory on that a couple years ago and it’s now resurfaced online. We all know how Freddy can get into dreams and wreak some serious havoc, killing those whose nightmares he invades, right? But what about Tina and his ability to walk on ceilings, or making a puppet out of Phillip? Are those just some of the strange things that happen in the dreams he invades? Or is there something more there?
Well, after he goes through a short history of the films and reviews what we know about dream warriors, and Freddy with his soul consuming ways, the Reddit user has this to say:
So here is the theory. In the original NOES Freddy is not quite as powerful as he would seem to be in later films, this is probably meta, due to the budget and special effects limitations of the tiime, yet we may have a better answer.
A deleted scene from NOES the original states that Nancy had a brother and it is implied he died from Freddy in one way or another.
So here is what we know. Freddy kills and absorbs the spirits of children who have powers in their dreams, and he was doing it even before Nancy and her gang. The only ability we are shown him being granted by the dream demons is the ability to travel through dreams and be “eternal” with no mention of the crazy abilities he has in the dreams.
So, one could logically assume that many of Freddy’s more outlandish abilities, such as walking on the ceiling in the first movie or shapeshifting a whole bunch in the third, are actually dream powers he stole from kids whose souls he consumed.
So there was likely a kid who could fly in his dreams and another who could be anything he wanted, and after Freddy absorbed them he uses their abilities to increase the zanyness of the kills.
This also explains the increasingly strange ways in which he is killing people, he is trying out his new powers.
This also fits in line with Alice being the Dream Master in number four, she can rival Freddy because she is absorbing the powers of her friends instead of Freddy absorbing them. So when he was defeated in number three he lost all of his powers except being able to show up in your nightmares and kill you. Thus even though he was stealing souls throughout the film, since Alice was getting the powers, he was still pretty screwed.
So, not only does Freddy trespass in dreams that aren’t his, killing the kids who are having them. But after consuming their souls, he then takes the powers they dream that they have? Just when you thought the guy couldn’t get any more despicable, eh?
Tell us, though, what do you think about this little blast from the past fan theory about A Nightmare On Elm Street? Sound off in the comments section down below and keep those fingers crossed in the hope that we’ll get to see more of Freddy’s powers when (or if) the reboot finally gets properly remade.
