Everyone’s favorite striped sweater-wearing, knife-gloved slasher may have been based on a true story. That’s right,Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund)fromA Nightmare on Elm Streetwas inspired by a real-life story, not just entirely made up byWes Craven. Just when you thought the concept of Freddy infiltrating your nightmares and killing you in torturous ways couldn’t be scarier, there seemingly was a dream killer wreaking havoc in the 1980s.
A Nightmare on Elm Streetis about a group of Midwestern teenagers who all are experiencing the same nightmarish fate: a man named Freddy Krueger preys upon them in their sleep. Krueger is a badly burned boogeyman who kills people in their dreams, which manifests into their deaths in real life. The only way to avoid falling victim to Krueger is to stay awake at any cost — otherwise “one, two, Freddy’s coming for you.” There areeight movies in the franchise, which includes one mash-up of worlds,Freddy vs. Jason. There is alsoa 2010 remake ofA Nightmare on Elm Street, but we can let that remake die in our sleep. Because of the success of the franchise, there is also a four-hour documentary titledNever Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy. There was alsoa tv series titledFreddy’s Nightmaresand almostaFear Factor-style reality showwith Freddy Krueger as the host titledReal Nightmares. The legacy of Freddy Krueger is one of the most popular in the history of horror — and legacies never die. So, how did the sarcastic and sadistic child murderer come to fruition? TheLA Timescan be thanked for that.
A Nightmare on Elm Street
Teenager Nancy Thompson must uncover the dark truth concealed by her parents after she and her friends become targets of the spirit of a serial killer with a bladed glove in their dreams, in which if they die, it kills them in real life.
The Real-Life Inspiration Behind ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’
Surprisingly enough,Craven started writing horror scriptswithout ever seeing a horror movie first. InVulture’s oral history ofA Nightmare on Elm Street,Craven said that he was struck with inspiration for the dream killer when he foundan article in theLA Times. The article was about a Cambodian family coming to America to escape mass genocide in the Killing Fields. They made it to the United States, and all was fine until the young boy in the family was terrified to sleep because he felt that if he slept, he would be killed by something chasing him. He forced himself to stay awake for days at a time, and eventually,he died in the middle of a nightmare. This becamethe basis forA Nightmare on Elm Street.Craven told Cinefantastique Magazinethat it also wasn’t the only article that he saw — there were three other articles about unexplained deaths of those from Laos, Cambodia. None of the articles connected the deaths together, even though they were all eerily similar. The last of the men dying in their sleep was found with a Mr. Coffee maker in his closet and discarded sleeping pills that he never took.
This isn’t the first case of Southeast Asia refugees dying in their sleep, however.Many young men in the country of Laos were falling asleep to their deaths due to a fatal ailment. This was eventually namedSudden Unexplained Nocturnal Death Syndrome (SUNDS). The ailment affected young men between the ages of 20 and 30 from the Hmong ethnic group, who were persecuted in Laos after they were recruited by the CIA and agreed to fight the North Vietnamese in the Vietnam War. Between 1978 and 1981, there were13 nocturnal deathsof Hmong young men recorded.According to the LA Times, 98% of those deaths occurred between 10 pm and 8 am. During the year 1981, 26 total Hmong men died for the same reason. Many victims were found dead, but if medics arrived in time, the men were found with their hearts contracting obscenely fast.
There has been a lot of speculation on what could possibly be causing SUNDS. Some doctors suspected poor diet, as the longer the refugees were living away from the camps on the Killing Fields, the more likely they were to live. Others suspected that it could be due to exposure to chemical nerve agents during the Vietnam War, but that was dispelled quickly.In an LA Times article, a medical examiner mentioned that if it were a chemical agent, it doesn’t make sense that it would affect only men and only during a specific time frame in the evening. Some Hmong members felt they were being punished by spirits for leaving and abandoning their homelands.SUNDS is still unexplained to this day.
SUNDS Has Also Inspired Horrific Folklore in Asian Cultures
Although it is not yet known what causes SUNDS, it is believed to be a genetic disorder, and has been observed most frequently in South Asian communities. Given that a mere glance at a single newspaper headline inspired Craven to create the horror icon behind many films, it shouldn’t be surprising that in the communities who have experienced SUNDS directly, similar tales have been told. Many of these go back generations, though they have been the inspiration for contemporary horror as well.
In the Philippines, where SUNDS has caused the deaths of many young men, the mysterious ailment is unofficially known as “bangungot.” This loosely translates to “cursed dream” in Tagalog, the most commonly spoken language in the Philippines. In folklore, the Bangungot is a vengeful female spirit that suffocates men in their dreams. Often, the Bangungot, which is also known as the Batibat in the folklore of the Ilocano people of northwestern Philippines, dwells in trees, and attacks those who make their homes, or – please do not do this – their beds, out of the wood of her tree.
The Bangungot Has Also Inspired Contemporary Horror of Her Own
The Bangugot, or Batibat, has been the subject of several contemporary horror movies. One of the chapters in the ninth installment of long-running Filipinohorror anthology seriesShake, Rattle & Rollis the story of a woman whose grandfather died during a nightmare, which she fears was the result of a Bangungot attack. Thefound footage horror filmThe Medium (Rang Zhong),from the producers ofThe Wailing,touches on Lai Tai, which means “death in sleep” in Thai.
In America, the legend of the Batibat was used byChilling Adventures of Sabrina, the Netflix adaptation ofSabrina the Teenage Witchset in theRiverdaleuniverse. Inthe fifth episode of Season 1, Sabrina (Kiernan Shipka) accidentally sets the Batibat (Megan Leitch) free after her father had imprisoned her for 70 years inside the Acheron Configuration. The creature goes on to haunt Sabrina and her friends' dreams. The Batibat also showed up in the Canadian seriesLost Girl, where she takes revenge after her tree is used to make high-end furniture.
Here’s What Happened to the ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ Prequel You Never Saw
Krueger in court could have been a reality.
Still, the most renowned embodiment of this genetic ailment will likely always be Freddy. The connection between the horror franchise legend and the true story that inspired him will probably never be part of the Freddy universe. Especially because SUNDS essentially only effects men. This has given the folklore a gendered quality. The Bangungot is a female demon who attacks men, and there are some versions of the story in which dressing as a woman before bed keeps her from targeting you. Meanwhile, Craven’s connection to the disease is remote. His Bangungot, Freddy Krueger, is fully appropriated into America’s folklore, the slasher film. In that tradition, though he kills everybody,he tends to sexually fixate on women.
Wes Craven’s ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ Was Turned Down by Many Studios
Craven took the idea to Hollywood and was largely turned down by many directors and production studios, even including Universal Studios. In Vulture’s oral history ofA Nightmare on Elm Street, Craven admits he has the rejection letter from Universal hanging on his wall.Many deterred Craven from wanting to make this film because of the basis of the plot. Many warned him that it wouldn’t be accepted because, yes,while everyone has nightmares, everyone eventually wakes up from them without being attacked by a knife-fingered maniac.Bob Shaye, the eventual producer ofA Nightmare On Elm Street, felt differently. He met with Craven and told him he loved it. They set a budget of $700,000 that was mainly funded by a Yugoslavian man who wanted his girlfriend to be in the movie. Freddy’s iconic red and green sweater was a necessity becauseCraven had read aScientific Americanarticlethat stated red and green together is the most difficult color combination for the human eye to see together. He also wanted those to be Freddy’s signature colors and a way to recognize him immediately since he is a shape-shifter. This is seenat the end of the originalA Nightmare on Elm Streetwhen the kids drive off in the convertible and the roof is red and green striped, signifying that may be the end for those kids.
A very real and unexplainable phenomenon inspired one of themost successful and iconic horror franchises. In Vulture’s oral history, the director ofA Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revengereferred toNew Line Cinemaas “the house that Freddy built” — and horror pop culture would agree with that. Inspiration can strike in the most unexpected places, and for Craven, that LA Times article was exactly what he neededto create horror history.
A Nightmareis currently available to stream on AMC+ in the U.S.
