Even if you’re only vaguely familiar with the A Nightmare on Elm Street saga, there’s still a fine chance that you’re familiar with the basics when it comes to Freddy Krueger’s origin: Long story short, he murdered a bunch of kids in Springwood before local parents hunted him down and burned him alive. Then, he came back to slaughter many more youths where nobody could protect them – in their dreams.
As it turned out, the horror icon’s beginnings weren’t fleshed out in one single film, but rather, explored at strategic points in various sequels. Fortunately, then, the folks over at Playa TV have done a remarkable job of cutting together all relevant clips into one coherent viewing experience, which you can watch below.
Taking full advantage of Robert Englund’s narration from Freddy vs. Jason that explained the basics, we smoothly segue into footage taken from The Dream Child that details the birth of the Bastard Son of 100 Maniacs. Then, Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare continues showing us his sordid past.
As you continue viewing the clip, some may find material they aren’t familiar with, mainly because it’s taken from Freddy’s Nightmares, an anthology TV series that ran for a time in the late 1980’s. There, the court case that led to Krueger’s acquittal had been shown in detail in the pilot episode, so its inclusion was actually a stroke of genius.
Smoothing over the edges is some footage culled from 2010’s A Nightmare on Elm Street remake, only Englund’s head has been digitally inserted in place of Jackie Earle Haley’s. That may put off some people for sure, but I can understand why it’s there when examining the video from an editing standpoint. Overall, it’s a nice little watch and should satisfy fans as they await more news on that potential reboot.