Author Topic: How many Parents do you think burned Freddy  (Read 6093 times)

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HazelRah

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How many Parents do you think burned Freddy
« on: June 24, 2020, 07:58:05 PM »
 just a curious thought for discussion.....

 First:
What do you think the time period was within he took the twenty kids?Years? A single year?A few months?How much time passed for the Parents combined fear to grow to such a degree that they took to committing a vigilante crime?

I imagine Freddy began with a slow burn, building to a raging fire. At first one kid , here or there, snatched as opportunity allowed. With a cool down period between the firsts. But once Kruger gets a taste , he wants more.And the taking becomes more frequent. So much, that the children go from playing outside to being kept indoors as often as possible. The playgrounds and school yards now child free. So Krueger has to move closer to home. Taking them from backyards and bedrooms as the terror among the town grew. This risky child napping, might make him even go for younger kiddies. Snatching infants from cribs ( less fighting back on their part) .Maybe doing the dirty deed in the child’s room while the parents slept across the hall, leaving his handy work for them to discover the next morning.

All this leading up to him getting caught

We know of at least eleven parents(single or coupled) who were involved in the lynch mob.

But , how many in total do you think might have been part of the group? Even eleven couples would be a lot of people,more than enough,and certainly would have made it easy to spread the gasoline around Freddy's boiler room quickly for good effect. More the merrier would have ensured he was toast. ( wonder if any suzie homemakers brought marshmallows?)

Perhaps in some cases , the Mother or Father could not bring themselves to be involved in the crime, so only one partner participated. Decisions that would have led to a divorce in later years as arguments,trust issues and disdain for the deed increased.Divorce,Of which there were a lot among these families,was yet another way that Freddy hurt these families and the surviving children.Still mucking up their picture perfect suburban lives even within his death.

Might there have there been more? We get hints of other kids dying from severe sleep disorders via Dream Warriors.They could have been other Elm Street Children who Freddy got to off screen

And how might these folks have all met? I could see a small group of neighbors coming together and conspiring such an idea in their backyard at weekend barbecues(a little too ironic...don't cha think?). But how would it spread to all eleven or more?

The group probably didn't meet at the courthouse during Freddy's trial. Why would they ALL be there?....unless..... we take the original scripts deleted story that Glen ,Nancy ,Tina , and Rod et al had a sibling taken by Freddy.......then these Parents would be severely invested in the outcome of the trial.Appearing in the courtroom,testifying.Sharing their grief.

Then that might place the mob at 20....

Marge mentions that the children who were killed were "kids we all knew" ....and what better place to meet these kids AND their parents but than at neighbor hood gatherings,school functions ,PTA meetings.Car pools.Bus stops. Elementary school plays. Sports events, Parks.

The Thompson's probably knew the Grey's as Nancy and Tina felt like longtime best friends. They might have met the Lantz's, as they lived across the street from each other. But would any of them have personal lives where they would cross paths with or know or hang out with the Lanes? or the Parkers?

But all the others? They all didn't live on the same few blocks on Elm Street. Freddy would not restrain himself to just one streets worth of children. Some lived on the rich end, the poor end or somewhere in the middle and could have known or even been friends with each other from their own childhoods. If each had a child before the ones we met in the movies, they could have certainly known each other from school interactions.

If the background information introduced in Freddy's Dead were to be brought into the thought, what if Freddy lived with his family on Elm Street.And he took the kids of his neighbors who looked down on him or his family, or treated his child with disrespect. His familiarity in the neighborhood might have made it easy for him to get close to the kids when it came time to take them.
It seems likely that most of these parents had a child to replace the one Freddy took shortly afterwards when they knew it would be safe.I cant imagine each family having a second child at the time as they would have had to left that baby home alone with a sitter while they went out to torch a maniac. And, I imagine after Freddy's release, they would not be keen to leave their living children alone and unprotected.

While it was omitted from the movie, the characters of the Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street were to have a younger sibling in the original script. It was a scene that was even filmed. But it boggles the mind that if true that the subject of Freddy and their former brothers or sisters deaths never came up. Either in direct conversation or playground rumor. It seems odd that none of our characters really know of Freddy before the events of the movie. What he did in ones own town would remain a part of the spoken or whispered history forever.

Especially considering the kids had their own jump rope song in regards to the event. It always struck me as odd that none of the kids in the movie had more than a passing familiarity with Freddy's past.Perhaps the parents went out of their way to hide the history. All pictures of the previous child put away. Forever tainted by Krueger's touch in their eyes. No longer their kids, now his. "Use to take HIS kids" Group promises to not let even the memory of Freddy to touch their new children. But someone outside this group would be talking about the past. Newspapers revisiting the scandalous event ,neighbors, gossip seekers. A whole town would not be silent of the slashers sins.

Another question comes to mind......How soon do you think they came up with the idea to torch Freddy and then take action? They couldn't have waited too long after his release as Freddy would be anticipated to leave town and get away to start all over in anew with someone else's kids. Would Freddy have been released immediately after the ruling? or later that evening in secret(The angry crowds outside the jail would be huge)?next day?

And since they couldn't have known each other as one group of friends, how did they all come together? Sure, Word of mouth could have spread from one pocket of parents to another ( "did you hear what the Thompson's are planning to do? " "Im in!" ) .Some of them might have come up with it immediately after the courts ruling and had a quick discussion, and then reached out to others......."you each bring one parent to the meeting....and they each should bring one parent "...and so on .

Maybe as soon as LT Thompson ( or what ever level of cop he was at the time) was seen to be part of the group, others joined in quickly. Maybe it was he who had the idea in the first place.

(Ive always wondered who signs a search warrant...and if LT Thompson was involved in some way or not , what if he was the one who forgot to sign it so he would have felt a greater need to right his wrong)

Eleven or more couples are a lot of mouths , and there would surely be a loose tongue or two in the bunch,how did they keep this all a secret for so many years? Some might have been only on watch, trying to find where Krueger ran off too hide.I don't believe they had found his kill playground before he was arrested as there would be enough evidence on that site to convict and Krueger didn't own the boiler room so would they even need a search warrant before entering an old abandoned boiler room that belonged to no one?

“Poured gasoline all around the place, made a trail of it out the door , and lit it up and watched the whole place burn”

A fire of any kind would attract attention not to mention firemen and other police even if they had found him in an old abandoned boiler room ,most likely out on the edge of town . If the building in Nightmare 2 was the place in question(Maybe Kruegers place was a older version of the boiler in the back of the lot.), that would be a huge fire.

Unless they consolidated most of the gasoline around the area where Krueger slept on site with a small trail to the outside so they could light it from a safe distance. Burning his escape routes and forcing him to run through walls of fire. But even controlling that fire would be a serious undertaking.

“The burned him in his boiler room and they hid the remains. “ Why they didn’t just shoot him and bury or burn the body? Why the elaborate execution? Sure, I understand their desire to make him suffer for what he did to the children. But why the risks that comes with fire? Could it have been a symbolic choice because Freddy burned the bodies of “his” children to dispose of them? Or was it a cleansing ritual? Burn him from existence .No gravestone,no body, no memory.

How the heck did they manage to set a place on fire AND collect the bones? Sticking around after Krueger came bursting out of the fire , screaming vengeance only to be shot down by Marge? Did they sing campfire songs, roast marshmallows on his twitching corpse while they waited for the fire to be put out?

Perhaps Donald Thompson managed to have removed the bones from evidence after the fact? Alter the paperwork. However, why did they choose to hide the bones in the middle of a junkyard in the first place? For what purpose ? So they could visit them whenever they wanted?

Sure, one would think middle of a junkyard would be a great place to lose something, but there is still the risk that someone would discover the remains. Seems fitting that the junkyard owner was involved in the crime.

But why not just bury the f#%king thing in the first place and be done with it. Maybe the bone disposal was a last minute decision. After the fire, they might not have many choices with the town and other police watching. Perhaps they collected the bones so the fire would have looked like an accident or arson and not a murder but they had little time or options to dispose of it at the time.

Interesting that Donald could remember EXACTLY where the bones were left. It's not like junk in a yard would get moved around over decades

Maybe he WAS actually a security guard for the junkyard,with a key. Taking the job,after losing his,so he could keep an eye on the remains. Because to him that would be the only way he could continue to convince himself that Krueger was really dead,despite all that he had witnessed with his daughter and her friends and the other deaths that must have followed after the first movie.
   
Now, the thought intrigues me : before they burned him.....how did they catch him? 

Billy

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Re: How many Parents do you think burned Freddy
« Reply #1 on: June 29, 2020, 12:34:52 AM »
Well, we have,

Nancy’s parents
Glen’s
Rod’s
Tina’s
Kristen’s
Kincaid’s
Joey’s
Jennifer’s
Taryn’s
Philip’s
Will’s

And when Max is listening to the radio in Dream Warriors about 2 more teenage suicides, we assume it’s obviously Freddy again. So that’s 2 more.
When the world isn’t the same as our minds believe, then we are in a nightmare, and nothing is worse than a nightmare, except one you can’t wake up from”- Werewolf


Rod Lane

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Re: How many Parents do you think burned Freddy
« Reply #2 on: June 29, 2020, 09:18:40 AM »
Yes, at the very least 20+ parents were affected. Probably others as well who were in on vigilante justice, with no real personal ties to Freddy's crimes.

As for how he was caught? I subscribe to loner Freddy, always have. He'd stick out in Springwood and would obviously be a person of interest. Wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if someone on the force decided to snoop around in Freddy's hideaway, most likely the power plant. And I don't think they'd bother with search warrants either. "I have a hunch about this guy. I'll just decide to check up on him on my own". Big mistake, since whatever evidence they'd obviously find would be 100% inadmissible because of this.

Billy

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Re: How many Parents do you think burned Freddy
« Reply #3 on: June 29, 2020, 06:27:48 PM »
Actually it’ll probably be more than 20. Obviously the 20 who lost their children to Freddy, and probably a few other residents who were just part of the mob. So it could be 25, 30, or maybe more. In the first episode of Freddy’s Nightmares when the parents burn him, it looks like there’s only about 10 people that are part of the mob.
When the world isn’t the same as our minds believe, then we are in a nightmare, and nothing is worse than a nightmare, except one you can’t wake up from”- Werewolf


Billy

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Re: How many Parents do you think burned Freddy
« Reply #4 on: July 01, 2020, 07:29:00 PM »
Another thing I just remembered: in Kristen’s first nightmare in Dream Warriors when she’s running away from Freddy with the little girl, she goes into a room with all dead people hung up. More than likely their parents were also part of the lynch mob that burned Freddy, so the mob could’ve easily been over 40 people, I think.
When the world isn’t the same as our minds believe, then we are in a nightmare, and nothing is worse than a nightmare, except one you can’t wake up from”- Werewolf


HazelRah

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Re: How many Parents do you think burned Freddy
« Reply #5 on: July 07, 2020, 12:11:04 AM »
That image in Dream Warriors of the room full of hanging suicide victims always unnerved me.

Not just for the imagery.Suicide is rarely shown on film and the double dip the movie makes with it was a bit shocking in the 80's.But more so for the fact that I interpreted it as Freddy psychologically torturing Kristin in her dreams.

I believe that Kristin had contemplated suicide before the night she had "slashed" her wrists. With her home life and that Mother of hers, I could easily see her having emotional problems even without some dead dream stalker trying to kill her in her nightmares

So Freddy used those thoughts that he was able to read in her mind.

This is another disturbing factor of Freddy that I've always found frightening-his ability to know your deepest darkest thoughts and fears. The ones that run wild and unchecked in your dreams. I picture that Freddy likes to begin his stalking of you by observing from the shadows in your dreams.Learning your secrets. He is there,watching and leering,long before he turns your dreams against you and tries to take your life.EVERYTHING you keep inside is exposed before him.

Got a crush on someone at school that you dream about kissing?That if revealed, you would be embarrassed...to death? He's watching and learning how he can use that persons voice to torment you later.Make it say things you fear the person would say,things that taint your feelings when awake.Breaking your heart.Taking that hope away from you before he takes your life.Been touched by an adult as a child? He's watching that hand revisit your special places against your will even in your subconscious.And then when he takes that dark memory's place, his hand will have cut deeper with it's touch.

Freddy was pushing Kristin.Putting that suicidal thought that was in the back of her mind on display in a way that she couldn't ignore.Even though that thought frightened her, it was still something she contemplated.Making it easier to manipulate her semi conscious mind when she "woke" from the nightmare and went to the bathroom.

As for the bodies being previous victims...Thats certainly a possibility and plays into the underlying story element that is going on at the start of Dream Warriors. Freddy's murders are written off or treated as suicides by adults who don't care to look any further into their children's problems.

Some kids might have tried to escape their fear and pain by killing themselves. It's never confirmed that any of the other Dream Warriors came to the hospital because of a perceived attempted suicide.Most seem to be there because of their destructive behavior-Kincaid with his anger issues,Joey,the once debater who now refuses to speak,Jennifer with her self harm cigarette burns,Taryn with her drug use.Phillip and Will don't seem to have any serious behavior issues. They may have been admitted by family due to severe depression and "sleep" issues.

But if each one of those hanging kids were associated with a parent involved in the murder of Freddy,then that's a lot of people.Though not really out of the question.While Marge mentions Freddy as having taken "at least 20 kids.Kids we all knew".She does say "at least", implying there were more, but the exact numbers could never be confirmed.Probably not all bodies were found, so Parents were never sure what happened to their missing children.Though they could have easily assumed considering what was going on in their town.

And if there were that many parents involved,maybe not all of them had a hand directly in the setting of the fire.The night Freddy was burned had to happen quickly.Its reasonable he would want to get out of town and far away from Springwood....so he could start all over again in a new town.And the parents could not let that happen.

But first they would have to find Freddy.His killground was never found and the trial was over before it could be discovered.So they would have to follow him after he was released from jail.But Freddy had avoided their eyes for years while he murdered their children.So he could easily escape into the shadows once again if no one was watching.Freddy would have most likely bought booze to drink himself into a stupor that night and then sleep it off to wake the next day and leave Springwood forever.Maybe many of the parents involved simply watched different corners of Springwood, looking for signs of Freddy.Radioing to each other what they did or didn't see.And maybe some followed him for awhile from the convenience store and then others took over so as not to alert Freddy of their presence.Following him through town back to his hiding place. And then only a core group of Parents eventually cornered Freddy with the fire in the final moments. But they were all involved in his death in one way or another and therefore subject to his revenge.

Billy

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Re: How many Parents do you think burned Freddy
« Reply #6 on: July 08, 2020, 10:28:22 AM »
Yeah I definitely agree with that. Hit the nail on the head. We all know that Freddy likes messing with his victims psychologically before he kills them. I think it may have been Wes Craven or Bob Shaye that once said that they wanted to make Freddy scary, and smart. The devil ain’t stupid, something like that.
« Last Edit: July 08, 2020, 07:48:28 PM by Billy »
When the world isn’t the same as our minds believe, then we are in a nightmare, and nothing is worse than a nightmare, except one you can’t wake up from”- Werewolf


NancyThompson1984

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Re: How many Parents do you think burned Freddy
« Reply #7 on: September 29, 2020, 07:00:46 PM »
i always though the whole town burned him alive. We dont know if the parents whom the children he killed had any other children we know Nancy's had brother/sister because Marge said so in the deleted scene and also in the script but we dont know about all the parents maybe Krueger only could killed children of the parents whom had other kids.

junglemanfixjane

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Re: How many Parents do you think burned Freddy
« Reply #8 on: April 17, 2021, 06:41:44 AM »
Time span? A number of years. I'd imagine the OP is right, maybe months or even years between the first few, then getting more frequent as serial killers usually do. From Marge's "It drove us crazy..." the later ones were definitely linked by parents etc. so must have been tighter.

As for the actual mob, this was the era where men were alphas and women were typically homebodies. We know Glen's dad was involved but there's no way for example his mum would be, I'd imagine she was possibly oblivious to the plan. Someone would have had to be at home looking after the kids too. Tina's dad was AWOL so he wouldn't be part of it. I'd imagine a very small tight knit group of maybe 5 or 6 trusted people acting for the good of the town, with maybe a couple of cops taking the lead. I'm inclined to think it was a 'task force' specially convened by Sgt Thompson, who would obviously come into contact with all the victims parents and know Glen's dad by living in close proximity

Re: torching him, I guess that's primarily a plot device to achieve the required look, but let's explain it away as the fire chief being involved and knowing what would take hold, and also being able to block the force attending. Maybe Fred was somewhere in the building but they couldn't find him or thought he was too dangerous on home turf, so they used what was lying around to take the whole place down with him in it.

Would assume they tailed him after the trial, and maybe that's the first they knew of the boiler room, the search warrant was more likely for a home address. Same night as the court case fell for me.  There were huge problems with search warrants back then, often taking weeks to process, so maybe they simply bypassed it, but it could have been rushed through either pre or post  search and that makes signing it in the wrong place more likely. To my knowledge it's courts and DAs who sign them off.

“The burned him in his boiler room and they hid the remains. “ What if they burned him in a furnace, and then hid the remains. All anyone would see then was a smoking chimney.

Why did they choose to hide the bones in the middle of a junkyard? To hide any trace of him having been killed, to make people just assume he left town. Makes me wonder though how not accounting for his death helped, parents would surely still think he could be at large. If the car was to be cushed it would have made sense, but not just to be left there, welded shut or not..

Love the OPs notion Thompson was a security guard for the junkyard