“Nightmare is over”: Trauma and Agency in the Remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street

Abstract

The 2010 remake of the horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street focuses on the earthly abuses committed by the now confirmed pedophile Freddy Krueger. The fact that the victims of Krueger’s sexual assaults start getting murdered in their sleep is relevant to the trauma studies, as nightmares are one of the most common symptoms observed in people diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Therefore, one of the goals of this paper is to analyze the ways in which trauma is portrayed in the movie. Considering that the teenagers can only overcome Krueger — and therefore, their trauma — once they are able to witness the terrible events of their past, this work also aims at observing and discussing the trajectory that allows the protagonists to survive. In order to meet these goals, some central concepts to trauma theory are presented and discussed in relation to their portrayal in the film. The analysis shows that the main character Nancy can only defeat Krueger once she knows everything that has happened in the past and is able to have agency in the story.