10 Awesome Horror Movie Villains With One Stupid Weakness

3. Freddy Krueger - The Elm Street Franchise

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New Line Cinema

While drugs are obviously bad, there is somewhat of an exception to that when it comes to the Elm Street franchise.

Introduced in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, one way to stop Freddy Krueger is Hypnocil, a drug that suppresses dreams. And if people can't dream, that's one way to hinder a dream demon like Freddy.

Hypnocil would be brought back into the fold later down the line, playing a pivotal part in Freddy vs. Jason. Here, anyone who's had an encounter with Freddy is slapped on a healthy diet of the drug, with the aim being to completely remove Krueger from the public conscience. To help with this, the smart folks of Springwood have removed all public records of Freddy Krueger's existence, meaning the youngsters of the day have zero idea Freddy ever existed - be that as a man or an otherworldly menace.

Krueger's main weakness is that he craves the spotlight and needs that spotlight to survive. If people don't remember him or even know about him in the first place, Freddy is powerless. Throw in a batch of Hypnocil, and Krueger is useless.

Of course, one other Freddy weakness is simply showing him you don't fear him; a trick pulled by Nancy Thompson at the end of the first Elm Street picture.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.