10 Most Badass Horror Movie Survivors

8. Heather Langenkamp - Wes Craven's New Nightmare

31 Sheri Moon Zombie
New Line Cinema

Few horror movie victims have been personally targeted quite as much as poor Nancy Thompson of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise.

When Wes Craven unleashed Freddy Krueger on the world in 1984, not only did he give the horror genre a new classic bogeyman, but Craven also gave horror fans a new survivor to root for. After overcoming Krueger's dream-based attacks and torment, the end of that movie saw Heather Langenkamp's Nancy realise that she can escape the grasps of Krueger by simply ignoring him and showing no fear.

Unfortunately for Nancy, Freddy would finally get the better of her towards the end of A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, with both our hero and our villain killing the other off. Well, that might be a bit of a stretch where Freddy is concerned, for he'd rise from his sleepy grave just a year later for 1988's The Dream Master.

While Dream Warriors killed off Nancy though, Nancy actress Heather Langenkamp would manage to get the better of Freddy in Craven's brilliantly meta New Nightmare in 1994.

That picture saw the fictional characters of Freddy Krueger turn up in the 'real' world inhabited by the actors and crew involved in making the Elm Street movies - which saw Langenkamp manage to go one better than her character of Nancy Thompson by finally defeating Krueger once and for all.

And by 'once and for all', that obviously discounts Freddy vs. Jason and the awful Elm Street remake.

In this post: 
Alien
 
Posted On: 
Senior Writer
Senior Writer

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.