10 Movie Villains Who Won AFTER They Died
7. Freddy Krueger - A Nightmare On Elm Street
Where psychotic, undead killers are concerned, no one can hold a blade-fixed glove to Robert Englund's horrifying, but strangely fun Freddy Krueger from the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise.
In A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Freddy terrorises and murders the children of those who burned him to death until he is left with only one: Heather Langenkamp's Nancy Thompson.
Although she is traumatised by her experiences, Nancy rigs traps in her house to ensnare Freddy when she drags the dream-based child killer out of her dream. Although the sequences in which Nancy gets the upper hand on Freddy signalled the start of his descent into slapstick comedy (which intensified in the numerous Elm Street sequels), he ultimately disregards Nancy and races to avenge himself upon her alcoholic mother, Marge (Ronee Blakeley).
Ablaze (literally and emotionally), Freddy drags Marge into the netherworld but, when he returns for Nancy, the resourceful teenager tells him that she wants her friends and her mother back unscathed, having realised that she is only feeding Freddy's power by believing in him. As Freddy lunges towards Nancy, he vanishes, leading the audience to believe that Freddy has been destroyed.
In the next scene, Marge obliviously waves goodbye to Nancy and her friends who are trapped in a car that worryingly resembles Freddy's red and green sweater. Suddenly, Freddy Krueger's gloved hand lunges through the door of the Thompson house and effortlessly drags Marge back inside to finally face her fate.