20 Things You Didn’t Know About The Nightmare On Elm Street Franchise

How about that terrifying glove? In addition to his outfit, Freddy is known for his glove with knives on the fingers, and just like the sweater was based on messing with the audience's subconscious, Freddy's weapon was based on another primal fear.

Craven said that first of all he wanted to give Freddy an iconic weapon, since almost all slasher villains had one. "Part of it was an objective goal to make the character memorable, since it seems that every character that has been successful has had some kind of unique weapon, whether it be chain saw or machete," he said. 

Craven also explained the glove was based on a primal fear of animal claws. "I was also looking for a primal fear which is embedded in the subconscious of people of all cultures. One of those is the fear of teeth being broken, which I used in my first film. Another is the claw of an animal, like a saber-toothed tiger reaching with its tremendous hooks. I transposed this into a human hand."

Craven also wanted the glove to look like something that someone with the skills of a boilermaker could have made, and to almost resemble really long fingernails. So aside from the glove being scary for obvious reasons, it also goes back to a very basic fear which Craven knew exactly how to exploit.