Written by Mr. Mouseburger 16th Nov 2006

Throughout the film, the kids of Elm Street have been stalked through the medium of their dreams by vicious child killer, Freddy Krueger. He has targeted the children of the residents of Elm Street in some form of revenge for them meting out a brand of mob justice, and burning him to death after he escaped conviction due to a technicality.

By the end of film, Freddy has successfully and bloodily dispatched the hormonally supercharged couple Tina Gray (q.v.) and Rod Lane, and he has gruesomely killed Nancy's boyfriend, Glen Lantz (q.v.). However, the real prize is the virginal Miss Goody-Two-Shoes herself, Nancy Thompson. Aficionados of the horror genre will of course realise that since she has not had her cherry popped, Nancy is in the context of this film, invincible.

She realises that as Freddy can physically hurt them through their dreams, it may be possible to bring Freddy back through her dream and into the real world where he can be arrested, providing she is holding him when she wakes up. Of course, this is complete kibosh, but it does give Wes Craven a tenuous reason for getting the pair of them into a terrifying climactic grappling match.

I digress. In order to successfully capture Freddie in the real world, Nancy sets up a plethora of trip wires, springloaded sledgehammers and exploding light bulbs throughout her home - enough to have put the A Team to shame - and she settles down for a power nap (not forgetting to set her alarm to wake her up). Suffice it to say, Nancy successfully drags Freddy into the real world, where the idiot sets off every trap Nancy has set up. While he is doing this, Nancy is shouting through the window at her father, who is at the murder scene across the road from her.

Finally he chases Nancy down into her cellar, where she has one final trap for Freddy. Creeping up behind him, she throws a jar of petrol on him and, while he writhes at having the liquid on him, she flicks a match at him. Result: he lights up like a Christmas tree!

It is interesting to note that Nancy's dad is completely unfazed when his daughter is screaming that there is a murderer in the house, but the moment he sees plumes of smoke emanating from his castle, he springs into action like a gazelle on steroids. The police break down the door to the house and search the cellar, only to find it empty. Nancy is sharp as a tack though and notices a series of flaming footprints leading to her mother's room.

"He is going after Mother" she says, pointing out the bleeding obvious. Nancy and her father rush upstairs to see a flaming man throttling her mum, her father jumps on pair with a blanket, aiming to extinguish the flames. When he removes the blanket, Freddy is gone, and all that remains is a charred skeleton of her mother, which sinks into the bed for some unknown reason. Still at least Freddy is dead.

Or is he?

Nancy is surprisingly well balanced and relaxed considering her mother and all of her friends have been brutally murdered in the last few days. But her father checks to see if she is alright and then leaves the room. At this point, Nancy senses a presence behind her; Freddy.

However, this girl is now wise to the ways of seriously burned, dream haunting child killers and has finally worked out the way to defeat Freddy. She realises that her own fears have been feeding Freddy and making him powerful and all she needs to do is turn her back on him and he will be powerless. This is a hell of a gambit, but she tries out the hypothesis and Freddy lunges for her, only to sink right through her and into oblivion.

Yes, he is dead this time folks..........until the next time.