The Friday Five: My Five Favorite "A Nightmare on Elm Street" Heroes

The Friday Five: 

My Five Favorite "A Nightmare on Elm Street" Heroes

Freddy Krueger has been the stuff of nightmares since his creation by legendary horror director Wes Craven in 1984.  The former child killer was murdered by the local townspeople and burned to death, but his soul returns in the dreams of the children of Elm Street, killing them in their sleep.  It's a terrifying concept - he's not someone you can run away from, and you have to face him eventually because you have to sleep - so it's no wonder he's hailed as one of horror cinema's most powerful villains.  But he can still be taken down, and here are my five favorite heroes from "A Nightmare on Elm Street" who have managed to bring the dream killer down.

**THERE WILL BE SPOILERS!

READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!**

#5

 Jesse Walsh

Played by Mark Patton

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2

 "A Nightmare on Elm Street 2" is listed as one of the more odd sequels to the franchise, in that it doesn't adhere to the typical horror film tropes of a final girl or the killer stalking her.  Instead Freddy sets his sights on Jesse Walsh, who just moved to town with his family and moved into the old Thompson home, who begins having nightmares about Freddy.  Freddy doesn't want him dead - he wants to inhabit his body, and sets out to bring himself to the real world through Jesse.  It's interesting to see Freddy coming to the real world, and unique in that it focuses on a male hero instead of a female one, and Mark Patton gives a great performance as the confused and frightened Jesse.

#4

 Maggie Burroughs/Katherine Krueger

Played by Lisa Zane

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

 In what was supposed to be the final "Nightmare on Elm Street," it turns out that Freddy actually fathered a little girl before he died - Katherine.  She returns to Elm Street to help some wayward kids but uncovers the truth behind her true parentage, and learns that only she can kill Freddy once and for all.  She goes into her dreams and pulls Freddy out and kills him using his own glove, and showcases bravery and determination unlike most heroines in films like this.

#3

 Kristen Parker

Played by Patricia Arquette & Tuesday Knight

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4

 Kristen Parker was a unique heroine in the "Nightmare on Elm Street" series due to the fact that she had a supernatural power - she could pull people into her dreams.  So when Freddy once again returns to slay, she forms a team and enters the dream to take him down once and for all, and seemingly manages to do so at the end of the third film.  But as the fourth film opens, she realizes that Freddy is still alive, and that she's the last of the original Elm Street children - and Freddy wants fresh victims.  He tries to make her call her friend Alice to her dreams, and manages to do so, but before she dies Kristen passes her power to Alice, giving her the power to once again defeat Freddy.

#2

 Alice Johnson

Played by Lisa Wilcox

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4
A Nightmare on Elm Street 5

After Kristen is killed by Freddy, she passes her power of pulling people into her dreams to her friend Alice, who becomes the Dream Master - the protector and controller of dreams.  She manages to draw positive aspects from her friends after they die by Freddy's glove, and uses all their combined talents and abilities to bring Freddy down at the end of the fourth film.  In the fifth film, she finds herself pregnant and is shocked to find that she's dreaming while awake - because Freddy has now invaded the dreams of her unborn child, so she enters his dreams to stop Freddy before he can kill both her and her unborn child, resulting in another epic clash and making Alice the only "Nightmare on Elm Street" survivor to take Freddy down twice and live.

#1

 Nancy Thompson

Played by Heather Langenkamp

A Nightmare on Elm Street, 

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3, 

Wes Craven's New Nightmare

In the halls of horror cinema's femme fatales, Nancy Thompson will be listed there along the greats.  Heather Langenkamp delivers a terrific performance as the headstrong, intelligent, resourceful Nancy Thompson as she serves to be the first survivor of Freddy's carnage, and sets out to help others bring him down in the third movie before being killed by Freddy.  Heather returns in Wes Craven's meta-masterpiece "New Nightmare" playing herself, an actress who is being haunted in real life by a demon disguised as Freddy who targets those involved in the making of the films, and once again proves herself to be a more-than-capable survivor.