Nancy Thompson (character)
Encyclopedia
Nancy Thompson is a fictional character
from the A Nightmare on Elm Street
series of horror film
s. Played by Heather Langenkamp
, she is the main protagonist
, Freddy's
arch-nemesis, and final girl
of the original A Nightmare on Elm Street
film, and reappears in the third
, and to some extent in the seventh
. She also appears in a comic book series
based on the films. In the 2010 remake
, the character's name is revised to Nancy Holbrook. The franchise focuses on Freddy Krueger
, a supernatural
serial killer
who uses dreams to murder the children of the people who burned him to death as an act of vengeance
. Nancy is one of these children, and the films depict her struggle to survive her dreams and defeat the killer.
, Nancy is a teenage girl who has begun experiencing nightmares about a mysterious, disfigured man
in a red and green sweater. The man has "knives for fingers", which he scrapes along objects in the dream. She learns that her friend Tina is having similar nightmares; Tina is murdered in her sleep later that night. Tina's boyfriend Rod tells Nancy that he saw four "invisible" razors cutting her at the same time, a revelation which convinces her that the man from her dreams is connected to the murder. Nancy begins relying on caffeine
to stay awake, and eventually discovers that she can pull things out of her dream after she takes the killer's hat, labelled "Fred Krueger". Her mother explains that Krueger was a child killer who was burned to death by vengeful parents after being freed from prison on a technicality. Nancy becomes convinced that he is exacting his revenge on the children of his killers from beyond the grave. With all of her friends dead, Nancy forms a plan to face Krueger alone and pull him into the real world, where he falls victim to a series of booby trap
s she has set up. Nancy finally defeats Krueger by taking back the energy she has given him and stripping away his power.
Although Nancy does not appear in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge
, she maintains a presence when a new family moves into the house where she battled Freddy Krueger. Teenager Jesse Walsh, who inhabits Nancy's old room, and his girlfriend Lisa discover Nancy's old diary—which chronicles the events of the first film. It tells them of the murders of Nancy's friends, and also reveals Krueger's strengths and weaknesses. This helps Jesse and Lisa conquer Freddy in their own struggle with him.
In A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
, Nancy is re-introduced as the new intern at Westin Hills Mental Institution, where she meets the last surviving children of the parents who killed Freddy Krueger. When she realizes the children are falling victim to Freddy, Nancy begs that they be prescribed Hypnocil, an experimental drug, which she has been using to suppress her dreams, in an effort to protect the teenagers from Freddy. In a therapy session, Nancy uses hypnosis to put everybody to sleep and teach them how to use their "dream powers" to their advantage. However, she and Dr Neil Gordon are fired when Hypnocil is blamed for a patient falling into a coma. Neil and Nancy learn that in order to defeat Freddy they must lay his bones to rest; Nancy contacts her father, Donald Thompson, to find out what the town's parents did with Freddy's remains. As Neil and Donald go to bury Freddy's bones, Nancy returns to Westin Hills and rejoins the patients in the dream world, where they use their dream powers against Freddy. Freddy tricks Nancy when he appears to her as Donald, and stabs her in the abdomen with his clawed glove. After rising a final time to stab Freddy with his own glove before he can kill Kristen, Nancy dies, and Krueger disappears as Neil covers Freddy's remains in holy water
and a crucifix
, and buries them. Kristen then states that she intends to place Nancy into a "beautiful dream." Nancy's tombstone is seen briefly in A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master
.
To some extent Nancy reappears in Wes Craven's New Nightmare
. The story, which is set in the "real world
", focuses on actress Heather Langenkamp being stalked by a malevolent entity. Over the course of the film, Heather learns from Wes Craven that the entity was locked in Freddy Krueger's character throughout the Nightmare on Elm Street film series. With the film series being ended after Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
the entity has been set free, and wants to cross over into the real world in the form of Freddy Krueger. It views Heather as an enemy, seeing her as Nancy, who originally defeated him. In order to battle the entity, who has kidnapped her son Dylan, Heather enters the dream world, where she traps him in a furnace and destroys him. Though she only appears in flashbacks during Freddy's introduction in Freddy vs. Jason
, she maintains somewhat of a presence: her former home is now occupied by Lori Campbell.
Rooney Mara portrays Nancy in the 2010 remake A Nightmare on Elm Street
, where the character's surname is revised to Holbrook. In the remake, Nancy's backstory is altered and connected more intimately with Freddie's; as young children, she and the other children of Springwood were victims of the paedophile school janitor Fred Krueger before their parents sought revenge on him and he later became a supernatural entity plaguing them in their dreams. Though Nancy and her love interest Quentin (Kyle Gallner
) believe they have defeated Freddie, at the end of the film he returns and captures her mother (Connie Britton
).
While not always considered canonical
to the A Nightmare on Elm Street
film series, Nancy returned in the Nightmares On Elm Street
six issue comic book series published by Innovation Comics in 1991. In the story, Nancy teams up with several other characters from the film series
, including Neil Gordon, Jacob Johnson and Alice Johnson, to fight Freddy in his nightmare world. The events of this series were meant to fill in the time period between the A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child
and Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
films. The series was written by Andy Mangels. The first two issues of the story explain to the readers about Nancy's life in between parts one and three. After the events of part one, Nancy had been sent to an institution by her father until she was "rational" again. Around the time she was in college after she was released, her father sold 1428 Elm Street to the Walsh family in Freddy's Revenge. In college, she studied psychology and sleep disorders, and made two friends in her roommates Cybil Houch and Priscilla Martin. After Nancy was fatally wounded by Freddy at the end of part three, Kristen had dreamed her soul into the Beautiful Dream, the good side of the dream world, where Nancy now acts as its agent as Freddy acts as an agent for the nightmare realm. In the story, Freddy begins targeting Cybil and Priscilla in an attempt to get to Nancy. He actually succeeds in killing Priscilla and Cybil's husband, James, before Nancy rescues Cybil. She is then reunited with Neil Gordon and the three of them realize that it might be impossible to fully destroy Freddy since he is pure evil, but it is possible to weaken him. Freddy is stopped and weakened by the dream-selves of unborn children, such as Cybil's unborn daughter, in a realm in the Beautiful Dream. The next four issues, titled Loose Ends, deals with the characters from previous Nightmare movies teaming up to defeat Freddy again. Here, Nancy is reunited with the soul of her father, who Freddy uses to try to kill her but is unsuccessful. Nancy defeats Freddy and manages to stop his plan of using Jacob Johnson to break into the real world with help from Neil Gordon and Devonne, a psychotic former accomplice of Freddy's.
Nancy makes an appearance in the final issue of the crossover
comic series Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash: The Nightmare Warriors
. In a battle against Freddy Krueger, Dream Master Jacob Johnson summons the spirits of Freddy's past victims, including Amanda Krueger and the Dream Warriors. Nancy also appears, reuniting with Neil Gordon to help him read the Necronomicon's passages needed to banish Freddy. With Freddy defeated, Nancy leaves Neil and returns to the afterlife with the other spirits.
In his book Horror Movie Freak, Don Sumner (2010) also notes how Nancy was a different "final girl" despite following the rules of avoiding sex, drugs, and juvenile behavior. He mentions that "the stereotypes of the victimized female screaming in terror and hiding in the closet do not apply to Nancy as she sets out to trap Freddy and attack him with all of the vigor of a killer herself. Her active role and anti-victim posture broke the mold of the horror heroine..." In her book Visions of the Night: Dreams, Religion, and Psychology, Kelly Bulkeley compares Nancy Thompson to Dorothy Gale in Wizard of Oz in that "Nancy ultimately finds in her dreams the deep resources of personal strength to overcome an evil that the adult social world had failed to defeat." Nancy's death in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors is even given some interpretation. In her book Phallic Panic: Film, Horror and the Primal Uncanny, Barbara Creed notes that as "Nancy embraces her father's/Freddy's body and tells him that she has always loved him she is torn apart by his finger-blades. The point is that it is dangerous for children to want the love of their parents--disappointment, even death, is the final result."
The documentary The Making of Nightmare on Elm Street features a segment concerning the casting of Heather Langenkamp as Nancy Thompson. According to Sara Risher, Langenkamp was chosen because Wes Craven wanted a "young girl who was smart-looking, obviously pretty, vulnerable, but clearly had a good head on her shoulders." Langenkamp herself said that she identified with Nancy Thompson the most, stating that Nancy "had a great sense that she could solve problems without anybody's help at all. I try to be like her, actually." In the same documentary, Langenkamp also characterizes Nancy as the "good girl" whereas the Tina Gray character is contrasted as giving the feeling that "she wasn't going to make it."
In her documentary I Am Nancy, Heather Langenkamp laments how Freddy Krueger became an iconic character while Nancy Thompson disappeared into the background. To explore why this phenomenon occurred, Langenkamp visits six horror conventions, and tries to discern why the villain became the celebrated figure. After interviewing several attendees, Langenkamp learns that while Nancy Thompson's impact on fans is subtle, she still represents strength and intelligence in the hearts and minds of many. For the advertising campaign, campaign buttons were given out that displayed "I am Nancy". A Facebook page allowed Nancy fans to share their artwork, photographs, and sentiments about the character. The film won a Best Editing Award at the Amsterdam Film Festival. In addition to interviewing Nancy fans, the documentary also features interviews with Wes Craven, Robert Englund and Jessica Craven (Wes Craven's daughter). Langenkamp learned from Craven that:
When developing her documentary, Langenkamp also learned that Nancy Thompson is considered a gay icon. Although Nancy Thompson is heterosexual, Langenkamp shared her theories of why gay and lesbian audience members would be drawn to the character:
Even today, Nancy Thompson remains integral to the Nightmare on Elm Street mythos. In the short film "KRUEGER (A tale from Elm Street)", produced by Chris .R. Notarile and Blinky Productions, it is established why Freddy Krueger was so fixated on Nancy Thompson. The film revolves around Donald Thompson interrogating Freddy Krueger for the murders he has committed. Nancy becomes an unconventional bargaining tool that seals Donald Thompson's doom.
The biggest change was in the original A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors script. Nancy was closer to her personality in the first film. She was not a dream researcher, nor did she have the mature and calm demeanor portrayed in the actual film. Instead, Nancy was brazen and street smart—at times heading straight into a potentially dangerous situation. Nancy's stubbornness was evident in that she had traveled through five states in search of her missing father, Donald Thompson (named "John" in the script). When first attacked by Freddy Krueger, Nancy tried to physically fend him off with her bare hands—despite being shocked from dreaming again after a five-year time period. This contrasts with the actual film, in which she used a broken mirror shard to injure Freddy. While Nancy cared about the Westin Hill patients, the age disparity between her and the teenagers was not as emphasized. In fact, some of the teenaged patients and hospital workers initially mistake Nancy for a patient. Thus, Nancy was not written as acting maternal. Instead, Nancy acts more like a big sister to the patients. There are instances in which Nancy fights back against the medical authorities, dismissing Dr. Neil Gordon's (named Neil Guinness in the original script) insistence that she has Delayed Stress Syndrome. As with the first movie, Nancy dismisses any attacks on her sanity—as she knows that Freddy Krueger is real.
With regard to A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, Heather Langenkamp stated her viewpoints about Nancy Thompson's characterization:
When casting for the film, producer Brad Fuller felt they would be doing a disservice to the character by casting a buxom blonde actress. As he stated:
Mara clarifies earlier reports that Nancy was gothic, stating that the character should not be pigeonholed based upon her attire. Although she is highly respectful of Langenkamp's performance, Mara noted how the remake differed from the original:
She even discussed director Samuel Bayer's conception of the character:
although the original (and German release) poster depicts her as sleeping naked
. Originally terrified through her experiences, she later grows courage throughout the movie which helps her defeat Freddy. Most of Nancy's outfits have a trace of pink, ranging from her sweater vest to her sleeping attire at the sleep clinic.
In the third movie, her hair is much lighter and more curly—though the gray streak is still evident. Nancy's outfit at the film's conclusion looks similar to the one worn during her first encounter with Freddy Krueger. Nancy is once again wearing something pink and knitted with tannish slacks. Her trademark white pajamas appear at the end of Wes Craven's New Nightmare
. They are slightly different as this time they are long sleeved (with the sleeves rolled up) and do not feature any design on the chest. In this movie she has much darker hair than she did in Dream Warriors. Again, she gets a white streak in her hair and requires a bandage in the same place where Freddy sliced her in the original Nightmare, making her appearance in this movie much more similar (than in the third movie) to her appearance in the first movie.
For Nancy Holbrook, there is a different style and appearance altogether. In the film, the only time that Nancy is wearing pink is when Freddy has her wear a dress similar to her childhood outfit. Perhaps to complement Nancy Holbrook's withdrawn demeanor, her outfits are in solid colors — with a brown shade that complements her dark hair. In contrast to Nancy Thompson, Nancy Holbrook wears boots throughout the remake. Although there are moments when Nancy Holbrook pins her hair back similarly to Nancy Thompson, Nancy Holbrook often lets her hair cover her face.
In 2008, Mezco Toyz Cinema of Fear Series 2 released a Nancy Thompson action figure—which recreates the famous bathtub scene in the original film. Within the same year, the Mezco Toyz Cinema of Fear Series 2 also released the diorama Screen Grabs: A Nightmare on Elm Street. The diorama recreates the bedroom scene in which Freddy creeps along the wall above a sleeping Nancy. McFarlane Pop Culture Masterworks released an A Nightmare on Elm Street 3-D poster, with Nancy featured prominently as the central figure. In 2002, NECA released an A Nightmare on Elm Street Snowglobe. The female within the globe resembles Nancy, with a stalking Freddy Krueger forming the globe's outside base. However, the product information never confirms if it is actually the character. In 2004, NECA also released a lunchbox and thermos set with the poster image from A Nightmare on Elm Street.
Since May 2011, there has been an online petition for manufacturers to create a Nancy Thompson doll. When compared to the existing movie merchandise, it is assumed that the desired doll would stand alone (without a stalking Freddy Krueger).
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
from the A Nightmare on Elm Street
A Nightmare on Elm Street (franchise)
A Nightmare on Elm Street is an American horror franchise that consists of nine slasher films, a television show, novels, and comic books. The franchise began with the film series created by Wes Craven. The franchise is based on the fictional character Freddy Krueger, introduced in A Nightmare on...
series of horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
s. Played by Heather Langenkamp
Heather Langenkamp
Heather Langenkamp is an American film and television actress. She is best known for her role as Nancy Thompson from the A Nightmare on Elm Street films...
, she is the main protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
, Freddy's
Freddy Krueger
Frederick Charles "Freddy" Krueger is a fictional, horrifying character from the Nightmare on Elm Street series of horror films. He first appears in Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street as a disfigured dream stalker who uses a glove armed with razors to kill his victims in their dreams,...
arch-nemesis, and final girl
Final girl
The final girl is a trope in thriller and horror films that specifically refers to the last woman or girl alive to confront the killer, ostensibly the one left to tell the story...
of the original A Nightmare on Elm Street
A Nightmare on Elm Street
A Nightmare on Elm Street is a 1984 American slasher film directed and written by Wes Craven, and the first film of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. The film features Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Amanda Wyss, Jsu Garcia, Robert Englund, and Johnny Depp in his feature film...
film, and reappears in the third
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors is a 1987 slasher film and the third film in the Nightmare on Elm Street series. The film was directed by Chuck Russell and starred Heather Langenkamp, Craig Wasson, Robert Englund and Patricia Arquette in her first role.- Plot :Six years after the events...
, and to some extent in the seventh
Wes Craven's New Nightmare
Wes Craven's New Nightmare is a 1994 horror metafilm written and directed by Wes Craven. Although it is the seventh installment of the Nightmare on Elm Street series, it is not part of the series continuity, instead portraying Freddy Krueger as a fictional movie villain who invades the real world...
. She also appears in a comic book series
A Nightmare on Elm Street (comics)
The popularity of the A Nightmare on Elm Street film series has led to several comic book series published by Marvel Comics, Innovation Publishing, Trident Comics, Avatar Press and WildStorm Productions. After the success of Freddy vs...
based on the films. In the 2010 remake
A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010 film)
A Nightmare on Elm Street is a 2010 American slasher film directed by Samuel Bayer, and written by Wesley Strick and Eric Heisserer. The film stars Jackie Earle Haley, Kyle Gallner, Rooney Mara, Katie Cassidy, Thomas Dekker and Kellan Lutz...
, the character's name is revised to Nancy Holbrook. The franchise focuses on Freddy Krueger
Freddy Krueger
Frederick Charles "Freddy" Krueger is a fictional, horrifying character from the Nightmare on Elm Street series of horror films. He first appears in Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street as a disfigured dream stalker who uses a glove armed with razors to kill his victims in their dreams,...
, a supernatural
Supernatural
The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...
serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
who uses dreams to murder the children of the people who burned him to death as an act of vengeance
Revenge
Revenge is a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance, be it real or perceived. It is also called payback, retribution, retaliation or vengeance; it may be characterized, justly or unjustly, as a form of justice.-Function in society:Some societies believe that the...
. Nancy is one of these children, and the films depict her struggle to survive her dreams and defeat the killer.
Film
In the original A Nightmare on Elm StreetA Nightmare on Elm Street
A Nightmare on Elm Street is a 1984 American slasher film directed and written by Wes Craven, and the first film of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. The film features Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Amanda Wyss, Jsu Garcia, Robert Englund, and Johnny Depp in his feature film...
, Nancy is a teenage girl who has begun experiencing nightmares about a mysterious, disfigured man
Freddy Krueger
Frederick Charles "Freddy" Krueger is a fictional, horrifying character from the Nightmare on Elm Street series of horror films. He first appears in Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street as a disfigured dream stalker who uses a glove armed with razors to kill his victims in their dreams,...
in a red and green sweater. The man has "knives for fingers", which he scrapes along objects in the dream. She learns that her friend Tina is having similar nightmares; Tina is murdered in her sleep later that night. Tina's boyfriend Rod tells Nancy that he saw four "invisible" razors cutting her at the same time, a revelation which convinces her that the man from her dreams is connected to the murder. Nancy begins relying on caffeine
Caffeine
Caffeine is a bitter, white crystalline xanthine alkaloid that acts as a stimulant drug. Caffeine is found in varying quantities in the seeds, leaves, and fruit of some plants, where it acts as a natural pesticide that paralyzes and kills certain insects feeding on the plants...
to stay awake, and eventually discovers that she can pull things out of her dream after she takes the killer's hat, labelled "Fred Krueger". Her mother explains that Krueger was a child killer who was burned to death by vengeful parents after being freed from prison on a technicality. Nancy becomes convinced that he is exacting his revenge on the children of his killers from beyond the grave. With all of her friends dead, Nancy forms a plan to face Krueger alone and pull him into the real world, where he falls victim to a series of booby trap
Booby trap
A booby trap is a device designed to harm or surprise a person, unknowingly triggered by the presence or actions of the victim. As the word trap implies, they often have some form of bait designed to lure the victim towards it. However, in other cases the device is placed on busy roads or is...
s she has set up. Nancy finally defeats Krueger by taking back the energy she has given him and stripping away his power.
Although Nancy does not appear in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge
A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge
A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge is a 1985 American slasher film and the second film in the Nightmare on Elm Street film series. The film was directed by Jack Sholder and stars Mark Patton, Kim Myers, Robert Rusler and Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger. Despite the film's title,...
, she maintains a presence when a new family moves into the house where she battled Freddy Krueger. Teenager Jesse Walsh, who inhabits Nancy's old room, and his girlfriend Lisa discover Nancy's old diary—which chronicles the events of the first film. It tells them of the murders of Nancy's friends, and also reveals Krueger's strengths and weaknesses. This helps Jesse and Lisa conquer Freddy in their own struggle with him.
In A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors is a 1987 slasher film and the third film in the Nightmare on Elm Street series. The film was directed by Chuck Russell and starred Heather Langenkamp, Craig Wasson, Robert Englund and Patricia Arquette in her first role.- Plot :Six years after the events...
, Nancy is re-introduced as the new intern at Westin Hills Mental Institution, where she meets the last surviving children of the parents who killed Freddy Krueger. When she realizes the children are falling victim to Freddy, Nancy begs that they be prescribed Hypnocil, an experimental drug, which she has been using to suppress her dreams, in an effort to protect the teenagers from Freddy. In a therapy session, Nancy uses hypnosis to put everybody to sleep and teach them how to use their "dream powers" to their advantage. However, she and Dr Neil Gordon are fired when Hypnocil is blamed for a patient falling into a coma. Neil and Nancy learn that in order to defeat Freddy they must lay his bones to rest; Nancy contacts her father, Donald Thompson, to find out what the town's parents did with Freddy's remains. As Neil and Donald go to bury Freddy's bones, Nancy returns to Westin Hills and rejoins the patients in the dream world, where they use their dream powers against Freddy. Freddy tricks Nancy when he appears to her as Donald, and stabs her in the abdomen with his clawed glove. After rising a final time to stab Freddy with his own glove before he can kill Kristen, Nancy dies, and Krueger disappears as Neil covers Freddy's remains in holy water
Holy water
Holy water is water that, in Catholicism, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Lutheranism, Oriental Orthodoxy, and some other churches, has been sanctified by a priest for the purpose of baptism, the blessing of persons, places, and objects; or as a means of repelling evil.The use for baptism and...
and a crucifix
Crucifix
A crucifix is an independent image of Jesus on the cross with a representation of Jesus' body, referred to in English as the corpus , as distinct from a cross with no body....
, and buries them. Kristen then states that she intends to place Nancy into a "beautiful dream." Nancy's tombstone is seen briefly in A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master is a 1988 American slasher film and the fourth film in the Nightmare on Elm Street series. The film was directed by Renny Harlin.-Plot:...
.
To some extent Nancy reappears in Wes Craven's New Nightmare
Wes Craven's New Nightmare
Wes Craven's New Nightmare is a 1994 horror metafilm written and directed by Wes Craven. Although it is the seventh installment of the Nightmare on Elm Street series, it is not part of the series continuity, instead portraying Freddy Krueger as a fictional movie villain who invades the real world...
. The story, which is set in the "real world
Metafiction
Metafiction, also known as Romantic irony in the context of Romantic works of literature, is a type of fiction that self-consciously addresses the devices of fiction, exposing the fictional illusion...
", focuses on actress Heather Langenkamp being stalked by a malevolent entity. Over the course of the film, Heather learns from Wes Craven that the entity was locked in Freddy Krueger's character throughout the Nightmare on Elm Street film series. With the film series being ended after Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare is a 1991 American slasher film. It is the sixthand as the title suggests, intended to be the lastfilm in the series of films featuring Freddy Krueger...
the entity has been set free, and wants to cross over into the real world in the form of Freddy Krueger. It views Heather as an enemy, seeing her as Nancy, who originally defeated him. In order to battle the entity, who has kidnapped her son Dylan, Heather enters the dream world, where she traps him in a furnace and destroys him. Though she only appears in flashbacks during Freddy's introduction in Freddy vs. Jason
Freddy vs. Jason
Freddy vs. Jason is a 2003 American slasher film directed by Ronny Yu. The film is a crossover between the A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th franchises...
, she maintains somewhat of a presence: her former home is now occupied by Lori Campbell.
Rooney Mara portrays Nancy in the 2010 remake A Nightmare on Elm Street
A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010 film)
A Nightmare on Elm Street is a 2010 American slasher film directed by Samuel Bayer, and written by Wesley Strick and Eric Heisserer. The film stars Jackie Earle Haley, Kyle Gallner, Rooney Mara, Katie Cassidy, Thomas Dekker and Kellan Lutz...
, where the character's surname is revised to Holbrook. In the remake, Nancy's backstory is altered and connected more intimately with Freddie's; as young children, she and the other children of Springwood were victims of the paedophile school janitor Fred Krueger before their parents sought revenge on him and he later became a supernatural entity plaguing them in their dreams. Though Nancy and her love interest Quentin (Kyle Gallner
Kyle Gallner
Kyle Gallner is an American actor. He is possibly best known for his portrayal of Cassidy "Beaver" Casablancas in the Teen neo-noir television series Veronica Mars, and for guest-starring in teen sci-fi drama Smallville as superhero Bart Allen, an adaptation of the character of The Flash and...
) believe they have defeated Freddie, at the end of the film he returns and captures her mother (Connie Britton
Connie Britton
Connie Britton is an American actress. She is best known for the roles of Nikki Faber on Spin City and on Friday Night Lights as Tami Taylor. Her most notable films are Friday Night Lights and A Nightmare on Elm Street...
).
Literature
Nancy's spirit appears in the story "Asleep at the Wheel" from the 1991 short stories collection The Nightmares on Elm Street: Freddy Krueger's Seven Sweetest Dreams, appearing in the dreams of the character Ian to warn him that Freddy is real and not just an urban legend or the result of mass hysteria.While not always considered canonical
Canon (fiction)
In the context of a work of fiction, the term canon denotes the material accepted as "official" in a fictional universe's fan base. It is often contrasted with, or used as the basis for, works of fan fiction, which are not considered canonical...
to the A Nightmare on Elm Street
A Nightmare on Elm Street (franchise)
A Nightmare on Elm Street is an American horror franchise that consists of nine slasher films, a television show, novels, and comic books. The franchise began with the film series created by Wes Craven. The franchise is based on the fictional character Freddy Krueger, introduced in A Nightmare on...
film series, Nancy returned in the Nightmares On Elm Street
A Nightmare on Elm Street (comics)
The popularity of the A Nightmare on Elm Street film series has led to several comic book series published by Marvel Comics, Innovation Publishing, Trident Comics, Avatar Press and WildStorm Productions. After the success of Freddy vs...
six issue comic book series published by Innovation Comics in 1991. In the story, Nancy teams up with several other characters from the film series
A Nightmare on Elm Street (franchise)
A Nightmare on Elm Street is an American horror franchise that consists of nine slasher films, a television show, novels, and comic books. The franchise began with the film series created by Wes Craven. The franchise is based on the fictional character Freddy Krueger, introduced in A Nightmare on...
, including Neil Gordon, Jacob Johnson and Alice Johnson, to fight Freddy in his nightmare world. The events of this series were meant to fill in the time period between the A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child
A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child
A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child is a 1989 American slasher film and the fifth film in the Nightmare on Elm Street series. It was directed by Stephen Hopkins. The film's general tone is much more gothic and dark than the films before, and used a blue filter lighting technique in most of...
and Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare is a 1991 American slasher film. It is the sixthand as the title suggests, intended to be the lastfilm in the series of films featuring Freddy Krueger...
films. The series was written by Andy Mangels. The first two issues of the story explain to the readers about Nancy's life in between parts one and three. After the events of part one, Nancy had been sent to an institution by her father until she was "rational" again. Around the time she was in college after she was released, her father sold 1428 Elm Street to the Walsh family in Freddy's Revenge. In college, she studied psychology and sleep disorders, and made two friends in her roommates Cybil Houch and Priscilla Martin. After Nancy was fatally wounded by Freddy at the end of part three, Kristen had dreamed her soul into the Beautiful Dream, the good side of the dream world, where Nancy now acts as its agent as Freddy acts as an agent for the nightmare realm. In the story, Freddy begins targeting Cybil and Priscilla in an attempt to get to Nancy. He actually succeeds in killing Priscilla and Cybil's husband, James, before Nancy rescues Cybil. She is then reunited with Neil Gordon and the three of them realize that it might be impossible to fully destroy Freddy since he is pure evil, but it is possible to weaken him. Freddy is stopped and weakened by the dream-selves of unborn children, such as Cybil's unborn daughter, in a realm in the Beautiful Dream. The next four issues, titled Loose Ends, deals with the characters from previous Nightmare movies teaming up to defeat Freddy again. Here, Nancy is reunited with the soul of her father, who Freddy uses to try to kill her but is unsuccessful. Nancy defeats Freddy and manages to stop his plan of using Jacob Johnson to break into the real world with help from Neil Gordon and Devonne, a psychotic former accomplice of Freddy's.
Nancy makes an appearance in the final issue of the crossover
Fictional crossover
A fictional crossover is the placement of two or more otherwise discrete fictional characters, settings, or universes into the context of a single story. They can arise from legal agreements between the relevant copyright holders, or because of unauthorized efforts by fans, or even amid common...
comic series Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash: The Nightmare Warriors
Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash: The Nightmare Warriors
Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash: The Nightmare Warriors is a six-issue limited series comic book written by Jeff Katz and James Kuhoric, with art by Jason Craig. The series was published by Dynamite Entertainment and DC Comics, with imprint by Wildstorm, beginning in August 2009 and concluding in December...
. In a battle against Freddy Krueger, Dream Master Jacob Johnson summons the spirits of Freddy's past victims, including Amanda Krueger and the Dream Warriors. Nancy also appears, reuniting with Neil Gordon to help him read the Necronomicon's passages needed to banish Freddy. With Freddy defeated, Nancy leaves Neil and returns to the afterlife with the other spirits.
Video games
Nancy Thompson is a playable character in A Nightmare on Elm Street. Released in 1989 by Monarch Software and Westwood Associates, Nancy and the Dream Warriors are on a quest to stop Freddy Krueger. As each character has a dream power, Nancy has the ability to freeze enemies.Film criticism
In his book Horror films of the 1980s, John Kenneth Muir references Nancy Thompson, stating the following:- "As written by Craven and performed by Langenkamp, Nancy is a rarity in the horror genre: an intelligent and insightful youth who is capable of connecting the important things in her life. Only Nancy can recognize the link between worlds for what it is, and look below the surface of reality because she is already trained to do so, through family history. Nancy is prepared in her battle with Freddy because, one senses, she has already detected the dark truth lurking beneath the affluent surface of Elm Street. She has suffered her parent's divorce, her father's absence, and her mother's alcoholism...Nancy is even compared explicitly to Hamlet...in that Hamlet stamps out the lies of his mother, an act which Nancy will repeat during the course of the film..."
- "So the key to defeating her Freddy...is something that goes against Nancy's most prominent characteristic.She must turn her back on the dream demon. She must take back all the energy she gave him...This is Nancy's crisis: knowing when to dig for truth and confront the lies, and when to turn her back on the corruption and lies she has discovered..."
- "The final girl must actively take steps to protect herself and vanquish evil. For example, Nancy buys a survivalist, self-defense manual and in the conclusion of Elm Street, baits Freddy into chasing her. She then runs him through a punishing course of booby traps...Unlike Laurie, whom Halloween depicts as a victim of unchangeable 'fate,' someone who must mount a defense on the fly, Nancy is armed for battle and ready to rock."
In his book Horror Movie Freak, Don Sumner (2010) also notes how Nancy was a different "final girl" despite following the rules of avoiding sex, drugs, and juvenile behavior. He mentions that "the stereotypes of the victimized female screaming in terror and hiding in the closet do not apply to Nancy as she sets out to trap Freddy and attack him with all of the vigor of a killer herself. Her active role and anti-victim posture broke the mold of the horror heroine..." In her book Visions of the Night: Dreams, Religion, and Psychology, Kelly Bulkeley compares Nancy Thompson to Dorothy Gale in Wizard of Oz in that "Nancy ultimately finds in her dreams the deep resources of personal strength to overcome an evil that the adult social world had failed to defeat." Nancy's death in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors is even given some interpretation. In her book Phallic Panic: Film, Horror and the Primal Uncanny, Barbara Creed notes that as "Nancy embraces her father's/Freddy's body and tells him that she has always loved him she is torn apart by his finger-blades. The point is that it is dangerous for children to want the love of their parents--disappointment, even death, is the final result."
The documentary The Making of Nightmare on Elm Street features a segment concerning the casting of Heather Langenkamp as Nancy Thompson. According to Sara Risher, Langenkamp was chosen because Wes Craven wanted a "young girl who was smart-looking, obviously pretty, vulnerable, but clearly had a good head on her shoulders." Langenkamp herself said that she identified with Nancy Thompson the most, stating that Nancy "had a great sense that she could solve problems without anybody's help at all. I try to be like her, actually." In the same documentary, Langenkamp also characterizes Nancy as the "good girl" whereas the Tina Gray character is contrasted as giving the feeling that "she wasn't going to make it."
In her documentary I Am Nancy, Heather Langenkamp laments how Freddy Krueger became an iconic character while Nancy Thompson disappeared into the background. To explore why this phenomenon occurred, Langenkamp visits six horror conventions, and tries to discern why the villain became the celebrated figure. After interviewing several attendees, Langenkamp learns that while Nancy Thompson's impact on fans is subtle, she still represents strength and intelligence in the hearts and minds of many. For the advertising campaign, campaign buttons were given out that displayed "I am Nancy". A Facebook page allowed Nancy fans to share their artwork, photographs, and sentiments about the character. The film won a Best Editing Award at the Amsterdam Film Festival. In addition to interviewing Nancy fans, the documentary also features interviews with Wes Craven, Robert Englund and Jessica Craven (Wes Craven's daughter). Langenkamp learned from Craven that:
- "I never knew it but now that I’ve talked to him about it, he always thought that Nancy was the centre of his story. It wasn’t this typical horror movie where you’re going to kill off everybody. He knew that she was the heart and soul of Nightmare On Elm Street so I think it made a lot of sense for him to bring her back, but I didn’t know all of this until recently, after conducting my own interviews with him and asking him myself..."
When developing her documentary, Langenkamp also learned that Nancy Thompson is considered a gay icon. Although Nancy Thompson is heterosexual, Langenkamp shared her theories of why gay and lesbian audience members would be drawn to the character:
- "I read a lot of these PhD that talk about the final girl, sexuality and sexuality of horror… they’re kind of on to something but I don’t know if they’re onto the right thing. One theory goes that Nancy is not a particularly feminine hero; she’s not androgynous but she’s not scarily beautiful and as a result she can easily identified by both men and women and I don’t know if that’s the key to her popularity..."
- "I think that people like these movies at a time in their lives when they’re also understanding who they are sexually so it makes sense that they make connection and they see things in these movies that express who they are...For the gay population out there, I’m not sure if its just a great movie or there is something to it that gives a gay man or woman a sense of strength maybe...that watching inspirational characters helps you be true to yourself and find the strength you need to do whatever you need to do..."
Even today, Nancy Thompson remains integral to the Nightmare on Elm Street mythos. In the short film "KRUEGER (A tale from Elm Street)", produced by Chris .R. Notarile and Blinky Productions, it is established why Freddy Krueger was so fixated on Nancy Thompson. The film revolves around Donald Thompson interrogating Freddy Krueger for the murders he has committed. Nancy becomes an unconventional bargaining tool that seals Donald Thompson's doom.
Conception
In Wes Craven's original script for A Nightmare on Elm Street, Nancy Thompson was initially named Nancy Wilson. In the scene in which Tina, Nancy, and Glen are at Tina's house, Nancy describes a dream in which Freddy Krueger leered at her obscenely. Soon afterwards, when conversing with Glen, Nancy shows an earlier interest (at least when compared to the actual film) into why her and Tina dreamed of the same individual. While Nancy's character differs little than the actual film, the original script has scenes that emphasize her headstrong nature.The biggest change was in the original A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors script. Nancy was closer to her personality in the first film. She was not a dream researcher, nor did she have the mature and calm demeanor portrayed in the actual film. Instead, Nancy was brazen and street smart—at times heading straight into a potentially dangerous situation. Nancy's stubbornness was evident in that she had traveled through five states in search of her missing father, Donald Thompson (named "John" in the script). When first attacked by Freddy Krueger, Nancy tried to physically fend him off with her bare hands—despite being shocked from dreaming again after a five-year time period. This contrasts with the actual film, in which she used a broken mirror shard to injure Freddy. While Nancy cared about the Westin Hill patients, the age disparity between her and the teenagers was not as emphasized. In fact, some of the teenaged patients and hospital workers initially mistake Nancy for a patient. Thus, Nancy was not written as acting maternal. Instead, Nancy acts more like a big sister to the patients. There are instances in which Nancy fights back against the medical authorities, dismissing Dr. Neil Gordon's (named Neil Guinness in the original script) insistence that she has Delayed Stress Syndrome. As with the first movie, Nancy dismisses any attacks on her sanity—as she knows that Freddy Krueger is real.
With regard to A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, Heather Langenkamp stated her viewpoints about Nancy Thompson's characterization:
- “The connection with Nancy was there. I never felt that comfortable in the skin of that role because...I just felt like the dialogue that they gave Nancy was so stiff and there was no sense of humour at all. She had barely anything going in that department at all and then she’s supposed to be having this quasi-love affair with Craig Wasson’s character...None of it really seemed to have a dynamic energy behind it and as a result I felt I didn’t know what Nancy was anymore. I was struggling to make something of her because she didn’t have that big of a role in some way. She was like a facilitator, she was always showing things like 'let me show you how to do this', 'let’s do it together' but she was never really moving the plot forward herself that much and as a result I didn’t feel like I did a very good job in that role. Then when I saw the movie I thought 'oh it’s not as bad as I thought' because actually the relationship I had with the kids does come through and she is a kind of a reassuring presence in the movie rather than this fighting, battle warrior that she was in the first movie. So I just had to get used to this different role that Nancy played..."
Modernization
In an early script for the 2010 remake, Nancy Holbrook is portrayed as the opposite of Nancy Thompson. Even though Nancy is present at a party, she is a wallflower that prefers to drink her beer in seclusion. In her initial scenes, especially at Dean's funeral, Nancy Holbrook is portrayed as a nervous person that chips the dried paint from underneath her fingernails. She shies away from confrontations, even though she knows what Kris Fowles means when Kris describes seeing four slashes to Jesse Braun. Yet, Nancy shows a tough side when she headbutts Jesse in surprise. The original script is meaningful in that it has a teenaged Nancy confront her child self in the film's conclusion. It juxtaposes the teenaged Nancy's attempts to escape Freddy Krueger in the dreamworld. This gives Nancy the strength to pull Freddy into the real world, and proceed to beat him with a baseball bat before setting him on fire again. This differs from the actual film in that Nancy takes a more active approach in defending herself from Freddy's assaults.When casting for the film, producer Brad Fuller felt they would be doing a disservice to the character by casting a buxom blonde actress. As he stated:
- "One of the things that made the character of Nancy so great in the original films is that she feels like a real person. Rooney Mara embodied that natural, real girl thing that Nancy had in the original."
Mara clarifies earlier reports that Nancy was gothic, stating that the character should not be pigeonholed based upon her attire. Although she is highly respectful of Langenkamp's performance, Mara noted how the remake differed from the original:
- "I tried not to think about the old Nancy at all. I really couldn't because our Nancy on the page is so very different. I know people are really protective of that character and Heather Langenkamp's performance, but I just had to let go of that and focus on what was on the page...Our Nancy is not the old Nancy in that she's not the girl next door that everyone's friends with, the good girl...She's quiet and sort of haunted."
She even discussed director Samuel Bayer's conception of the character:
- “Sam likes to describe Nancy as the loneliest girl in the world, and I think that’s a pretty good description of her...Nancy starts off very disturbed, from things that had happened in her childhood, and, because of that, she has a really hard time forming any sort of relationship with anybody. She keeps to herself and is a very quiet type, socially awkward and timid and really unable to connect with people.”
Clothes and appearance
In the first shot of Nancy, she is wearing a high school jacket with her dark brown hair tied back in a ponytail. Throughout the movie, her hair gets a white streak after her nightmares. She usually sleeps in her trademark white pajamasPajamas
Pajamas, also spelled pyjamas , can refer to several related types of clothing. The original paijama are loose, lightweight trousers fitted with drawstring waistbands and worn in South and West Asia by both sexes...
although the original (and German release) poster depicts her as sleeping naked
Nudity
Nudity is the state of wearing no clothing. The wearing of clothing is exclusively a human characteristic. The amount of clothing worn depends on functional considerations and social considerations...
. Originally terrified through her experiences, she later grows courage throughout the movie which helps her defeat Freddy. Most of Nancy's outfits have a trace of pink, ranging from her sweater vest to her sleeping attire at the sleep clinic.
In the third movie, her hair is much lighter and more curly—though the gray streak is still evident. Nancy's outfit at the film's conclusion looks similar to the one worn during her first encounter with Freddy Krueger. Nancy is once again wearing something pink and knitted with tannish slacks. Her trademark white pajamas appear at the end of Wes Craven's New Nightmare
Wes Craven's New Nightmare
Wes Craven's New Nightmare is a 1994 horror metafilm written and directed by Wes Craven. Although it is the seventh installment of the Nightmare on Elm Street series, it is not part of the series continuity, instead portraying Freddy Krueger as a fictional movie villain who invades the real world...
. They are slightly different as this time they are long sleeved (with the sleeves rolled up) and do not feature any design on the chest. In this movie she has much darker hair than she did in Dream Warriors. Again, she gets a white streak in her hair and requires a bandage in the same place where Freddy sliced her in the original Nightmare, making her appearance in this movie much more similar (than in the third movie) to her appearance in the first movie.
For Nancy Holbrook, there is a different style and appearance altogether. In the film, the only time that Nancy is wearing pink is when Freddy has her wear a dress similar to her childhood outfit. Perhaps to complement Nancy Holbrook's withdrawn demeanor, her outfits are in solid colors — with a brown shade that complements her dark hair. In contrast to Nancy Thompson, Nancy Holbrook wears boots throughout the remake. Although there are moments when Nancy Holbrook pins her hair back similarly to Nancy Thompson, Nancy Holbrook often lets her hair cover her face.
Movie merchandise
Nancy Thompson is the only character featured in several A Nightmare on Elm Street merchandise. Kristen Parker is only featured in Screen Grabs: A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (a diorama released by Mezco Toys in 2007). Debbie, in mid-transformation as a cockroach, is featured as a Cinema of Fear 4 action figure (released by Mezco Toys in 2009).In 2008, Mezco Toyz Cinema of Fear Series 2 released a Nancy Thompson action figure—which recreates the famous bathtub scene in the original film. Within the same year, the Mezco Toyz Cinema of Fear Series 2 also released the diorama Screen Grabs: A Nightmare on Elm Street. The diorama recreates the bedroom scene in which Freddy creeps along the wall above a sleeping Nancy. McFarlane Pop Culture Masterworks released an A Nightmare on Elm Street 3-D poster, with Nancy featured prominently as the central figure. In 2002, NECA released an A Nightmare on Elm Street Snowglobe. The female within the globe resembles Nancy, with a stalking Freddy Krueger forming the globe's outside base. However, the product information never confirms if it is actually the character. In 2004, NECA also released a lunchbox and thermos set with the poster image from A Nightmare on Elm Street.
Since May 2011, there has been an online petition for manufacturers to create a Nancy Thompson doll. When compared to the existing movie merchandise, it is assumed that the desired doll would stand alone (without a stalking Freddy Krueger).
See also
- Final girlFinal girlThe final girl is a trope in thriller and horror films that specifically refers to the last woman or girl alive to confront the killer, ostensibly the one left to tell the story...
- Woman warriorWoman warriorThe portrayal of women warriors in literature and popular culture is a subject of study in history, literary studies, film studies, folklore and mythology, gender studies, and cultural studies.-Archaeology:...
- List of women warriors in folklore
External links
- Nancy Thompson at Horror Movie Wiki, a horror film WikiaWikiaWikia is a free web hosting service for wikis . It is normally free of charge for readers and editors, deriving most of its income from advertising, and publishes all user-provided text under copyleft licenses. Wikia hosts several hundred thousand wikis using the open-source wiki software MediaWiki...