How is Freudianism supported?

Support of the gatekeeper theory and unconscious mind theory occurs frequently throughout the movie, especially towards the end of the film. In the last scenes of A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Nancy attempts to bring Freddy Krueger to life (i.e. into reality), but rumored theory that clears the confusion about the ending of the film (being whether or not she is dreaming the whole time) is that, she is in-fact dreaming (Walter, “Theories about the ending of “A Nightmare on Elm Street”). But while dreaming, it should be noted that “...meta- awareness (reflective consciousness) is usually absent during sleep mentation”, so Nancy cannot truly bring Freddy past her unconscious mind whilst in dream state, because she cannot be aware of, or control her dream state; due to her lack of meta-awareness (Cicogna, 4). Also, as mentioned earlier, it is the gatekeeper theory that not only keeps information from passing through but also keeps meta-awareness from the unconscious mind to protect itself.

When Nancy attempts to bring Freddy Krueger out into the real world, she believes she has “succeeded”, though she is actually dreaming and being fooled by Freddy Krueger (Walter, “Theories about the ending of “A Nightmare on Elm Street”). Therefore, Nancy never truly brought Krueger into the waking world and thus, ‘she has no true unconscious awareness’ according to Freudian theory. Instead Nancy is tricked by the unconscious mind protecting itself from disruption of the conscious mind. Krueger essentially assumes the role as the gatekeeper; keeping the division from dream and reality unclear to Nancy, burying themselves deeper into her unconscious mind to protect himself. In other words, Krueger takes complete control of Nancy’s unconscious mind (dream state) as well as what passes in and out (the ‘what’ being Krueger and Nancy) and continues to roll them over into one dream after the other in order to fool Nancy so he protect his role as the gatekeeper of her unconscious mind. Since Nancy ‘cannot’ control what is occurring in her unconscious mind and Freddy Krueger’s has always had an open opportunity to control it himself, he does, and not only in Nancy’s mind, but his other victims as well; it is how he is able to kill and cut them into shreds of their former selves, not just in their dream but reality too. His ability to kill his victims this way- in their dream but consequently in reality as well- makes it clear he takes on the role as the gatekeeper. In another example of these theories supported, at the end of the film, Nancy believes she killed Freddy by lighting him on fire, but due to her still being (unknowingly) in an unconscious dream state, Freddy survives and retaliates by ‘killing’ Nancy’s mother. And once more Krueger fools Nancy when she thinks her father killed Kruger, but Freddy reappears in her moment of mourning to mock her inability to control her unconscious state. Nancy is consistently proven she is not in control of her unconscious mind whenever Freddy deceives her by taking control of her un/subconscious mind himself.

Nancy’s inability to control her un/subconscious state in moments like these is an example of the limits that Sigmund Freud’s theory of dream has. The gatekeeper theory is spot on in moments like theses; where Nancy cannot control not only what goes on in her unconscious mind, or what she can recall from it (i.e. not being able to take on the role as the gatekeeper), but also what passes in and out. But, if one cannot control their un/subconscious mind, then how is it that Freddy Krueger can do so? And then do so to another victim’s unconscious mind’s? And well, in theory of the background on the film, this is different from Nancy being in control; Krueger has been given powers by the dream demons (rulers of the nightmare realm) in order to haunt AND control his victims in dream states. So these theories are supported in the filming terms of Krueger’s victims, not Krueger himself, he is inadmissible in the terms of Freudian theory for this argument ( NeonGameWave, "Freddy Krueger DEBUNKED). By terms of the Freudian dream theory stated, each victim was unable to reach past the oppressing nightmares of Freddy Kruger. Nightmares Krueger created to distracted them from their chance at unconscious awareness and control. These victims were not able to recognize their unconscious state and therefore were not able to take control and escape Freddy Krueger due to his powerful role as gatekeeper.

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One example of Nancy’s friends and Freddy Krueger’s other victims is Glen Lantz; a young boy from down the street Nancy has grown up and gone to school with. Nancy specifically warns Glen of her real and terrifying nightmares and of the man who killed her friend and is now attempting to kill her. She tells him not to fall asleep, because Freddy will come, he even witnesses Nancy having these dreams and the

consequences of so. Yet he is ignorant of the true danger he and every kid on the block faces. Glen Lantz falls asleep despite his attempt to stay awake by listening to loud music and watching television. Then, by popular theory, there is no way for the audience, or Glen, to tell if he is dreaming or not--until it is quite obvious when almost magically he sinks into the bed and blood spews from the hole he is lost in, too much to be from just him alone( NeonGameWave, “Freddy Krueger DEBUNKED). Glen Lantz cannot tell, when he ‘wakes’, that he is still in his dream; again this is because of Freddy Krueger’s overwhelming power as the gatekeeper is blocking reality from Glen’s senses and entrapping him in his own unconscious mind. Freud’s dream theory is present within scenes such as these and seem to be true. The only victim of Freddy Krueger that was able to fight him was Nancy Thompson, and that is where Freud and the limit of the unconscious mind comes into question.