I was watching a documentary over horror movies yesterday and when they talked about Nightmare on Elm Street, an interesting point was brought up. A lot of people who are fans of that series saw the dynamic of Nancy/Freddy as a metaphor for what was happening in their own lives.
Freddy attacked in dreams, using people desires, fears, even what made them feel safe against them. He was violent, but always with an edge of cruel humor, as if nothing in the world amused him more than what he was doing. Nancy's survival was more about a matter of will than of physical strength. She had to be emotionally and mentally better than he was. She couldn't let him overcome her spirit.
People began to talk about how a lot of fans who had been bullied or existed as outsiders used this dynamic as inspiration to handle their own oppression. In Nancy, they saw the spirit of someone willing to overcome even the nastiest and most evil of foes. It gave them strength to resist the people who were trying to destroy them.
The filmmakers talked about how this was unexpected. The idea of the Final Girl wasn't new by the time these movies started, but something about the way Freddy tried to grind down the spirit and Nancy's unwillingness to let him really spoke to people. How cool is that?
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