ABSTRACT
This article investigates images of mediation in the A Nightmare on Elm Street film series, focusing primarily on its main antagonist, Freddy Krueger, and his monstrous uses of media. Employing Eugene Thacker’s concept of “dark media”, as well as Gary Heba’s reading of the Nightmare series as centering on the confrontation between youth and the dominant societal order of patriarchal capitalism, this article argues that the series articulates a highly ambivalent image of mediation, which is intimately connected to its thematic interest in issues concerning power and emancipation. Moreover, it argues that this ambivalent image of mediation ultimately constitutes a self-reflexive engagement with the potential cultural work of the Nightmare series itself.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. On this point, see among others Rockoff (Citation2002, 150), Hutchings (Citation2004, 207–211), Kendrick (Citation2009, 17–19), Nelson (Citation2010, 111), Phillips (Citation2012, 79), Shary (Citation2014, 164), Balanzategui (Citation2015, 166), Conrich (Citation2015, 108), Podoshen (Citation2018, 725), Zanini (Citation2019, 201).
2. Heba’s approach aligns with a large body of research which has followed Wood in exploring 1980s North American horror cinema and its engagement with the cultural politics of its time, particularly the resurgence of conservatism, patriarchy and capitalism in the Reagan-era. Among others see, Wood (Citation1985, Citation1986, Citation[1984] 2004), Sobchack (Citation1987), Ryan and Kellner (Citation1988, 168–193), Prince (Citation2007), Sharrett (Citation2015), and Williams (Citation2014, Citation2015). For research which has explored either the Freudian underpinnings or the gender politics of slasher cinema, among others see, Cowan and O’Brien (Citation1990), Dika (Citation1990), Williams (Citation1991), Clover (Citation1992), Halberstam (Citation1995, 138–160), Pinedo (Citation1997), Rieser (Citation2001), Sapolsky et al. (Citation2003), Connelly (Citation2007), Welsh (Citation2009), Christensen (Citation2011) and Zanini (Citation2019).
3. Consequently, it should be noted that this article will not explore the crossover Jason vs Freddy (Yu Citation2003) or the A Nightmare on Elm Street (Bayer Citation2010) remake. Although part of the Nightmare franchise, these films were made in a significantly different historical context, following not only the resurgence of the teen slasher and youth cinema more generally in the late 1990s (Wee Citation2010; West Citation2018), but also the rapid political, technological and economic developments of the early twenty-first century (Corrigan Citation2012; Kellner Citation2010), and therefore reflect and respond to a different set of cultural concerns and anxieties.
4. I have explored representations of mediation in The Babadook, particularly as relates to the films of Mèliés, elsewhere. See Thomsen (Citation2019)
5. I have explored the formal and thematic function of the telephone in Black Christmas (Clark Citation1974) elsewhere. See Thomsen (Citation2021).
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