“Nightmare on Elm Street” is a classic horror movie from 1984 that has haunted generations since its release. However, not many people know about the true events that inspired the creation of this terrifying story.
Writer and director Wes Craven was inspired to create this film because of a story he had read in the Los Angeles Times. The story was about a family who had escaped to the United States from Cambodia to get away from Cambodian sites called the Killing Fields, where the Communist Party of Kampuchea killed over 1 million citizens.
After successfully getting away from the gruesome genocide that was occurring in their home country, all was well and the family thought they were safe. Their moment of peace was cut short when their youngest son began to have horrible nightmares and visions.
After his terrible dreams, he was too scared to fall asleep. He believed that if he went to sleep, the thing he saw chasing him in his nightmares would get him.
He refused to sleep for days at a time until the fatigue got to him, and he finally fell asleep. His parents thought his dilemma was finally over and solved, thinking that he was finally okay.
That night, however, the family heard screams coming from the son’s room. When they finally reached him, he had mysteriously passed away.
After further research, it was discovered that there were multiple incidents of men from Cambodia suddenly screaming and passing away in their sleep. To this day, there are speculations as to why this occurred, but no reasoning has been fully confirmed.
These frightening and eerie unexplainable events are what inspired Craven to write his movie about a man who hunts kids in their sleep, causing them to pass away in their sleep.
