Why Freddy Krueger & Pennywise Share The Exact Same Weakness
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While the villains of Stephen King’s It and A Nightmare On Elm Street aren’t identical, Pennywise and Freddy Krueger share one secret weakness.
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Both A Nightmare On Elm Street’s Freddy Krueger and Pennywise of Stephen King’s It are legendary horror villains, but what secret weakness does the pair share? Despite both being horror icons, author Stephen King and writer/director Wes Craven never collaborated on a creative project. The duo came close to working together in the mid-’80s, but King turned down A Nightmare On Elm Street 5 and Craven had largely moved on from the franchise by that point regardless.
However, despite the two influential creators never working together, there are a surprising number of similarities between two of their most famous antagonists. Pennywise, the shape-shifting monster from Stephen King’s doorstopper It, kills children to keep its otherworldly powers strong, while Craven’s most famous creation Freddy Krueger uses the fear of children to power his reign of terror in slumberland. Granted, the Nightmare On Elm Street villain was originally a human killer, whereas Pennywise is an ageless evil entity, but the pair’s shared weaknesses further underline just how much similarity there is between them.
Both Freddy Krueger and Pennywise lose their powers and accrue damage by leaving their hometowns, and neither character can extend their psychic link beyond these communities except in dreams. As proven by It Chapter 2’s disturbing opening scene, Pennywise feeds off human evil where Freddy relies more on creating fear and derives his power from this. However, both Freddy and Pennywise can lure victims back to Springwood and Derry, respectively, while neither can kill outside of those environs unless they possess someone’s body—which is not a reliably effective trick for either antagonist. Ultimately, both Freddy Krueger and Pennywise are also defeated via similar means, with neither villain being able to stop heroes who are no longer afraid of them and their powers.
Freddy and Pennywise Are Limited By Location
Both limited to their small-town locations, Freddy and Pennywise can’t exert power over their victims once the characters avoid their hometowns. Written by King’s son Joe Hill, NOS4A2 explains that Derry is Pennywise’s Inscape — effectively a mental projection with psychical limits within which a powerful being can exert almost godlike control. Although the Nightmare On Elm Street series is not contained by the same fictional universe and, as such, is not subject to the same rules, Freddy’s control of Springwood works similarly. By the sixth movie in the Nightmare On Elm Street series, Freddy has so much control over the town that he has killed every child in the community, but his abilities still don’t extend beyond its geographical limits.
The seemingly easy task of just never returning home and therefore never being in harm’s way proves impossible for the heroes of both the Nightmare On Elm Street franchise and Stephen King’s It. Metaphorically speaking, this is much of what makes Pennywise one of King’s greatest villains and Krueger such a famously effective slasher antagonist. Both monsters leave the heroes with the option of simply moving on from their hometown and not caring about the fate of the people they grew up around, a choice that is hardly heroic and would allow both evils to only grow stronger with each passing generation. In both cases, the villain’s fatal flaw is failing to realize that the characters care more about saving their communities than themselves.
Freddy and Pennywise Need Bodies (And Can’t Keep Them)
Throughout the Nightmare On Elm Street franchise, Freddy tries to possess human bodies twice and even uses Jason Voorhees as a conduit for his killing, but neither of these approaches works in the long run. There is seemingly no reason for Freddy to possess people, as he is all-powerful in the dreamworld and would be much easier to defeat back in reality. However, his desire to extend his power past the limits of Springwood leads him to risk immortality with these schemes, much like King’s villain insists on possessing locals despite having far more power as a shape-shifting killer clown. Pennywise possesses Henry Bowers, a move that proves completely ineffective against the Losers Club (particularly in 2019’s It Chapter 2, where the character barely factors into the plot). Again, taking over a human body could allow Pennywise to extend the parameters of his grasp outside the small town, meaning he attempts to use humans as a weapon despite the ploy never working too well.
Both Freddy and Pennywise Need Fear To Live
Both entities, powered by similar dream logic, need their victims to believe in their powers for them to function. A Nightmare On Elm Street’s Freddy Krueger can’t avenge his death at the hands of Springwood’s parents until a generation after the event occurs since he needs the pliable minds of children to believe in him. Where adults would dismiss the idea of a dream demon and sap his power as a result, children are susceptible to the sort of magical thinking that allows the killer to gain strength. It is Nancy dismissing Freddy and deciding she is no longer afraid of the monster that ultimately defeats him at the end of the original Nightmare On Elm Street, in circumstances that are surprisingly similar to the Losers Club’s eventual takedown of Pennywise.
When the Ritual of Chud fails, it just takes the Losers Club belittling Pennywise for him to fade away and die. Although It Chapter 2’s Pennywise tragically kills Eddie, even at his most overpowered, the villain is not able to threaten anyone who doesn’t believe in his supernatural abilities. Both Freddy Krueger and Pennywise need fear to thrive and are powerless when confronted with courage from their potential victims, resulting in both of them sticking to small communities where their reign of terror is less likely to be challenged. When Nancy’s admittedly clever booby traps aren’t enough to stop Freddy, the simple act of standing up to him proves effective, and similarly none of the planning involved in the Ritual of Chud nor the research involved in how to defeat Pennywise proves more effective than simply berating the monster to death. Both small-town monsters prove that, whether it’s Pennywise of Stephen King’s It or Nightmare On Elm Street’s Freddy Krueger, evil can be defeated when confronted but will thrive in the face of fear.
Link Source : https://screenrant.com/it-stephen-king-pennywise-nightmare-elm-street-freddy-secret-weakness/
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