“It hurts ’cause you’re in my world now, bitch”: Gothic Features in the 1984 and 2010 Versions of A Nightmare on Elm Street

Abstract

Abstract: This article discusses the 1984 slasher film A Nightmare on Elm Street and its 2010 remake emphasizing the presence of recurrent tropes both in Gothic fiction and slasher film such as transgression, excess, disrupted family structures, the monster, the haunting return of the past, and the terrible place. A literature review for slasher film theory precedes a detailed analysis of the symbolic and thematic connections between the opening and closing sequences in each film. The conclusion highlights the remake’s resignification of the original movie’s Gothic legacy by updating its supernatural monster into an earthly threat and by endowing its heroine with the strength and proactivity necessary for the final confrontation with the monster.