Pop Culture Clash: Mulder and Scully meet Freddy Krueger
Anyone else think An X-File on Elm Street sounds like a good idea? Check out this pop culture clash and let us know what YOU think.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of The X-Files‘ initial run. In that time, we’ve seen special agents Mulder and Scully take on all matter of things. Going back and watching A Nightmare on Elm Street, the film feels like it could play well as a creepy monster of the week episode of the popular science fiction series. I welcome you to imagine an epic pop culture clash of the two.
Gillian Anderson’s Scully; a strong, intelligent skeptic, stalwartly treks alongside David Duchovny’s passionate and impetuous Mulder. Together they represent our ambivalence. Our want and perhaps need to believe in something, tethered by our natural skepticism of the unknown.
Enter Freddy Krueger. The kids of Elm Street one by one thrash violently in their beds, falling victim to their local Boogeyman. Agents Mulder and Scully book a flight to Springwood, Ohio. There, they investigate a string of grizzly and bizarre murders on the aforementioned street.
This takes them to the Thompson residence, 1428 Elm. Nancy, bereft of sleep, is adamantly inculpating the man of her dreams. Well, nightmares. Scully, being a woman of science, plausibly chalks it up to Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome. While she weighs in with its prevalence in Asian males, Mulder works a more supernatural angle.
Photo: New Line Cinema
“I’m sure there’s a logical explanation for this.”
Both state their findings with typical, cogent sesquipedalian arguments. Despite Scully’s previous experiences with paranormal phenomena, she insists or casually suggests Nancy’s perpetuating the caffeine illusion with her excessive coffee consumption, giving way to her incredible night terrors. Mulder would then entertain the idea that victims of SADS’s noted strong beliefs in spiritual beings and ghosts sitting on them, could be expanded on in American culture.
To elaborate further, Mulder argues that every town has some sort of ghost story. This, of course, plays well with Freddy’s existence. Fear on Elm Street is the sine qua non of Freddy’s strength and dexterity. Several deaths later and yes, some not-so-subtle Mulder/Scully moments of unrequited love, (get married already, Geez) there’s finally a break in their case. Mulder and Scully’s dreams consist primarily of comical flirtation betwixt the two.
They soon realize they’re in Nancy’s nightmare, rather than their own. It is here, in a suspenseful third act, that our favorite federal agents meet the fedora-clad nightmare man. Maybe Chris Carter and Vince Gilligan would pen a magnificent script with ANOES being good source material to work from, who knows? Could they somehow claim The Cigarette Smoking Man is behind Freddy’s seemingly scientifically impossible resurrection? Sure, that could work — if done right.
Next: Halloween 2018: A renaissance for the slasher film?
It’s a pop culture clash as unsettling as Krueger’s attire. Is it weird? Yes, yes it is. However, suffice it to say, due to the unlikelihood of a 12th season for the popular series, there’s always one or more fascinating ways with which to bring memorable characters back.