WARNING! Ahead of the spoilers of season 4 of the TV series “Very strange things”, volume 1
Vecna, the latest villain introduced in the first volume of season 4 of “Very Strange Cases,” has a lot in common with horror icon Freddy Krueger from “A Nightmare on Elm Street.” Introduced as the general of the Mind Catcher, Vecna is the first humanoid enemy that the characters of the TV series “Very Strange Things” had to face. His power, personality, appearance and behind-the-scenes information indicate that Vecna is a version of Freddy Krueger from the universe of “Very Strange Things”.
Season 4 of the TV series “Very Strange Things”, episode 7 shows that Vecna, a monstrous villain hiding inside the Wrong Side and killing teenagers, was actually once a man. Vecna began life as a boy named Henry Creel, the son of Victor Creel, who developed psychic abilities and an affinity for Black Widow spiders. Henry became more and more upset, eventually killing his mother and sister and blaming his father for the crime. Dr. Brenner studied Henry’s abilities, calling him experiment number one. However, as the Hawkins laboratory began to conduct experiments on more and more children, One manipulated Eleven, forcing him to remove his chip, which allowed him to destroy the entire institution, with the exception of Brenner and Al. The more powerful Eleven opened the Inverted Gate, expelling the One who eventually turned into a monstrous Vekna.
At the beginning of season 4, Vecna reappears and begins killing teenagers who previously suffered from injuries, such as Chrissy Cunningham and Fred Benson. Vecna takes over the minds of his enemies, forcing them to see illusions of their past and grandfather clocks from his old family home, before brutally killing them by levitating, horribly distorting their bodies and removing their eyes. Dustin Henderson notes that this action resembles Freddy Krueger’s method of killing when he enters his victims’ dreams, emphasizing the first comparison between the two villains.
The stories of Vecna and Freddy Krueger overlap
Vecna’s narrative journey is remarkably similar to Freddy’s. As shown in the TV series “A Nightmare on Elm Street”, Freddie is a child killer caught by the townspeople and burned alive by an angry mob. Although the residents of Hawkins, Indiana, do not know that a supernatural evil being, Vecna, is behind the horrors that the city is experiencing, they send an angry mob after Eddie Munson after Chrissy’s death, in much the same way. Freddy is then resurrected as his spirit leaves hell to kill the inhabitants of Elm Street, just as Vecna can communicate with the real world from the Inside out by killing the inhabitants of his hometown.
Both villains also like to kill teenagers. Freddie hones Nancy Thompson and her friends, while Vecna torments a wide variety of Hawkins teenagers, from school newspaper journalists like Fred Benson to athletes like Patrick McKinney. Freddy and Vecna prey on the vulnerable: Freddy targets young people, and Vecna penetrates the minds of people who have experienced serious trauma. That’s why he might attack Max Mayfield, who is recovering from an injury sustained from witnessing the Mind Catcher kill her brother Billy Hargrove in season three. Although it’s not exactly the same, Dustin is right in his comparison between how Vecna and Freddy kill their victims. Freddie uses his powers to torment teenagers by exploiting their greatest fears, anxieties, and past traumas, much like Vecna does when he briefly assumes the guise of Hawkins residents in the minds of his victims.
Vekna’s appearance resembles a nightmare on Elm Street
Freddy Krueger’s influence on Vecna’s design becomes apparent even before Dustin Henderson compares them. The Mind Reader transforms Vecna into an otherworldly creature with large tentacles and deformed skin. Similarly, Freddie is presented with a badly scarred face due to his fiery death at the hands of the residents of Elm Street. However, it is Vecna’s long claw, which he uses to taunt the traumatized Max Mayfield by impersonating her mother, that bears witness to his greatest resemblance to Kruger. Freddy is known for his glove knife, which clearly pays homage to Vecna’s spiked fingers.
Although Vecna does not share Freddy’s perverted sense of humor, he has more personality than the other villains of “Very Strange Cases”: Mind Flenser, Demogorgon and Demodogs. Like Kruger, he also targets teenagers, especially showing contempt for young people. Vecna also seems to be guided by revenge and a perverted system of morality, according to which he believes that people should be punished for their past sins. He likes to show images of his victims’ past traumas, such as when he conjures up an image of a decaying Barbara Holland to torment Nancy Wheeler.
