Kristen Parker is an important character in the Nightmare on Elm Street series, being one of the few characters besides Freddy Krueger to appear in more than one film in the franchise. Appearing in Dream Warriors and in The Dream Master, she was one of the original Elm Street children whose parents had hunted down Krueger and killed him after his original killing spree. She possesses a unique power to draw other people into her dream state and uses this ability to defend herself and her friends when Freddy comes for them.
Personality[]
Kristen was a soft-spoken, optimistic and understanding girl. She tried to look on the bright side of things, though the threat of Freddy understandably left her feeling apprehensive and fearful. When she was admitted to Westin Hills Asylum in Dream Warriors, she developed a bond with the other patients there, all of whom were being stalked by Freddy as well. She became especially close with counselor Nancy Thompson, who sympathized with her and the others as she had previously been assaulted by Freddy.
History[]
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors[]
Kristen (portrayed by Patricia Arquette) is committed to Westin Hills by her mother who catches her in the midst of an apparent suicide attempt. Kristen denies this, telling her mother that she was attacked by a deformed figure in her nightmare who cut her wrist with one of the blades adorning his fingers, but her mother refuses to believe this. While at Westin Hills, Kristen meets six other patients - Phillip, Will, Taryn, Kincaid, Jennifer and Joey - who were all admitted for the same reason as she was. While most of the hospital staff don't believe the kids' tales of a dream stalker attacking them, new counselor Nancy Thompson does and tells the others how she had faced Freddy Krueger before and defeated him. Nancy offers to help the children by teaching them how to protect themselves in their dreams.
Two nights after Nancy's arrival, Freddy has killed Phillip and Jennifer and sets his sights on Kristen next. When he attacks her, however, Kristen uses her ability to pull Nancy into her dream state. Nancy comes to Kristen's rescue and Freddy is enraged at the sight of "the one who got away" interfering with his killing. Following this narrow escape, Nancy hosts a group therapy session with the remaining kids. The kids each reveal a certain power they have in their dreams and Nancy encourages them to use these powers to defend themselves from Freddy.
After Freddy kidnaps Joey in the dream world, Kristen uses her power to draw the group into the dream together to try and rescue him. While the group succeed in saving Joey, Freddy kills Taryn, Will and even Nancy, though Nancy spends her last moments taking Freddy with her, stabbing him with his own glove.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master[]
A year after Dream Warriors, Kristen (now portrayed by Tuesday Knight) is back to living a normal life with her boyfriend Rick Johnson and his sister Alice. However, Kristen fears that Freddy may return one day, leading to several nighttime incidents when she accidentally pulls Kincaid and Joey into her dream. While her friends believe that Freddy is gone for good, they soon learn that is not the case at all.
Freddy returns to terrorize the sleeping youth of Springwood once more, starting by killing off the Dream Warriors who defeated him previously. After Kincaid and Joey both die in the same night, Kristen convinces Alice and Rick that Freddy has come back and is coming after her next. In order to evade Freddy, Kristen tries to stay awake by taking large amounts of adrenaline and caffeine. Kristen's mother, still not believing that Freddy is killing from beyond the grave, drugs her daughter's food and drink with sleeping pills. Before passing out, Kristen curses her mother, telling her that she's just murdered her.
Kristen is attacked by Freddy in her dream and is taken to his old boiler room. Freddy forces Kristen to use her power to bring someone else into her dream so he can have new victims, and so Kristen summons her friend Alice. Kristen tries to stop Freddy from attacking Alice by charging at him, but Freddy grabs her and throws her into the open boiler, burning her to death. In her last moments, Kristen transfers her power to Alice, but it passes through Freddy first, taking a part of him with it. Alice can only watch in horror as Freddy absorb's Kristen's soul.
In the real world, Kristen appeared to spontaneously combust, setting her bedroom on fire.