If you're a dangerous shut-in like me, your 2014 Halloween plans won't include elaborate costumes and a big party, but pumpkin beers and a night on the couch watching all the best Netflix has to offer horror movie. Alas, A Nightmare on Elm Street isn't one of them, but if you've ever wondered whether nightmares actually kill people, here's your answer. Are you ready to learn about the weirdest science you've ever seen?
It's true that most horror movies are true to many teenagers' biggest fears. This is why monsters usually go after high school students, and why anyone who has sex, drinks, or does drugs is always chased away, and so on. In fact, this metaphor is Buffy's entire raison d'être —it embodies the idea that high school is hell. Literally. But in early October, Slate's Rachel Stewart and Jeffrey Bloomer teamed up to create a video exploring Freddy Krueger and one of the real-life inspirations for the A Nightmare on Elm Street series ; it's called SUNDS, and I think it's better than holding it on one finger The idea of a knife guy stalking you when you're at your most vulnerable is even weirder.
Here's the deal:
Sands: What is this?
SUNDS stands for Sudden Death Syndrome as interpreted by the United Nations . "Freddy" creator and horror master Wes Craven said this was one of the inspirations for the entire "A Nightmare on Elm Street" series. As the name suggests, this is a phenomenon in which people die without warning in their sleep.
When did it first appear?
A few years before "Elm Street , " a Los Angeles Times report drew attention to SUNDS, describing it as a veritable plague in Southeast Asia. One man was apparently so frightened by the phenomenon that he refused to sleep. That's how Craven discovered SUNDS... after it landed on his radar, of course, his creepy brain grabbed it and repeated it in the most horrific way possible.
It's worth noting, though, that the title in the video may not actually be the article Craven was talking about - I dug it out and it's dated from 1990. Since A Nightmare on Elm Street was released in 1984, it's impossible that the director read this particular article before starting work on the film (unless he had access to a time machine that he didn't tell us about). However, I did find an article about SUNDS from 1988, which reads:
"In 1981, the Centers for Disease Control began tracking a series of mysterious, unexplained sudden nighttime deaths in apparently healthy male immigrants from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia." CDC medical epidemiologist Gibb Dr Gib Parrish said the problem did not exist in other ethnic groups and had killed more than 104 men (average age 33) and one woman.
"Ninety-eight percent of deaths occur between 10pm and 8am"
Based on this little anecdote, I'm guessing Craven first heard about SUNDS during the CDC's 1981 study.
How does it work?
Research shows that SUNDS only seems to affect Southeast Asian men, and there's a reason for that: It has to do with region and genes. People with this disease - who are otherwise perfectly healthy, by the way - suddenly exhibit some weird heart activity in their sleep... and then die. We don't know much about regional connections yet, but we do know something about genetic links: Some people appear to have abnormal genes that can cause electrical malfunctions in the heart. These dysfunctions tend to occur at night, largely (we think) because the heart slows down at this time, making the abnormalities more obvious.
Is it directly related to the nightmare itself? We don't know yet. But young, healthy people do sometimes die in their sleep without warning—and Freddy Krueger took the idea and ran with it. See - consider yourselves enlightened.
Oh, and:
Freddy Krueger turns 30 this year
Happy birthday buddy!
Watch the full video below:
Image: Slate(4)
