When it comes to being the Dream Master, only one entity can wear the crown. Back in 1984, Wes Craven created the ultimate dream boogeyman with Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare On Elm Street. Freddy was revealed to be the bastard son of a hundred maniacs, who became a psychopathic child killer. When a technicality got him off scot-free, the parents of Elm Street came together to enact their own justice by burning him alive. Little did they know that he would return in their children’s dreams to get his revenge.
Vecna is rather new to the game, but was revealed on the latest season of Stranger Things to be the puppet master behind all of Hawkins’s misery over the course of the show. He started out as a young child with incredible psychic abilities. When he decided to straight up murder his whole family with this newfound power, he was sent to the secret government organization to find out where exactly his abilities came from. After a run-in with the powerful Eleven, while trying to escape, he was transported to a mysterious new world. There, he realized his true power and began looking for how to come back to the real world in order to take it over.
Both of these characters use dreams, trances, and visual trickery to attack their prey. With their abilities, they are able to overpower their target and instill in them a great deal of fear. The rules also apply to both that if you die in your dreams, then you die for real. But only one of them can reign supreme. Who will be the ultimate nightmare boogeyman? Let’s find out here on… FACE OFF!
This episode of Face Off is written by Bryan Wolford, narrated by Shawn Knippelberg, and edited by Stephen White. But don’t let us have the final word — tell us in the comments which Master of Dreams is your pick! Freddy Krueger or Vecna?