Following in the footsteps of the (Part 1)

IN SEARCH FOR THE HAT MAN (PART 1)- THE BIRTH OF FREDDY KRUEGER

One of the most interesting characters that people see during sleep paralysis is the silhouette of a man with a wide-brimmed hat who sometimes also wears a black cloak. Unlike the other entities such as demons, witches, black-hooded entities, and more—the silhouette of a man with a hat isn't exactly the first thing you'd think of as a rather scary character. In addition, a wide-brimmed hat is relatively new. It exists only for several centuries and has not accompanied the human consciousness like gods and demons for thousands of years.

According to a recent survey conducted on sleep paralysis, the Facebook group – over ten percent of the respondents met the same figure with the wide-brimmed hat – which is usually described as a figure who watches the person lying down and does not attack him as is often the case with the other entities.

One of the most common theories on social media in recent years suggests that the hat man archetype is a result of the character of Freddy Krueger from the 1984 movie 'A Nightmare on Elm Street'. one of the main characteristics of Freddy Krueger was a wide-brimmed hat. Personally, as a child, I remember the fear I had of going to bed after seeing the movie in which Freddy Krueger's character invades the dreams of teenagers, killing them in a dream, a death that eventually happens in the real world as well.

But in an interview with the filmmaker, it seems that sleep paralysis was the inspiration for the film and not the other way around. Wes Craven talked about how he read in the newspaper about an incident in which an immigrant from Cambodia told his family about being afraid to sleep because he suffers from terrible nightmares, finally, after falling asleep he died in his sleep, from what later became known as the 'unexplained nocturnal death syndrome' from which the Cambodian immigrant population suffered (about which I have previously written about). The choice to dress Freddy in a wide-brimmed hat was attributed by Craven to the fact that one night he woke up and saw a frightening figure of a man with a wide-brimmed hat outside the window of his room.

The theory about Freddy Krueger and the Hat Man doesn't seem to be a strong one, but perhaps if we go back a hundred years toward the character of 'Zorro' we can understand a little more.

 to be continued...