Why did Freddy Krueger wear a red-and-green striped sweater?

The horror film "A Nightmare on Elm Street" was released back in 1984. The story of a maniac with blades on his fingers turned out to be so successful that it was not without sequels. In all parts of the film, Freddie's calling card, except for knives, a hat and a disfigured face, was a red-and-green striped sweater. It turns out that such an unexpected combination of colors was not chosen by chance.

The director of the cult horror Wes Craven once admitted that he chose the colors of Freddie's sweater based on scientific data. When the image of the monster was maturing in Wes's head, an article in the popular science magazine Scientific American caught his eye. It said that the combination of red and green colors is extremely unnatural for human perception.

According to scientists, these two colors, located side by side, are poorly processed by human vision. It's not just unpleasant, but it can also be disorienting. When a person looks at something red, certain retinal cells are activated. Their activity tells the brain that the color red is in front of us.

At the same time, the green color suppresses the activity of these cells. The lack of activity tells the brain that we see green. It turns out that these two colors seem to neutralize each other, confusing the brain and not giving a clear idea of the color scheme of the object. In the color circle, red and green are located as far from each other as possible, opposite. Because of this, they are also called complimentary flowers.

Therefore, for someone, the neighborhood of red and green is just an annoying factor. Well, for someone – a source of unexplained anxiety that can turn into panic. The creators of horror films spend a lot of time to come up with something that causes a person to be shocked, disgusted or horrified. It turns out that it is enough to study our perception of the surrounding world, which is not perfect at all.

Yes, Freddie's sweater is disgusting and tasteless. But he himself, outside of the double, is quite a nice guy. Don't you believe it? Check out these shots from the set of "A Nightmare on Elm Street."