Monica Keena says killing Freddy Krueger felt 'really cathartic'

Monica Keena got to do what horror fans only dream about. She killed Freddy Krueger. She described the moment as "really cathartic" in an interview with Deadline published 9 October 2026.

Keena starred as Springwood teen Lori Campbell in Freddy vs. Jason, according to Deadline. The film was released in 2003 and directed by Ronny Yu. Robert Englund played Freddy Krueger, the long-running screen killer at the centre of the Nightmare films.

The kill carried extra weight because Keena had been scared of Freddy first. She said the first horror movie she ever saw as a kid was A Nightmare on Elm Street. She was in second grade, around seven or eight years old. She said it traumatised her.

That is a long time to carry a scare. A small child sees a film she cannot unsee. Years later she walks onto a set to face the same character, played by the same actor, with cameras rolling and a crew watching. The fear is still in her memory. The power balance has changed.

In the story, Lori learns that Freddy murdered her mother. Her answer is blunt and physical. She decapitates Freddy, as reported by Deadline. For Keena, the scene was not just another stunt. It was personal payback for that second-grade fright.

The past has now looped back in a different way. Keena stars alongside Heather Langenkamp in Last Chance Motel. Langenkamp played Nancy Thompson in the first A Nightmare on Elm Street film and multiple sequels, according to Deadline. Nancy was the original teen hero of that series. Lori was a later one.

What makes this stand out is the symmetry. One actor who was once frightened as a viewer grew up to take Freddy's head off on screen. She then went on to work beside the actor who first fought him. No wonder the word she reached for was cathartic. It means a release, a letting go, and she earned it with a machete in her hands.