I vaguely remember Nightmare 3 and 4. Without googling - the last impressionable memory that I have of Nightmare was the one where Freddy morphed into a worm. Which one was that? and of course, Wes Craven's New Nightmare along with the 2000s era that was a remake/reboot from the original. But that part about his mother being brutally assaulted like that, maybe it just didn't register in my head. keep in mind, that I'm a little older than yall and I saw them as a younger girl, when the movies were on tv, years after the theater releases, so the hype died down and I wasn't around people that talked about it; how I probably processed what happened is different that what boys who are less shielded from the directness of it all. The only Nightmare that I officially rewatch over the years is Nightmare the first one.
Like Jello said, I interpreted it as the son a maniacs, as just what it is - bc my perspective is not wanting to visualize her being individually attacked like that. Idk. Does that make sense?? In my 10 yr old mind, I'm just adapting to horror movies but not fully understanding the nuances of it all. and I'm watching horror movies with my older brothers to keep up with them, but at the same time, they're not going to explain or go into details with me about that. They would send me out the room for a few mins and tell me to come back in if it got too much lol- so I was trying to connect the pieces. When I saw Jello write that, I was legit shocked- it clicked just then what the deal really was- like 15 yrs later. That shyt hits wayyyy different bc I understand what that means.