While in grade school, Craven was routinely bullied by a neighborhood boy who took his lunch money. This person became the inspiration for Freddy Krueger, the villain of the Nightmare series. Around the time he was writing the screenplay, Craven read an article about a boy who complained of constant nightmares and then died in his sleep. But, you do use certain elements of your fear or your nightmares. Freddy Krueger was sort of the concept of adults who take pleasure in destroying youth or are threatened by our hate.
Young people are the next generation and that is sort of perennial.
You just take that idea or concept and put it in the form of a character, put it in a costume and give it a name. After his biggest box office hits, Craven films were copied multiple times, yet unsuccessfully. What You Did Last Summer and Urban Legends flooded theaters, hoping to catch the horror kick that audiences still had after Scream. They seem to challenge the intelligence of the audience. They are almost using somebody else's film.