Monica Keena leaves audience relating as she details killing Freddie Krueger

Monica Keena found it "cathartic" killing Freddy Krueger in Freddy vs. Jason because she'd been so "traumatised" by him as a child.

The 47-year-old actress played teenager Lori Campbell in the 2003 film, which saw her alter ego finally take out Robert Englund's iconic villain for good with the help of Jason Voorhees (Ken Kirzinger).

She was particularly overjoyed by the scene because she had been so deeply affected by 1984's A Nightmare on Elm Street, it "ruined" her childhood.

Monica was so terrified after seeing the film, her mom had to take her to a doctor.

She recalled in an interview with Nerd Reactor, “The first horror movie that I ever saw as a kid was Nightmare on Elm Street, and it really did traumatise me.”

“I mean, it ruined my childhood. This was in second grade. It was horrible. I had to go to the paediatrician, my mom didn’t know what was wrong with me. I was losing all this weight. Teachers at school thought I was being abused at home,” Monica detailed.

"Finally, she takes me to the pediatrician, and he’s like, ‘What’s going on?’ I said, ‘You’re not going to understand. You’re not going to believe me because he doesn’t show himself to grown-ups.’ Then he was really concerned. I said, ‘There’s this guy, and his name is Freddy Krueger.’ He explains stuff to me."

Monica's experience from the film drove her to want to become an actress, particularly one who worked in horror.

She continued, "My mom went to the Brooklyn Public Library, she got a clipping of Robert Englund from a newspaper article, and she showed me, ‘He’s a real guy in real life, he’s not Freddy Krueger. That’s just a character.’”

"And I always said, ‘When I grow up, I’m going to become an actress and I’m never going to make movies that scare little kids.’ And then, here I am. But the whole point is, then it was really cathartic because I got to kill him. I finally got to kill him,” Monica exclaimed.

A Nightmare on Elm Street reboot is in the works, but Robert Englund previously insisted he is now too old to play the child killer, who was burned alive by his victim's parents but returned via teenagers' dreams.

He told Bloody Disgusting, "I mean, there might be some gimmick thing we could do with a close-up or something, but no, I can’t play him anymore. I’m too old. But no, there’s no Freddy left in me."