A scene from Wes Craven’s 1984 horror classic A Nightmare on Elm Street which had previously been left on the cutting room floor has revealed a crucial plot point.

For the last almost-40 years, we’ve been led to believe that Freddy Krueger targeted a small group of friends at random.

Turns out it wasn’t random at all.

In an extended version of a scene between Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp) and her mum Marge (Ronee Blakley), we find out exactly why he was so motivated to get those particular high schoolers.

Unbeknownst to them, Marge said that Nancy, Glen, Rod and Tina all had siblings who had been murdered by a local man – Fred Krueger.

While he had his day in court, Nancy’s mum said it was found that “someone forgot to sign the search warrant in the right place and Krueger was free, just like that”.

Which explains why the parents banded together to take Freddy down all those years ago.