Freddy Krueger’s most frequent haunt is in the dreams of beautiful young women and too-brave-for-their-own-good dudes, but he made an exception last Friday with a cameo appearance on the streets of Vancouver.

In a promotional stunt for the remake of Wes Craven’s 1984 horror classic A Nightmare on Elm Street, set to release April 30, a street team of characters from the movie ran amok in downtown Vancouver Friday. Freddy and a few of his scratched-up, pyjama-clad prey tore around the city’s core, targeting Canucks fans on their way to the big game at BC Place and seeking to alarm whoever else crossed their path.

The stunt, which also took place in Toronto the week prior, was organized by Toronto-based Thinkbox Marketing as part of a promotional campaign for the movie (handled by Grey Canada in Vancouver). The goal was to drum up awareness for the movie’s release. The teams wore Nightmare-branded t-shirts and when they weren’t running away from Freddy and screaming things like ‘Don’t fall asleep!’ they handed out promo goodies like t-shirts, water bottles, pillowcases and key chains.

The street team also used two ‘contest’ formats to encourage interaction with people: the Freddy Krueger ‘Scream Off,’ which asked people to compete to see who had the best scream, and the ‘Terrifying Dream’ contest, which asked people to share their scariest dream.

The Nightmare release is also being supported by a multimedia campaign, with creative by Grey and TV, online and OOH handled by MediaCom in Toronto and print media by Allied Integrated Marketing in Toronto.