Having proof that long term exposure to strong emotions could imbue an object with "life," William decided he would finally try and get some use out of Michael. Mechanized puppets used in tandem with disorienting audio and a light dose of sleeping medicine would create a horrific experience to elicit fear from the subject, with the hope being that this would eventually animate them. This continued until William was Springlocked, leaving his work unfinished and Michael with persistent night terrors and a drug dependency, unable to tell if what he experienced had ever been real. What neither of them know is that these experiments were successful and the Nightmares have taken on a life of their own, haunting the dreams of any child with enough fear relating to Freddy's.