A Nightmare on Elm Street is a movie franchise that is as popular now as it was over 40 years ago when Wes Craven brought dream demon Freddy Krueger to life for the first time. However, while Craven’s original movie depicted Freddy as a dark, disturbing character – who delivered a couple of one-liners for good measure – later movies turned him into a computer-playing, wise-ass. For actor Robert Englund, the man who is and always will be Freddy Krueger, the jokier side of Freddy was never an issue, although he does think it was perhaps pushed a little too far by the time he made Freddy’s Dead.
Speaking to ComicBook while promoting the new 4k Nightmare on Elm Street box set, Englund shared his thoughts on whether the humor that became more prominent in the franchise was out of character or just who Freddy always was.
“Freddy was always cracking wise. He was always a cruel clown. My image that I use, a lot of actors use animal imagery, was like a cat toying with a mouse before he kills it, and enjoying that. But Wes included a lot of jokes in the in the original one, we kind of I mean, perhaps we, I don’t know, push the envelope too much by the time we got to part six, Freddy’s Dead, but we were just embracing what the fans loved. And the fans loved Freddy’s personality. They loved his cruelty. They loved his political incorrectness, and they loved his jokes. So we just exploited that.”
Which ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ Movie Is Robert Englund’s Favorite?
Everyone has their own favorite Freddy movie and Robert Englund is no exception. In what could be a surprising revelation to some, Englund named Nightmare 4: The Dream Master as the performance he really likes, mainly because of the real freedom he was given. He said:
“I like my performance in Part 4, the Renny Harlin film. Renny left me alone and he understood that Freddy only exists in this dream landscape, this sort of a landscape of the mind, of the dream, of the nightmare. And so, he’s not real. He’s been conjured by the subconscious of whoever is having the nightmare, and so it can be a little stylized.’”
It is not up for discussion that many Nightmare on Elm Street fans would love to see Robert Englund play Freddy Krueger one last time. However, the actor has said on many occasions that he would not be able to believably portray the character anymore in the way needed, and has almost certainly ruled himself out of appearing in a new movie. However, that leaves the franchise in a dubious position.
Many horror icons, such as Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers, have gone through several actors thanks to their mute, masked appearance. The problem with replacing Englund as Freddy is that everything about the character, from his face to his voice and his mannerisms, are all Englund. The 2010 reboot of the franchise with Jackie Earle Haley portraying the knife-fingered killer failed to meet high audience expectations, and the franchise has not produced a movie since.
Englund has recently said that he doesn’t think any kind of reboot should just try and remake the first movie and should try to “redefine” the character with an unknown actor. Whether that will happen is something we can only wait and see, but one thing for certain is that no matter when anyone attempts to remake or reboot A Nightmare on Elm Street, Robert Englund’s sweater and glove will be a pretty big piece of attire to slip into.
- Release Date
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September 13, 1991
- Runtime
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89 minutes
- Director
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Rachel Talalay
- Producers
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Aron Warner
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Lisa Zane
Maggie Burroughs
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