Robert Englund Says Freddy Krueger Remains Popular Because The Character “Is An Unrepentant, Politically Incorrect Villain With A Dose Of Personality”
Horror legend Robert Englund got his star on The Hollywood Walk of Fame after a tenured and prolific career as a character actor. If not for his decades of playing and haunting dreams as the razor-gloved Freddy Krueger, he may have not earned that honor.
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Although it has been many years since we last saw Krueger causing the youth to lose sleep, and even longer since Englund wore the makeup, the slasher remains an instantly recognizable and quotable pop culture stalwart. It says something about society when a child killer can sell tickets and move merchandise for generations, but Englund understands why Freddy is still so appealing.
Ultimately, it boils down to his charming personality, though the dark side of losing innocence doesn’t hurt either. “There’s these kids, dreaming of the future, and Freddy is polluting those dreams,” Englund said in Variety. “He has no future, and so he kills the future. There’s a dark, subconscious poetic feel to it.”
The actor admits most of the young people who have taken in the Nightmare on Elm Street series over the years probably didn’t think that deeply about it. They were too busy getting scared, munching on stale popcorn, and probably making a move on their date.
“Now I’m not saying every teenager in the octoplex with a bucket of buttered popcorn is thinking about that intellectually, but they do sense it emotionally. And there is an unrepentant, politically incorrect villain with a dose of personality. Those things together are some of the reasons for the popularity of the character,” Englund continued with a laugh.
The character’s creator, A Nightmare on Elm Street director Wes Craven, envisioned Freddy as scary and less quippy than he became, but New Line Cinema wouldn’t be denied. The upstart indie studio leaned heavily into the cool factor to court the MTV and Pepsi Generations.
As a result, Englund appeared in the melty makeup evocative of pepperoni pizza in music videos, ads, and even lunch boxes made for the kiddos supposed to be afraid of him. He also got a schlocky TV show (Freddy’s Nightmares) and a hotline out of the deal.
(Why? Because, in case you don’t remember or aren’t initiated about the decade, it was the 80s and that’s how they did things.)
The Nightmare remake where Jackie Earle Haley (who was around the set of the original back in the day) stood in for Englund was 15 years ago already. Since then, the rights had been in legal limbo until they reverted back to the Craven estate. Sadly, there has been no movement on a new movie in all that time.
Like his archrival Jason Voorhees who’s been sleeping at the bottom of Crystal Lake since 2009, time might finally be passing by to the point where everyone forgets Freddy. He can’t come back if no one remembers – if no one is afraid!
Or time could be on his side when we live in an era of ‘what’s old is new again’. The upcoming Peacock series might resurrect “that hockey punk” one more time and have studios scrambling to conjure new nightmares of their own for streaming. It’s highly unlikely they will let Freddy stay dead, especially with Blumhouse always waiting in the wings.
After all, nightmares never end if there is money to be made.
NEXT: Legendary Freddy Krueger Actor Robert Englund Chooses His Successor in Kevin Bacon
