From Shakespeare to Nightmare on Elm Street
Robert Englund gained fame as Freddy Krueger
Actor Robert Englund gets asked this question a lot. After eight horror films, a TV series and copious merchandising, why does his character, the iconic serial killer Freddy Krueger, still work? Why are there tens of thousands of people with Freddy Krueger tattoos, even full- torso Yakuza- style tattoos?
“Freddy Krueger is the logo character of a franchise spawned by a low- budget movie ( A Nightmare on Elm Street) made by some reasonably artistic people who came up with a gimmick — and it is a great gimmick — the idea that a bogey man, a revenge- motif serial killer could manifest himself in the subconscious of the children of the people that did him wrong,” says Englund.
The Krueger character, with his trademark burned face and gloved hand spiked with knives, stalks and kills teens in their dreams. He has returned from the dead to seek revenge on the parents of the teenagers who killed him.
“You have this great suburban fairy tale, everybody can understand it even if you can’t perceive lots of intellectual ramifications,” says Englund. “The sins of parents, sins of the mother and the father are foisted upon the children, who must pay for it.”
Englund, who is a non- stop quote machine in an interview, says Freddy is also about the breakdown of the family unit and what has been left for the next generation.
“Freddy is the embodiment of that. He is a great politically incorrect villain. Freddy is doing his revenge. He likes it, he is having fun doing it. He is unapologetic about that. You have a punk- rock nihilistic villain.”
And another thing: Freddy is always up against a woman. A woman always conquers Freddy. “There is an interesting Beauty and the Beast thing going on there with all the sexual implications.”
Englund is a classically trained actor who did revolving repertory theatre for many years, almost exclusively Shakespeare. “I used to drive up from theatre in Michigan to Stratford, Ont. to watch every show. I idolized the actors from Stratford. I was very influenced by them because they would come down and work at my theatre and get time on their American Equity union cards.”
Englund says he’s done half of the clowns in Shakespeare. “I’ve done Two Gentlemen of Verona, I’ve understudied Iago in Othello. I’ve done Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet.”
He’s also been in Godspell. In the 1970s he starred with Henry Fonda, Jeff Bridges and Sally Field.
“I had a nude scene with Susan Sarandon, for God’s sake. I’ve done fight scenes with Kris Kristofferson and Richard Gere. I was in all sorts of places in the 1970s. I shot Burt Reynolds point blank, so I have been around the block.”
When he got the part of Freddy Krueger, Englund had just finished watching the remake of Nosferatu with the German actor Klaus Kinski. “That influenced me a lot, the way he used his hands.”
A Nightmare on Elm Street was released in 1984. The film was driven around New York and New Jersey by a little- known production company called New Line Cinema, and became a cult hit. It caught on because it wasn’t hyped, Englund says. The film was discovered by dormitory rats, heavy- metal fans, punk rockers, rock and rollers, scifi, horror and fantasy fans, who were not getting any respect in 1984. “Not like today, when they run the industry. So a lot of people today think of those early films as theirs.
“Then you match that to MTV and the beginning of cable TV, where you could see it as a rerun, you could tape it.” And a franchise was born.
Today, older movies have a longer shelf life. “I’m on my third generation of fans. It’s not strange at all for me to go to some place and have a father come up with his sons that he watched the movie with when they were 12, and they invited some friends over for a sleepover.”