Freddy Krueger
Encyclopedia
Frederick Charles "Freddy" Krueger is a fictional, horrifying character from the Nightmare on Elm Street series
of horror film
s. He first appears in Wes Craven
's A Nightmare on Elm Street
(1984) as a disfigured dream stalker who uses a glove armed with razors to kill his victims in their dream
s, ultimately causing their deaths in the waking world as well. However, whenever he is put into the real world, he has normal human vulnerability. He was created by Wes Craven
, and had been consistently portrayed by Robert Englund
since his first appearance. In the 2010 remake
, however, Freddy is portrayed by Academy Award-nominee Jackie Earle Haley
.
Freddy is a vengeful spirit who attacks his victims from within their dreams. He is commonly identified by his burned, disfigured face, red and dark green striped sweater, brown fedora
, and trademark metal-clawed brown leather glove on his right hand. Wizard magazine
rated him the 14th greatest villain, the British
television channel Sky2
listed him 8th, and the American Film Institute
ranked him 40th on its "AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains
" list.
by Wes Craven
, who had not worked on the film series since the third film
. The silver screen
is not the only place Krueger has appeared; there are literary sources that have expanded the universe
of Freddy, as well as adapted the films and adjusted various aspects of Freddy's backstory. The character has also hosted his own television show, Freddy's Nightmares
, which was an anthology series similar to The Twilight Zone
. Freddy also made several guest appearances on the syndicated puppet show DC Follies in 1988. In 2003, Freddy battled fellow horror icon Jason Voorhees
from the Friday the 13th film series in the theatrical release Freddy vs. Jason
, a film which officially resurrected both characters from their respective deaths and subsequently being sent to Hell in their respective 'last films'. The ending of the film is left ambiguous as to whether or not Freddy is actually dead, for despite being decapitated, he winks at the viewers. (A sequel featuring Ash from The Evil Dead
franchise was planned, but never materialized on-screen. It was later turned into comic book form in Dynamite Entertainment's Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash
).
. The story focused on Freddy trying to kill Nancy Thompson and her friends in their dreams, successfully killing all but Nancy. Krueger’s back-story is revealed by Nancy’s mother, who explains he was a child murderer whom the parents of Springwood killed after Krueger was acquitted of police charges on a technicality (he was discovered torturing a child by a police officer who entered his house after hearing the child's screams, but since the officer didn't have a valid warrant to enter the house all evidence was inadmissible in court). Nancy defeats Krueger by pulling him from the dream world into the real world, and setting up a series of booby traps, finally stripping him of his powers when she stops being afraid of him.
Krueger returned in the sequel, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge
terrorizing the Walsh family, who had moved into Nancy’s old home. Krueger possesses the body of Jesse Walsh (Mark Patton
), using his body to kill through his dreams. Jesse is saved by his girlfriend Lisa (Kim Myers
), who helps Jesse fight Krueger's spirit.
Wes Craven returned to give Krueger life for a third time in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
. In the second sequel, Krueger is systematically killing the last of the Elm Street children. The few remaining children have been placed in the Westin Hills Psychiatric Hospital, for attempted suicide. Nancy Thompson arrives at Westin Hills as a new intern, and realizes the children are being killed by Krueger. With the help of Dr. Neil Gordon (Craig Wasson
), Nancy helps Kristen (Patricia Arquette
), Joey (Rodney Eastman
), Taryn (Jennifer Rubin), Kincaid (Ken Sagoes
), and Will find their dream powers, so they can kill Krueger once and for all. Neil meets the spirit of Krueger’s mother, Amanda Krueger (Nan Martin
), who instructs him to bury Krueger’s remains in hallowed ground in order to stop him for good; however, he is unaware of her connection to Freddy until the end of the film. Neil completes his task, but not before Freddy kills Nancy.
The character’s fourth appearance in film came with A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master
. This time, Kristen (Tuesday Knight
) unwittingly releases Krueger, who immediately kills Kincaid and Joey. Before Kristen is killed she transfers her dream power to pull others into her dreams to her friend Alice (Lisa Wilcox
), who begins inadvertently providing victims for Krueger. Alice, who has taken on the traits of the friends who were murdered, confronts Krueger and uses her power as the Dream Master to release all the souls Krueger has taken; they subsequently rip themselves from Krueger’s body, killing him in the process.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child
picks up shortly after the events of The Dream Master. It involves Krueger using Alice’s unborn child, Jacob (Whitby Hertford), to resurrect himself and find new victims, as Jacob has the same power as his mother. The spirit of Amanda Krueger (Beatrice Boepple
) returns, revealing that Krueger was conceived when she, a nun working in a mental asylum, was accidentally locked in a room and raped hundreds of times. Alice is able to convince Jacob to use the powers he was given by Krueger against him, which gives Amanda Krueger the chance to subdue Krueger long enough for Alice and Jacob to escape the dream world.
Freddy made his sixth appearance in Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
. The film reveals that Krueger has a daughter, Kathryn (Cassandra Rachel Friel), who was taken away from him during his trial. Krueger sends the sole surviving teenager of Springwood to bring his daughter back to him. Krueger needs Kathryn (now named Maggie Burroughs) (Lisa Zane
), who is unaware that she is his daughter, so that he can leave Springwood and create new "Elm Streets" to begin his killing spree again. Maggie, utilizing new dream techniques, uncovers Krueger’s past—child abuse, cruelty to animals, murdering his own wife, the moment the Dream Demons prior to his death at the hands of the Springwood parents. She uses a pipe bomb
, embedded in his chest, to blow him up, leaving the Dream Demons unable to resurrect him in reality.
Freddy's clawed hand appears at the end of the film Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday
, the ninth installment of the Friday the 13th film series. His hand is seen bursting from the ground to drag Jason Voorhees
' iconic hockey
mask into Hell
. This would kill his victims.
Wes Craven's New Nightmare
focuses on a real life
setting, where Craven, Langenkamp, and Englund all play themselves, and where the character of Freddy Krueger is an evil entity that has been trapped in the realm of fiction by all the Nightmare films. When the films are stopped, the entity, which enjoys the form of Freddy Krueger, tries to escape into the real world. The only person in its way is Heather Langenkamp, whom the entity sees as "Nancy", the first person who defeated him. Langenkamp pursues "Freddy", who has kidnapped her son (Miko Hughes
), into the dream world. There, she and her son trap Freddy in a furnace where he is finally destroyed.
Freddy's next appearance was in Freddy vs. Jason
in which Freddy battles Friday the 13th's villain Jason Voorhees
(Ken Kirzinger
), an undead mass murderer who uses a hockey mask to hide his facial deformities. In the film, Krueger has grown weak, as people in Springwood have suppressed their fear of him. Impersonating Pamela Voorhees
, the mother of Jason Voorhees
, Krueger resurrects Jason and sends him to Springwood to cause panic and fear. Jason accomplishes this, but refuses to stop killing. A battle ensues in both the dream-world and Crystal Lake. The winner is left ambiguous, as Jason surfaces from the lake holding Krueger's severed head, which winks and laughs.¨
Freddy appears in a 2010 remake
of the original film, with Jackie Earle Haley
taking over the role in Robert Englund
's stead. In this film instead of a power plant worker and a child murderer, Krueger was the groundskeeper at Badham Preschool and a child molester (a recycled idea that was abandoned by director Craven himself while making the 1984 original). In this version, he has a more personal connection with the protagonist Nancy Holbrook (Rooney Mara); in life, he molested her and some of her friends, and thought of her as his "favorite". Though Freddy initially appears to have been wrongly accused, the parents, after observing slashes on their skin and clothes consistent with his trademark glove, burn him to death rather than turn him into the police to spare their children the trauma
of having to testify against him in open court. During the climax, Nancy pulls Freddy into reality and apparently kills him by severing his gloved-hand and slashing his throat with a broken paper cutter blade, only to have him reappear and drag her mother into the mirror to some unseen horror.
. The show was hosted by Freddy, who did not take direct part in most of the episodes, but he did show up occasionally to influence the plot of particular episodes. Further, a consistent theme in each episode was characters having disturbing dreams. The series ran for two seasons, 44 episodes, ending March 10, 1990. Although most of the episodes did not feature Freddy taking a major role in the plot, the pilot episode "No More Mr. Nice Guy" depicts the events of Krueger's trial, and his subsequent death at the hands of the parents of Elm Street after his acquittal
. In "No More Mr. Nice Guy", Freddy's acquittal is based on the arresting officer, Lt. Tim Blocker, not reading him his Miranda rights, which is different from the original Nightmare that stated he was acquitted because someone forgot to sign a search warrant in the right place. The episode also reveals that Krueger used an ice cream van
to lure children close enough so that he could kidnap and kill them. After the town's parents burn Freddy to death he returns to haunt Blocker in his dreams. Freddy gets his revenge when Blocker is put to sleep at the dentist's office, and Freddy shows up and kills him. The episode "Sister's Keeper" was a "sequel" to this episode, even though it was the seventh episode of the series. The episode follows Krueger as he terrorizes the Blocker twins, the identical twin daughters of Lt. Tim Blocker, and frames one sister for the other's murder. Season two's "It's My Party And You'll Die If I Want You To" featured Freddy attacking a high school prom
date who stood him up twenty years earlier. He got his revenge with his desire being fulfilled in the process.
's 1989 game A Nightmare on Elm Street. Freddy Krueger later appeared as an extra downloadable character for Mortal Kombat in 2011. His design is not based on either actors (Jackie Earle Haley or Robert Englund); according to creator Ed Boon
, "When I look at him, I think of the original Freddy: he’s got the striped sweater and is instantly recognizable. He’s Freddy in general, we don’t really identify him as one version or another". Freddy is featured with two claws.
about a series of mysterious deaths: All the victims had reported recurring nightmares beforehand about a man named Mr. K., thus the name Fred Krueger, and died in their sleep. Additionally, Craven's original script detailed Krueger as a child molester, which Craven said was the "worst thing" he could think of (this idea was later recycled for the character's background in the 2010 remake
). The decision was made to instead make Krueger a child murderer in order to avoid being accused of exploiting the spate of highly publicized child molestation cases in California around the time A Nightmare on Elm Street went into production. Craven's inspirations for the character included a bully from his school during his youth, a homeless man who had frightened him when he was eleven, and the 1970s pop
song "Dream Weaver
" by Gary Wright
. In an interview, he says that (after hearing some noise): "When I looked down there was a man very much like Freddy walking along the sidewalk. He must have sensed that someone was looking at him and stopped and looked right into my face. He scared the living daylights out of me, so I jumped back into the shadows. I waited and waited to hear him walk away. Finally I thought he must have gone, so I stepped back to the window. The guy was not only still looking at me but he thrust his head forward as if to say, 'Yes, I'm still looking at you.' The man walked towards the apartment building's entrance. I ran through the apartment to our front door as he was walking into our building on the lower floor. I heard him starting up the stairs. My brother, who is ten years older than me, got a baseball bat and went out to the corridor but he was gone."
In Wes Craven's New Nightmare
, Freddy was more a symbol of something more powerful and ancient, and was given more stature and muscles. Unlike the six movies before it, New Nightmare shows Freddy as closer to what Wes Craven originally intended, toning down his comedic side while strengthening the more menacing aspects of his character.
Throughout the series, Freddy's potential victims often experience dreams of young children, jumping rope and chanting a rhyme to the tune of "One, Two, Buckle My Shoe
" with the lyrics changed to "One, Two, Freddy's coming for you", often as an omen to Freddy's presence or a precursor to his attacks.
his teeth are razor sharp to make him have a more monster-like appearance. His blood is occasionally a dark, oily color, or greenish in hue when he is in the Dreamworld. In the original film, Freddy remains in the shadows and under lower light much longer than he does in the later pictures. In the second film, there are some scenes where Freddy is shown without his glove, and instead with the blades protruding from the tips of his fingers. As the films began to emphasize the comedic, wise cracking aspect of the character, he began to don various costumes and take on other forms, such as dressing as a waiter or wearing a Superman inspired version of his sweater with a cape (The Dream Child), appearing as a video game sprite (Freddy's Dead), a giant snake like creature (Dream Warriors), and a pot smoking caterpillar
(Freddy vs. Jason).
In New Nightmare, Freddy's appearance is updated considerably, giving him a green fedora that matched his sweater stripes, skintight leather
pants, knee-high black boots, a turtleneck version of his trademark sweater, a dark blue trench coat
, and a fifth claw on his glove, which also has a far more organic appearance (see above). Freddy also has fewer burns on his face, though these are more severe, with his muscle tissue exposed in numerous places.
In the remake, Freddy retains his iconic attire, but his burns are even more disfiguring than his 1984 counterpart, with misshapen facial features and portions of his face missing, including a sizable portion of flesh on his left cheek. Compared to his other incarnations, this Freddy's injuries are more like those of an actual burn victim.
claims that part of the inspiration for Freddy's infamous glove was from his cat
, as he watched it claw the side of his couch one night.
In an interview he said, "Part of it was an objective goal to make the character memorable, since it seems that every character that has been successful has had some kind of unique weapon, whether it be a chain saw
or a machete
, etc. I was also looking for a primal fear
which is embedded in the subconscious of people of all cultures. One of those is the fear of teeth being broken, which I used in my first film. Another is the claw of an animal, like a saber-toothed tiger
reaching with its tremendous hooks. I transposed this into a human hand. The original script had the blades being fishing knives."
When Jim Doyle, the creator of Freddy's claw, asked Craven what he wanted, Craven responded, "It's kind of like really long fingernails, I want the glove to look like something that someone could make who has the skills of a boilermaker." Doyle explained, "Then we hunted around for knives. We picked out this bizarre-looking steak knife, we thought that this looked really cool, we thought it would look even cooler if we turned it over and used it upside down, we had to remove the back edge and put another edge on it, because we were actually using the knife upside down." Later Doyle had three duplicates of the glove made, two of which were used as stunt gloves in long shots.
For New Nightmare
, Lou Carlucci, the effects coordinator, remodeled Freddy's glove for a more "organic look." He says, "I did the original glove on the first Nightmare and we deliberately made that rough and primitive looking, like something that would be constructed in somebody's home workshop. Since this is supposed to be a new look for Freddy, Wes and everybody involved decided that the glove should be different. This hand has more muscle
and bone
texture to it, the blades are shinier and in one case, are retractable. Everything about this glove has a much cleaner look to it, it's more a natural part of his hand than a glove." The new glove has five claws. In the 2010 remake, the glove maintains its original look, but is metal brown and has four finger bars.
Freddy's glove has appeared in the 1987 horror-comedy Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn
above the door on the inside of a toolshed. This was Sam Raimi
's response to Wes Craven showing footage of The Evil Dead
in A Nightmare on Elm Street, which in turn was a response to Sam Raimi putting a poster of Craven's 1977 film The Hills Have Eyes
in The Evil Dead. The glove also appears in the 1998 horror-comedy Bride of Chucky
in an evidence locker room that also contains the remains of the film's villain Chucky, the chainsaw
of Leatherface
from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and the masks of Michael Myers
from Halloween
and Jason Voorhees
from Friday the 13th.
At the end of the movie Jason Goes To Hell, the title character's mask is dragged under the earth by Freddy's gloved hand, thus setting up Freddy vs. Jason
, played by Kane Hodder
.
References to Freddy have occurred on three of The Simpsons
non-canon
Treehouse of Horror episodes. These include "Treehouse of Horror VI
": In a Nightmare on Elm Street parody, Groundskeeper Willie
has become Krueger; "Treehouse of Horror IX
": during the couch gag, Freddy and Jason
sit on the couch wondering where the family is (Robert Englund supplying the voice), and "Treehouse of Horror V
": after Homer
makes a pact with Moe
(now a ghost
) he attempts to kill the family and Marge
locks him in a pantry where an un-happy Moe and his ghoul friends come in and attack him, among the group was Freddy, Jason
and Pinhead
. Freddy's glove has also been featured in the episode, Cape Feare
, in which a paranoid Bart is frightened by Ned Flanders as he leaps out at him brandishing his new "finger razors" for trimming his hedge.
In The Critic
, Jay's girlfriend Alice is taking her daughter Penny to "Elm Street Preschool" (A moved tree branch revealed it was actually "A Nightmare on Elm Street Preschool") After saying she did not want to nap the director turns into Freddy Krueger and says that she will nap or be swallowed by the worm from hell. The worm then shows up, after leaving he says "It was the worm from hell wasn't it. He's not that bad once you get to know him."
Other references include an episode of Tiny Toons Adventures, Plucky Duck is seen watching a horror movie containing the villain "Eddie Cougar". Cougar then recites the line "how sweet, fresh meat" as heard in The Dream Master. In the end of Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday
, Freddy sets up Freddy vs. Jason
(released a decade later) by grabbing Jason's mask and dragging it underground to hell laughing manically, where Freddy currently is (portrayed by Kane Hodder
, who had also portrayed Jason in the film). In the South Park
episode "Imaginationland Episode II
", he is seen with a group of evil imaginary characters, with each one claiming to be the most evil imaginary character of them all. Also, in the South Park episode "Insheeption
", Freddy, who is shown as now being retired and living with a wife and kids in a log cabin deep in the woods, is persuaded to infiltrate Mr. Mackey's dream in order to rescue Stan, Randy, and several other people who are trapped inside the dream from a sinister man in an owl costume who molested Mackey as a child. In episode 70 of Robot Chicken
, Freddy (voiced by Seth Green
) appears alongside Jason Voorhees
, Michael Myers
, Ghostface
, Pinhead
, and Leatherface
in the Big Brother show, where his sweater is shrunk by Ghostface, and he is later stabbed by Michael, which doesn't damage him but annoys him. In the Family Guy
episode "The Splendid Source
", Quagmire gives Freddy a joke to tell Peter in his dreams. Peter wakes up and paraphrases the line If you die in your dreams, you die for real from the 2010 remake
. In another Robot Chicken
episode, it is shown that Freddy made the claw glove to scratch an itchy sweater his daughter bought for him. His daughter later gives him a fedora, prompting her father to destroy the school bazaar where she got them. The adults mistake him as a child abuser, and attack him in an angry mob fashion. He is then consoled by spirits saying he can get out of it if he becomes a killer. He says yes but soon realizes he isn't able to take the sweater off. He sighs and states "well, at least I have my complexion" before a fire engulfs him and the school (a clear spoof of his origin). In an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Will scares Carlton dressed up as Freddy while in the back seat of a car, a game show from CBS
in 2005 that ended up never airing called A Nightmare on Elm Street: Real Nightmares. As Robert Englund hosts, he makes contestants come face to face with their nightmares in an attempt to help them overcome their fears.
In the Supernatural
episode "Dream a Little Dream of Me", a killer is using dream root to invade people's dreams and kill them. Sam
states "You take enough of it (dream root), with enough practice, you can become a regular Freddy Krueger".
A comic magazine
story featuring Mickey Mouse
written by Carol Mcreal centers around one of Mickey's foes, who breaks into his dreams as a figure called "Teddy Sluger". "Teddy Sluger" closely resembles Freddy, but has claws on both hands.
Krueger is also a musical topic. Eminem has mentioned Freddy numerous times in many of his songs such as, "Insane", "Underground" in which he says "Walked up Elm Street with a wiffle bat drew, fought Freddy Krueger and Edward Scissorhands too". For example, In 1985, "Freddy Krueger" by Stormtroopers of Death
, 1988, "Freddy Krueger" on the album Kneipenterroristen
by Böhse Onkelz
, 1988, "Are You Ready for Freddy
" by The Fat Boys
(the video actually features Robert Englund dressed up like Freddy chasing the band around in his house), "Nightmare on My Street
" by D.J. Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, and an entire 1987 album, Freddy's Greatest Hits, by The Elm Street Group, where Freddy (voiced by Robert Englund) sings along on original songs like "Don't Sleep", "Obsession", "Dance Or Else" and "Down In The Boiler Room" as well as cover songs "Do The Freddy", "All I Have To Do Is Dream", "In The Midnight Hour" and "Wooly Bully".
Freddy Krueger is also mentioned in a loose cameo in "Weird Al" Yankovich's parody, "The Night Santa went Crazy," which mentions that Santa killed Dasher the Reindeer by cutting him up "just like Freddy Krueger." The music video sports a shot of santa armed with Freddy's glove.
In an episode of Everybody Hates Chris
, Malvo is dressed as Freddy Krueger in Chris' dream after threatening Chris.
A Nightmare on Elm Street (franchise)
A Nightmare on Elm Street is an American horror franchise that consists of nine slasher films, a television show, novels, and comic books. The franchise began with the film series created by Wes Craven. The franchise is based on the fictional character Freddy Krueger, introduced in A Nightmare on...
of horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
s. He first appears in Wes Craven
Wes Craven
Wesley Earl "Wes" Craven is an American actor, film director, writer, producer, perhaps best known as the director of many horror films, particularly slasher films, including the famed A Nightmare on Elm Street and Wes Craven's New Nightmare, featuring the iconic Freddy Krueger character, the...
's A Nightmare on Elm Street
A Nightmare on Elm Street
A Nightmare on Elm Street is a 1984 American slasher film directed and written by Wes Craven, and the first film of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. The film features Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Amanda Wyss, Jsu Garcia, Robert Englund, and Johnny Depp in his feature film...
(1984) as a disfigured dream stalker who uses a glove armed with razors to kill his victims in their dream
Dream
Dreams are successions of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. The content and purpose of dreams are not definitively understood, though they have been a topic of scientific speculation, philosophical intrigue and religious...
s, ultimately causing their deaths in the waking world as well. However, whenever he is put into the real world, he has normal human vulnerability. He was created by Wes Craven
Wes Craven
Wesley Earl "Wes" Craven is an American actor, film director, writer, producer, perhaps best known as the director of many horror films, particularly slasher films, including the famed A Nightmare on Elm Street and Wes Craven's New Nightmare, featuring the iconic Freddy Krueger character, the...
, and had been consistently portrayed by Robert Englund
Robert Englund
Robert Barton Englund is an American actor, voice-actor and director, best known for playing the fictional serial killer Freddy Krueger, in the Nightmare on Elm Street film series. He received a Saturn Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors in...
since his first appearance. In the 2010 remake
A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010 film)
A Nightmare on Elm Street is a 2010 American slasher film directed by Samuel Bayer, and written by Wesley Strick and Eric Heisserer. The film stars Jackie Earle Haley, Kyle Gallner, Rooney Mara, Katie Cassidy, Thomas Dekker and Kellan Lutz...
, however, Freddy is portrayed by Academy Award-nominee Jackie Earle Haley
Jackie Earle Haley
Jackie Earle Haley is an American film actor. Establishing himself from child actor to adult Academy Award-nominee, he is perhaps best known for his roles as Moocher in Breaking Away, Kelly Leak in The Bad News Bears, pedophile Ronnie McGorvey in Little Children, the vigilante Rorschach in...
.
Freddy is a vengeful spirit who attacks his victims from within their dreams. He is commonly identified by his burned, disfigured face, red and dark green striped sweater, brown fedora
Fedora (hat)
A fedora is a men's felt hat. In reality, "fedora" describes most any men's hat that does not already have another name; quite a few fedoras have famous names of their own including the famous Trilby....
, and trademark metal-clawed brown leather glove on his right hand. Wizard magazine
Wizard (magazine)
Wizard or Wizard: The Magazine of Comics, Entertainment and Pop Culture was a magazine about comic books, published monthly in the United States by Wizard Entertainment from July 1991 to January 2011...
rated him the 14th greatest villain, the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
television channel Sky2
Sky2
Sky2 is a British television channel originally launched on 2 December 2002 as Sky One Mix. Sky2 is now available on Sky, Virgin Media, Smallworld Cable and TalkTalk TV platforms in the UK. It is also available in the Republic of Ireland on the UPC Ireland platform.-Rebrand:Sky One Mix was...
listed him 8th, and the American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
ranked him 40th on its "AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains is a list of the 100 greatest screen characters chosen by American Film Institute in June 2003. It is part of the AFI 100 Years… series. The series was first presented in a CBS special hosted by Arnold Schwarzenegger...
" list.
Appearances
Freddy is a child killer in a Nightmare on Elm Street, which revealed that he was set on fire, resulting in his infamous burns. The character was brought back in Wes Craven's New NightmareWes Craven's New Nightmare
Wes Craven's New Nightmare is a 1994 horror metafilm written and directed by Wes Craven. Although it is the seventh installment of the Nightmare on Elm Street series, it is not part of the series continuity, instead portraying Freddy Krueger as a fictional movie villain who invades the real world...
by Wes Craven
Wes Craven
Wesley Earl "Wes" Craven is an American actor, film director, writer, producer, perhaps best known as the director of many horror films, particularly slasher films, including the famed A Nightmare on Elm Street and Wes Craven's New Nightmare, featuring the iconic Freddy Krueger character, the...
, who had not worked on the film series since the third film
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors is a 1987 slasher film and the third film in the Nightmare on Elm Street series. The film was directed by Chuck Russell and starred Heather Langenkamp, Craig Wasson, Robert Englund and Patricia Arquette in her first role.- Plot :Six years after the events...
. The silver screen
Silver screen
A silver screen, also known as a silver lenticular screen, is a type of projection screen that was popular in the early years of the motion picture industry and passed into popular usage as a metonym for the cinema industry...
is not the only place Krueger has appeared; there are literary sources that have expanded the universe
Expanded Universe
The term Expanded Universe is generally used to denote the 'extension' of a media franchise with other media...
of Freddy, as well as adapted the films and adjusted various aspects of Freddy's backstory. The character has also hosted his own television show, Freddy's Nightmares
Freddy's Nightmares
Freddy's Nightmares is an American horror anthology series, which aired in syndication from October 1988 until March 1990. A spin-off from the Nightmare on Elm Street series, each story was introduced by Freddy Krueger...
, which was an anthology series similar to The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone is an American television anthology series created by Rod Serling. Each episode is a mixture of self-contained drama, psychological thriller, fantasy, science fiction, suspense, or horror, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist...
. Freddy also made several guest appearances on the syndicated puppet show DC Follies in 1988. In 2003, Freddy battled fellow horror icon Jason Voorhees
Jason Voorhees
Jason Voorhees is a fictional character from the Friday the 13th series of slasher films. He first appeared in Friday the 13th , as the son of camp cook-turned-murderer, Mrs. Voorhees, in which he was portrayed by Ari Lehman. Created by Victor Miller, with contributions by Ron Kurz, Sean S...
from the Friday the 13th film series in the theatrical release Freddy vs. Jason
Freddy vs. Jason
Freddy vs. Jason is a 2003 American slasher film directed by Ronny Yu. The film is a crossover between the A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th franchises...
, a film which officially resurrected both characters from their respective deaths and subsequently being sent to Hell in their respective 'last films'. The ending of the film is left ambiguous as to whether or not Freddy is actually dead, for despite being decapitated, he winks at the viewers. (A sequel featuring Ash from The Evil Dead
The Evil Dead (franchise)
The Evil Dead is a trilogy of horror films created by Sam Raimi. The films focus on the protagonist, Ashley "Ash" J. Williams, played by Bruce Campbell, who deals with "deadites", which are undead antagonists created by the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis. The film series has since expanded into other...
franchise was planned, but never materialized on-screen. It was later turned into comic book form in Dynamite Entertainment's Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash
Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash
Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash is a six-issue comic book limited series that was released in November 2007 and ran until March 2008. It was published by Wildstorm, Dynamite Entertainment, and DC Comics. Based on the original Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash film treatment by Jeff Katz, the story serves as a...
).
Films
Freddy's first appearance was in A Nightmare on Elm StreetA Nightmare on Elm Street
A Nightmare on Elm Street is a 1984 American slasher film directed and written by Wes Craven, and the first film of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. The film features Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Amanda Wyss, Jsu Garcia, Robert Englund, and Johnny Depp in his feature film...
. The story focused on Freddy trying to kill Nancy Thompson and her friends in their dreams, successfully killing all but Nancy. Krueger’s back-story is revealed by Nancy’s mother, who explains he was a child murderer whom the parents of Springwood killed after Krueger was acquitted of police charges on a technicality (he was discovered torturing a child by a police officer who entered his house after hearing the child's screams, but since the officer didn't have a valid warrant to enter the house all evidence was inadmissible in court). Nancy defeats Krueger by pulling him from the dream world into the real world, and setting up a series of booby traps, finally stripping him of his powers when she stops being afraid of him.
Krueger returned in the sequel, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge
A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge
A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge is a 1985 American slasher film and the second film in the Nightmare on Elm Street film series. The film was directed by Jack Sholder and stars Mark Patton, Kim Myers, Robert Rusler and Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger. Despite the film's title,...
terrorizing the Walsh family, who had moved into Nancy’s old home. Krueger possesses the body of Jesse Walsh (Mark Patton
Mark Patton
Mark Patton is a former American actor who starred in 3 films in the 1980s.-Movie career:He is perhaps best known for his role in the 1985 horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge as Jesse Walsh, a teen whose body becomes possessed by Freddy Krueger...
), using his body to kill through his dreams. Jesse is saved by his girlfriend Lisa (Kim Myers
Kim Myers
Kimberly S. "Kim" Myers is an American television and film actress.Her breakthrough role was in the 1985 horror classic A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge as Lisa Webber...
), who helps Jesse fight Krueger's spirit.
Wes Craven returned to give Krueger life for a third time in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors is a 1987 slasher film and the third film in the Nightmare on Elm Street series. The film was directed by Chuck Russell and starred Heather Langenkamp, Craig Wasson, Robert Englund and Patricia Arquette in her first role.- Plot :Six years after the events...
. In the second sequel, Krueger is systematically killing the last of the Elm Street children. The few remaining children have been placed in the Westin Hills Psychiatric Hospital, for attempted suicide. Nancy Thompson arrives at Westin Hills as a new intern, and realizes the children are being killed by Krueger. With the help of Dr. Neil Gordon (Craig Wasson
Craig Wasson
-Career:Wasson's first feature film was the 1977 suspense thriller Rollercoaster. In 1978, he appeared in two films about the Vietnam war: first as a private in The Boys in Company C and then as a corporal in Go Tell the Spartans. In 1982, he was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for New Star of...
), Nancy helps Kristen (Patricia Arquette
Patricia Arquette
Patricia T. Arquette is an American actress and director. She played the lead character in the supernatural drama series Medium for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series....
), Joey (Rodney Eastman
Rodney Eastman
Rodney Eastman is a Canadian actor. He is also a musician in a band called "King Straggler" with fellow actors John Hawkes and Brent Gore. The band resides in Los Angeles, California.-Life and career:...
), Taryn (Jennifer Rubin), Kincaid (Ken Sagoes
Ken Sagoes
Ken Sagoes is an American actor who has starred in films and in television. He is best known for his role in the 1987 horror classic A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors as Roland Kincaid and reprised his role in the 1988 hit sequel A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master.Sagoes'...
), and Will find their dream powers, so they can kill Krueger once and for all. Neil meets the spirit of Krueger’s mother, Amanda Krueger (Nan Martin
Nan Martin
Nan Martin was an American actress who starred in movies and on television.Born in Decatur, Illinois and raised in Santa Monica, California, her first film role was The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit...
), who instructs him to bury Krueger’s remains in hallowed ground in order to stop him for good; however, he is unaware of her connection to Freddy until the end of the film. Neil completes his task, but not before Freddy kills Nancy.
The character’s fourth appearance in film came with A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master is a 1988 American slasher film and the fourth film in the Nightmare on Elm Street series. The film was directed by Renny Harlin.-Plot:...
. This time, Kristen (Tuesday Knight
Tuesday Knight
Tuesday Lynn Knight is an American actress. The daughter of composer Baker Knight, she is perhaps best remembered for her role as Kristen Parker in the 1988 horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master. Also an accomplished musician, Tuesday recorded the song "Nightmare," used during...
) unwittingly releases Krueger, who immediately kills Kincaid and Joey. Before Kristen is killed she transfers her dream power to pull others into her dreams to her friend Alice (Lisa Wilcox
Lisa Wilcox
Lisa E. Wilcox is an American actress who has starred in film and television.-Movie career:Wilcox's best known film role is in the 1988 hit horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master as Alice Johnson. In 1989, she reprised the role in the sequel A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The...
), who begins inadvertently providing victims for Krueger. Alice, who has taken on the traits of the friends who were murdered, confronts Krueger and uses her power as the Dream Master to release all the souls Krueger has taken; they subsequently rip themselves from Krueger’s body, killing him in the process.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child
A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child
A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child is a 1989 American slasher film and the fifth film in the Nightmare on Elm Street series. It was directed by Stephen Hopkins. The film's general tone is much more gothic and dark than the films before, and used a blue filter lighting technique in most of...
picks up shortly after the events of The Dream Master. It involves Krueger using Alice’s unborn child, Jacob (Whitby Hertford), to resurrect himself and find new victims, as Jacob has the same power as his mother. The spirit of Amanda Krueger (Beatrice Boepple
Beatrice Boepple
Beatrice Boepple is an American actress, perhaps best known for her role as Amanda Krueger in the 1989 horror movie A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child...
) returns, revealing that Krueger was conceived when she, a nun working in a mental asylum, was accidentally locked in a room and raped hundreds of times. Alice is able to convince Jacob to use the powers he was given by Krueger against him, which gives Amanda Krueger the chance to subdue Krueger long enough for Alice and Jacob to escape the dream world.
Freddy made his sixth appearance in Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare is a 1991 American slasher film. It is the sixthand as the title suggests, intended to be the lastfilm in the series of films featuring Freddy Krueger...
. The film reveals that Krueger has a daughter, Kathryn (Cassandra Rachel Friel), who was taken away from him during his trial. Krueger sends the sole surviving teenager of Springwood to bring his daughter back to him. Krueger needs Kathryn (now named Maggie Burroughs) (Lisa Zane
Lisa Zane
Elizabeth Frances "Lisa" Zane is an American actress and singer who has starred on stage, in film and television.-Personal life:...
), who is unaware that she is his daughter, so that he can leave Springwood and create new "Elm Streets" to begin his killing spree again. Maggie, utilizing new dream techniques, uncovers Krueger’s past—child abuse, cruelty to animals, murdering his own wife, the moment the Dream Demons prior to his death at the hands of the Springwood parents. She uses a pipe bomb
Pipe bomb
A pipe bomb is an improvised explosive device, a tightly sealed section of pipe filled with an explosive material. The containment provided by the pipe means that simple low explosives can be used to produce a relatively large explosion, and the fragmentation of the pipe itself creates potentially...
, embedded in his chest, to blow him up, leaving the Dream Demons unable to resurrect him in reality.
Freddy's clawed hand appears at the end of the film Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday
Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday
Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday is a 1993 slasher film, the ninth—and, as the title suggests, intended final—installment in the Friday the 13th film series and the first sequel to be distributed by New Line Cinema....
, the ninth installment of the Friday the 13th film series. His hand is seen bursting from the ground to drag Jason Voorhees
Jason Voorhees
Jason Voorhees is a fictional character from the Friday the 13th series of slasher films. He first appeared in Friday the 13th , as the son of camp cook-turned-murderer, Mrs. Voorhees, in which he was portrayed by Ari Lehman. Created by Victor Miller, with contributions by Ron Kurz, Sean S...
' iconic hockey
Hockey
Hockey is a family of sports in which two teams play against each other by trying to maneuver a ball or a puck into the opponent's goal using a hockey stick.-Etymology:...
mask into Hell
Hell
In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...
. This would kill his victims.
Wes Craven's New Nightmare
Wes Craven's New Nightmare
Wes Craven's New Nightmare is a 1994 horror metafilm written and directed by Wes Craven. Although it is the seventh installment of the Nightmare on Elm Street series, it is not part of the series continuity, instead portraying Freddy Krueger as a fictional movie villain who invades the real world...
focuses on a real life
Real life
Real life is a term usually used to denote actual human life lived by real people in contrast with the lives of fictional or fantasy characters.-Usage online and in fiction:On the Internet, "real life" refers to life in the real world...
setting, where Craven, Langenkamp, and Englund all play themselves, and where the character of Freddy Krueger is an evil entity that has been trapped in the realm of fiction by all the Nightmare films. When the films are stopped, the entity, which enjoys the form of Freddy Krueger, tries to escape into the real world. The only person in its way is Heather Langenkamp, whom the entity sees as "Nancy", the first person who defeated him. Langenkamp pursues "Freddy", who has kidnapped her son (Miko Hughes
Miko Hughes
Miko John Hughes is an American actor best known for his film roles as a child actor as Gage Creed in Pet Sematary , as an autistic boy opposite Bruce Willis in Mercury Rising and as Dylan, Heather Langenkamp's son in Wes Craven's New Nightmare .-Career:Hughes started his acting career in a...
), into the dream world. There, she and her son trap Freddy in a furnace where he is finally destroyed.
| "Jackie is not big, and I think that Jackie’s size is gonna really work [...] One of the metaphors [...] I’ve used for Freddy is a little rabid dog that just bites your ankle and holds on. [...] And I think Jackie brings that, with his own physicality, to the role, without ever having to work it a little bit. [...] He brings that naturally with who he is, which I think is really part of the way I see it." |
| — Robert Englund on Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy Krueger. |
Freddy's next appearance was in Freddy vs. Jason
Freddy vs. Jason
Freddy vs. Jason is a 2003 American slasher film directed by Ronny Yu. The film is a crossover between the A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th franchises...
in which Freddy battles Friday the 13th's villain Jason Voorhees
Jason Voorhees
Jason Voorhees is a fictional character from the Friday the 13th series of slasher films. He first appeared in Friday the 13th , as the son of camp cook-turned-murderer, Mrs. Voorhees, in which he was portrayed by Ari Lehman. Created by Victor Miller, with contributions by Ron Kurz, Sean S...
(Ken Kirzinger
Ken Kirzinger
Ken Kirzinger is a Canadian stuntman and actor best known for his portrayal of Jason Voorhees in Freddy vs. Jason and of Pa in Wrong Turn 2: Dead End . He also played "Mason" Jason Voorhees character spoof in the horror film parody, Stan Helsing.-Role as Jason Voorhees:At he is one of the...
), an undead mass murderer who uses a hockey mask to hide his facial deformities. In the film, Krueger has grown weak, as people in Springwood have suppressed their fear of him. Impersonating Pamela Voorhees
Pamela Voorhees
Pamela Sue Voorhees is a fictional character in the Friday the 13th films, and the antagonist of the original Friday the 13th film. She is a former camp cook and the mother of Jason Voorhees, the main character of the series....
, the mother of Jason Voorhees
Jason Voorhees
Jason Voorhees is a fictional character from the Friday the 13th series of slasher films. He first appeared in Friday the 13th , as the son of camp cook-turned-murderer, Mrs. Voorhees, in which he was portrayed by Ari Lehman. Created by Victor Miller, with contributions by Ron Kurz, Sean S...
, Krueger resurrects Jason and sends him to Springwood to cause panic and fear. Jason accomplishes this, but refuses to stop killing. A battle ensues in both the dream-world and Crystal Lake. The winner is left ambiguous, as Jason surfaces from the lake holding Krueger's severed head, which winks and laughs.¨
Freddy appears in a 2010 remake
A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010 film)
A Nightmare on Elm Street is a 2010 American slasher film directed by Samuel Bayer, and written by Wesley Strick and Eric Heisserer. The film stars Jackie Earle Haley, Kyle Gallner, Rooney Mara, Katie Cassidy, Thomas Dekker and Kellan Lutz...
of the original film, with Jackie Earle Haley
Jackie Earle Haley
Jackie Earle Haley is an American film actor. Establishing himself from child actor to adult Academy Award-nominee, he is perhaps best known for his roles as Moocher in Breaking Away, Kelly Leak in The Bad News Bears, pedophile Ronnie McGorvey in Little Children, the vigilante Rorschach in...
taking over the role in Robert Englund
Robert Englund
Robert Barton Englund is an American actor, voice-actor and director, best known for playing the fictional serial killer Freddy Krueger, in the Nightmare on Elm Street film series. He received a Saturn Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors in...
's stead. In this film instead of a power plant worker and a child murderer, Krueger was the groundskeeper at Badham Preschool and a child molester (a recycled idea that was abandoned by director Craven himself while making the 1984 original). In this version, he has a more personal connection with the protagonist Nancy Holbrook (Rooney Mara); in life, he molested her and some of her friends, and thought of her as his "favorite". Though Freddy initially appears to have been wrongly accused, the parents, after observing slashes on their skin and clothes consistent with his trademark glove, burn him to death rather than turn him into the police to spare their children the trauma
Psychological trauma
Psychological trauma is a type of damage to the psyche that occurs as a result of a traumatic event...
of having to testify against him in open court. During the climax, Nancy pulls Freddy into reality and apparently kills him by severing his gloved-hand and slashing his throat with a broken paper cutter blade, only to have him reappear and drag her mother into the mirror to some unseen horror.
Television
Robert Englund continued his role as Freddy Krueger on October 9, 1988 in the television anthology series entitled Freddy's NightmaresFreddy's Nightmares
Freddy's Nightmares is an American horror anthology series, which aired in syndication from October 1988 until March 1990. A spin-off from the Nightmare on Elm Street series, each story was introduced by Freddy Krueger...
. The show was hosted by Freddy, who did not take direct part in most of the episodes, but he did show up occasionally to influence the plot of particular episodes. Further, a consistent theme in each episode was characters having disturbing dreams. The series ran for two seasons, 44 episodes, ending March 10, 1990. Although most of the episodes did not feature Freddy taking a major role in the plot, the pilot episode "No More Mr. Nice Guy" depicts the events of Krueger's trial, and his subsequent death at the hands of the parents of Elm Street after his acquittal
Acquittal
In the common law tradition, an acquittal formally certifies the accused is free from the charge of an offense, as far as the criminal law is concerned. This is so even where the prosecution is abandoned nolle prosequi...
. In "No More Mr. Nice Guy", Freddy's acquittal is based on the arresting officer, Lt. Tim Blocker, not reading him his Miranda rights, which is different from the original Nightmare that stated he was acquitted because someone forgot to sign a search warrant in the right place. The episode also reveals that Krueger used an ice cream van
Ice cream van
An ice cream van or ice cream truck is a commercial vehicle which serves as a travelling retail outlet for ice cream, usually during the summer. Ice cream vans are often seen parked at public events, or near parks, beaches, or other areas where people congregate...
to lure children close enough so that he could kidnap and kill them. After the town's parents burn Freddy to death he returns to haunt Blocker in his dreams. Freddy gets his revenge when Blocker is put to sleep at the dentist's office, and Freddy shows up and kills him. The episode "Sister's Keeper" was a "sequel" to this episode, even though it was the seventh episode of the series. The episode follows Krueger as he terrorizes the Blocker twins, the identical twin daughters of Lt. Tim Blocker, and frames one sister for the other's murder. Season two's "It's My Party And You'll Die If I Want You To" featured Freddy attacking a high school prom
Prom
In the United States and Canada, a prom, short for promenade, is a formal dance, or gathering of high school students. It is typically held near the end of the senior year. It figures greatly in popular culture and is a major event among high school students...
date who stood him up twenty years earlier. He got his revenge with his desire being fulfilled in the process.
Video games
Freddy Krueger's first video game appearance was in the NintendoNintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
's 1989 game A Nightmare on Elm Street. Freddy Krueger later appeared as an extra downloadable character for Mortal Kombat in 2011. His design is not based on either actors (Jackie Earle Haley or Robert Englund); according to creator Ed Boon
Ed Boon
Edward J. Boon is an American video game programmer who had been employed for over 15 years at Midway. He now works for Warner Bros...
, "When I look at him, I think of the original Freddy: he’s got the striped sweater and is instantly recognizable. He’s Freddy in general, we don’t really identify him as one version or another". Freddy is featured with two claws.
Characterization
Wes Craven says his inspiration for the basis of Krueger's power stemmed from several stories in the Los Angeles TimesLos Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
about a series of mysterious deaths: All the victims had reported recurring nightmares beforehand about a man named Mr. K., thus the name Fred Krueger, and died in their sleep. Additionally, Craven's original script detailed Krueger as a child molester, which Craven said was the "worst thing" he could think of (this idea was later recycled for the character's background in the 2010 remake
A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010 film)
A Nightmare on Elm Street is a 2010 American slasher film directed by Samuel Bayer, and written by Wesley Strick and Eric Heisserer. The film stars Jackie Earle Haley, Kyle Gallner, Rooney Mara, Katie Cassidy, Thomas Dekker and Kellan Lutz...
). The decision was made to instead make Krueger a child murderer in order to avoid being accused of exploiting the spate of highly publicized child molestation cases in California around the time A Nightmare on Elm Street went into production. Craven's inspirations for the character included a bully from his school during his youth, a homeless man who had frightened him when he was eleven, and the 1970s pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
song "Dream Weaver
Dream Weaver (song)
"Dream Weaver" is a song by Gary Wright that was a hit single in the US, reaching #2 in the Billboard charts while it reached #1 in the Cash Box charts in 1976. Taken from the album The Dream Weaver released the previous year, it features Wright on vocals and keyboards, and Jim Keltner on drums...
" by Gary Wright
Gary Wright
Gary Malcolm Wright is an American musician, best known for his song, "Dream Weaver". He was the piano player on Harry Nilsson's version of "Without You".-Early life:...
. In an interview, he says that (after hearing some noise): "When I looked down there was a man very much like Freddy walking along the sidewalk. He must have sensed that someone was looking at him and stopped and looked right into my face. He scared the living daylights out of me, so I jumped back into the shadows. I waited and waited to hear him walk away. Finally I thought he must have gone, so I stepped back to the window. The guy was not only still looking at me but he thrust his head forward as if to say, 'Yes, I'm still looking at you.' The man walked towards the apartment building's entrance. I ran through the apartment to our front door as he was walking into our building on the lower floor. I heard him starting up the stairs. My brother, who is ten years older than me, got a baseball bat and went out to the corridor but he was gone."
In Wes Craven's New Nightmare
Wes Craven's New Nightmare
Wes Craven's New Nightmare is a 1994 horror metafilm written and directed by Wes Craven. Although it is the seventh installment of the Nightmare on Elm Street series, it is not part of the series continuity, instead portraying Freddy Krueger as a fictional movie villain who invades the real world...
, Freddy was more a symbol of something more powerful and ancient, and was given more stature and muscles. Unlike the six movies before it, New Nightmare shows Freddy as closer to what Wes Craven originally intended, toning down his comedic side while strengthening the more menacing aspects of his character.
Throughout the series, Freddy's potential victims often experience dreams of young children, jumping rope and chanting a rhyme to the tune of "One, Two, Buckle My Shoe
One, Two, Buckle My Shoe
"One, Two, Buckle My Shoe" is a popular English language nursery rhyme and counting-out rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 11284.-Lyrics:Common modern versions include:...
" with the lyrics changed to "One, Two, Freddy's coming for you", often as an omen to Freddy's presence or a precursor to his attacks.
Appearance
Freddy Krueger's physical appearance has remained largely consistent throughout the film series, although minor changes were made in subsequent films. He wears a striped red and green sweater (with solid red sleeves in the original film, and red-and-green striped sleeves from the second film onwards), a dark brown fedora, his bladed glove (see below), loose brown trousers (blue jeans in the original film), and worn working boots, keeping with his blue collar background. His skin is scarred and burned as a result of being burned alive by the parents of Springwood, and he has no hair at all on his head as it was presumably all burned off; in the original film, only Freddy's face was burned, while they have spread to the rest of his body from the second film onwards. Additionally, his teeth are in rather poor shape; in the first three films, they are simply filthy and brown, but from the fourth film onwards, he is missing a lot of them, and in Freddy vs JasonFreddy vs. Jason
Freddy vs. Jason is a 2003 American slasher film directed by Ronny Yu. The film is a crossover between the A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th franchises...
his teeth are razor sharp to make him have a more monster-like appearance. His blood is occasionally a dark, oily color, or greenish in hue when he is in the Dreamworld. In the original film, Freddy remains in the shadows and under lower light much longer than he does in the later pictures. In the second film, there are some scenes where Freddy is shown without his glove, and instead with the blades protruding from the tips of his fingers. As the films began to emphasize the comedic, wise cracking aspect of the character, he began to don various costumes and take on other forms, such as dressing as a waiter or wearing a Superman inspired version of his sweater with a cape (The Dream Child), appearing as a video game sprite (Freddy's Dead), a giant snake like creature (Dream Warriors), and a pot smoking caterpillar
Caterpillar (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)
The Caterpillar is a fictional character appearing in Lewis Carroll's book, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.-Appearance in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland:...
(Freddy vs. Jason).
In New Nightmare, Freddy's appearance is updated considerably, giving him a green fedora that matched his sweater stripes, skintight leather
Leather
Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...
pants, knee-high black boots, a turtleneck version of his trademark sweater, a dark blue trench coat
Trench coat
A trench coat or trenchcoat is a raincoat made of waterproof heavy-duty cotton drill or poplin, wool gabardine, or leather. It generally has a removable insulated lining; and it is usually knee-length.-History:...
, and a fifth claw on his glove, which also has a far more organic appearance (see above). Freddy also has fewer burns on his face, though these are more severe, with his muscle tissue exposed in numerous places.
In the remake, Freddy retains his iconic attire, but his burns are even more disfiguring than his 1984 counterpart, with misshapen facial features and portions of his face missing, including a sizable portion of flesh on his left cheek. Compared to his other incarnations, this Freddy's injuries are more like those of an actual burn victim.
Glove
Wes CravenWes Craven
Wesley Earl "Wes" Craven is an American actor, film director, writer, producer, perhaps best known as the director of many horror films, particularly slasher films, including the famed A Nightmare on Elm Street and Wes Craven's New Nightmare, featuring the iconic Freddy Krueger character, the...
claims that part of the inspiration for Freddy's infamous glove was from his cat
Cat
The cat , also known as the domestic cat or housecat to distinguish it from other felids and felines, is a small, usually furry, domesticated, carnivorous mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and for its ability to hunt vermin and household pests...
, as he watched it claw the side of his couch one night.
In an interview he said, "Part of it was an objective goal to make the character memorable, since it seems that every character that has been successful has had some kind of unique weapon, whether it be a chain saw
Leatherface
Leatherface is the main antagonist in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre horror-film series and its spin-offs. He wears masks made of human skin and engages in murder and cannibalism alongside his inbred family. He is considered by many to be one of the first major slasher film villains alongside Michael...
or a machete
Jason Voorhees
Jason Voorhees is a fictional character from the Friday the 13th series of slasher films. He first appeared in Friday the 13th , as the son of camp cook-turned-murderer, Mrs. Voorhees, in which he was portrayed by Ari Lehman. Created by Victor Miller, with contributions by Ron Kurz, Sean S...
, etc. I was also looking for a primal fear
Fear
Fear is a distressing negative sensation induced by a perceived threat. It is a basic survival mechanism occurring in response to a specific stimulus, such as pain or the threat of danger...
which is embedded in the subconscious of people of all cultures. One of those is the fear of teeth being broken, which I used in my first film. Another is the claw of an animal, like a saber-toothed tiger
Saber-toothed cat
Saber-toothed cat or Sabre-toothed cat refers to the extinct subfamilies of Machairodontinae , Barbourofelidae , and Nimravidae as well as two families related to marsupials that were found worldwide from the Eocene Epoch to the end of the Pleistocene Epoch ,...
reaching with its tremendous hooks. I transposed this into a human hand. The original script had the blades being fishing knives."
When Jim Doyle, the creator of Freddy's claw, asked Craven what he wanted, Craven responded, "It's kind of like really long fingernails, I want the glove to look like something that someone could make who has the skills of a boilermaker." Doyle explained, "Then we hunted around for knives. We picked out this bizarre-looking steak knife, we thought that this looked really cool, we thought it would look even cooler if we turned it over and used it upside down, we had to remove the back edge and put another edge on it, because we were actually using the knife upside down." Later Doyle had three duplicates of the glove made, two of which were used as stunt gloves in long shots.
For New Nightmare
Wes Craven's New Nightmare
Wes Craven's New Nightmare is a 1994 horror metafilm written and directed by Wes Craven. Although it is the seventh installment of the Nightmare on Elm Street series, it is not part of the series continuity, instead portraying Freddy Krueger as a fictional movie villain who invades the real world...
, Lou Carlucci, the effects coordinator, remodeled Freddy's glove for a more "organic look." He says, "I did the original glove on the first Nightmare and we deliberately made that rough and primitive looking, like something that would be constructed in somebody's home workshop. Since this is supposed to be a new look for Freddy, Wes and everybody involved decided that the glove should be different. This hand has more muscle
Muscle
Muscle is a contractile tissue of animals and is derived from the mesodermal layer of embryonic germ cells. Muscle cells contain contractile filaments that move past each other and change the size of the cell. They are classified as skeletal, cardiac, or smooth muscles. Their function is to...
and bone
Bone
Bones are rigid organs that constitute part of the endoskeleton of vertebrates. They support, and protect the various organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells and store minerals. Bone tissue is a type of dense connective tissue...
texture to it, the blades are shinier and in one case, are retractable. Everything about this glove has a much cleaner look to it, it's more a natural part of his hand than a glove." The new glove has five claws. In the 2010 remake, the glove maintains its original look, but is metal brown and has four finger bars.
Freddy's glove has appeared in the 1987 horror-comedy Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn
Evil Dead II
Evil Dead II, also known as Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn, is a 1987 horror comedy film directed by Sam Raimi. It is a retcon sequel to the 1981 film The Evil Dead. The film was written by Raimi and Scott Spiegel, produced by Rob Tapert and starring Bruce Campbell as Ash Williams...
above the door on the inside of a toolshed. This was Sam Raimi
Sam Raimi
Samuel Marshall "Sam" Raimi is an American film director, producer, actor and writer. He is best known for directing cult horror films like the Evil Dead series, Darkman and Drag Me to Hell, as well as the blockbuster Spider-Man films and the producer of the successful TV series Hercules: The...
's response to Wes Craven showing footage of The Evil Dead
The Evil Dead
The Evil Dead is a 1981 horror film written and directed by Sam Raimi, starring Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, and Betsy Baker. The film is a story of five college students vacationing in an isolated cabin in a wooded area...
in A Nightmare on Elm Street, which in turn was a response to Sam Raimi putting a poster of Craven's 1977 film The Hills Have Eyes
The Hills Have Eyes (1977 film)
The Hills Have Eyes is a 1977 American horror film directed by Wes Craven and starring Susan Lanier, Michael Berryman, and Dee Wallace. It is about a family on a road trip who become stranded in the Nevada desert, and are hunted by a clan of deformed cannibals in the surrounding hills...
in The Evil Dead. The glove also appears in the 1998 horror-comedy Bride of Chucky
Bride of Chucky
Bride of Chucky is a 1998 American comedy horror film directed by Chinese director Ronny Yu. It is the fourth entry in the Child's Play series. The film stars Jennifer Tilly and Brad Dourif...
in an evidence locker room that also contains the remains of the film's villain Chucky, the chainsaw
Chainsaw
A chainsaw is a portable mechanical saw, powered by electricity, compressed air, hydraulic power, or most commonly a two-stroke engine...
of Leatherface
Leatherface
Leatherface is the main antagonist in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre horror-film series and its spin-offs. He wears masks made of human skin and engages in murder and cannibalism alongside his inbred family. He is considered by many to be one of the first major slasher film villains alongside Michael...
from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and the masks of Michael Myers
Michael Myers (Halloween)
Michael Myers is a fictional character from the Halloween series of slasher films. He first appears in John Carpenter's Halloween as a young boy who murders his older sister, then fifteen years later returns home to murder more teenagers...
from Halloween
Halloween (franchise)
Halloween is an American horror franchise that consists of ten slasher films, novels, and comic books. The franchise focuses on the fictional character of Michael Myers who was committed to a sanitarium as a child for the murder of his older sister, Judith Myers...
and Jason Voorhees
Jason Voorhees
Jason Voorhees is a fictional character from the Friday the 13th series of slasher films. He first appeared in Friday the 13th , as the son of camp cook-turned-murderer, Mrs. Voorhees, in which he was portrayed by Ari Lehman. Created by Victor Miller, with contributions by Ron Kurz, Sean S...
from Friday the 13th.
At the end of the movie Jason Goes To Hell, the title character's mask is dragged under the earth by Freddy's gloved hand, thus setting up Freddy vs. Jason
Freddy vs. Jason
Freddy vs. Jason is a 2003 American slasher film directed by Ronny Yu. The film is a crossover between the A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th franchises...
, played by Kane Hodder
Kane Hodder
Kane Warren Hodder is an American actor and stuntman. Standing , he is best known for his portrayal of Jason Voorhees in four films from the Friday the 13th film series . He is also known for his role as Victor Crowley in Hatchet. -Career:Hodder is the only actor to portray Jason Voorhees more...
.
Cultural references
References to Freddy have occurred on three of The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
non-canon
Canon (fiction)
In the context of a work of fiction, the term canon denotes the material accepted as "official" in a fictional universe's fan base. It is often contrasted with, or used as the basis for, works of fan fiction, which are not considered canonical...
Treehouse of Horror episodes. These include "Treehouse of Horror VI
Treehouse of Horror VI
"Treehouse of Horror VI" is the sixth episode of The Simpsons seventh season and the sixth episode in the Treehouse of Horror series. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 29, 1995, and contains three self-contained segments...
": In a Nightmare on Elm Street parody, Groundskeeper Willie
Groundskeeper Willie
William McDougal, usually referred to as Groundskeeper Willie, is a recurring character on The Simpsons, voiced by Dan Castellaneta. He is head groundskeeper at Springfield Elementary School. Willie is a Scottish immigrant, almost feral in nature and immensely proud of his homeland...
has become Krueger; "Treehouse of Horror IX
Treehouse of Horror IX
"Treehouse of Horror IX" is the fourth episode of the tenth season of The Simpsons. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 25, 1998...
": during the couch gag, Freddy and Jason
Jason Voorhees
Jason Voorhees is a fictional character from the Friday the 13th series of slasher films. He first appeared in Friday the 13th , as the son of camp cook-turned-murderer, Mrs. Voorhees, in which he was portrayed by Ari Lehman. Created by Victor Miller, with contributions by Ron Kurz, Sean S...
sit on the couch wondering where the family is (Robert Englund supplying the voice), and "Treehouse of Horror V
Treehouse of Horror V
"Treehouse of Horror V" is the sixth episode of The Simpsons sixth season and the fifth episode in the Treehouse of Horror series. It premiered on October 30, 1994, and features three short stories called The Shinning, Time and Punishment, and Nightmare Cafeteria...
": after Homer
Homer Simpson
Homer Jay Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons and the patriarch of the eponymous family. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and first appeared on television, along with the rest of his family, in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
makes a pact with Moe
Moe Szyslak
Momar / Morris "Moe" Szyslak is a fictional character in the American animated television series, The Simpsons. He is voiced by Hank Azaria and first appeared in the series premiere episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire"...
(now a ghost
Ghost
In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...
) he attempts to kill the family and Marge
Marge Simpson
Marjorie "Marge" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the eponymous family. She is voiced by actress Julie Kavner and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
locks him in a pantry where an un-happy Moe and his ghoul friends come in and attack him, among the group was Freddy, Jason
Jason Voorhees
Jason Voorhees is a fictional character from the Friday the 13th series of slasher films. He first appeared in Friday the 13th , as the son of camp cook-turned-murderer, Mrs. Voorhees, in which he was portrayed by Ari Lehman. Created by Victor Miller, with contributions by Ron Kurz, Sean S...
and Pinhead
Pinhead (Hellraiser)
Pinhead is a fictional character from the Hellraiser series. Created by Clive Barker and portrayed by Doug Bradley, Pinhead is a prominent figure in the series, mostly featured as the main antagonist....
. Freddy's glove has also been featured in the episode, Cape Feare
Cape Feare
"Cape Feare" is the second episode of the fifth season of American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 7, 1993, and has since been featured on DVD and VHS releases...
, in which a paranoid Bart is frightened by Ned Flanders as he leaps out at him brandishing his new "finger razors" for trimming his hedge.
In The Critic
The Critic
The Critic is an American prime time animated series revolving around the life of film critic Jay Sherman, voiced by actor Jon Lovitz. It was created by Al Jean and Mike Reiss, both of whom had worked as writers on The Simpsons. The Critic had 23 episodes produced, first broadcast on ABC in 1994,...
, Jay's girlfriend Alice is taking her daughter Penny to "Elm Street Preschool" (A moved tree branch revealed it was actually "A Nightmare on Elm Street Preschool") After saying she did not want to nap the director turns into Freddy Krueger and says that she will nap or be swallowed by the worm from hell. The worm then shows up, after leaving he says "It was the worm from hell wasn't it. He's not that bad once you get to know him."
Other references include an episode of Tiny Toons Adventures, Plucky Duck is seen watching a horror movie containing the villain "Eddie Cougar". Cougar then recites the line "how sweet, fresh meat" as heard in The Dream Master. In the end of Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday
Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday
Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday is a 1993 slasher film, the ninth—and, as the title suggests, intended final—installment in the Friday the 13th film series and the first sequel to be distributed by New Line Cinema....
, Freddy sets up Freddy vs. Jason
Freddy vs. Jason
Freddy vs. Jason is a 2003 American slasher film directed by Ronny Yu. The film is a crossover between the A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th franchises...
(released a decade later) by grabbing Jason's mask and dragging it underground to hell laughing manically, where Freddy currently is (portrayed by Kane Hodder
Kane Hodder
Kane Warren Hodder is an American actor and stuntman. Standing , he is best known for his portrayal of Jason Voorhees in four films from the Friday the 13th film series . He is also known for his role as Victor Crowley in Hatchet. -Career:Hodder is the only actor to portray Jason Voorhees more...
, who had also portrayed Jason in the film). In the South Park
South Park
South Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...
episode "Imaginationland Episode II
Imaginationland Episode II
"Imaginationland Episode II", or "The Drying of the Balls" , is episode 1111 of Comedy Central's animated TV series South Park. It originally aired on October 24, 2007. It is the second episode in a three-part story arc that won the 2008 Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program for One Hour or More...
", he is seen with a group of evil imaginary characters, with each one claiming to be the most evil imaginary character of them all. Also, in the South Park episode "Insheeption
Insheeption
"Insheeption" is the tenth episode of the fourteenth season of animated television series South Park, and the 205th episode of the series overall. It premiered October 20, 2010 on Comedy Central in the United States. In the episode, Stan and Mr. Mackey suffer a hoarding disorder. In an attempt to...
", Freddy, who is shown as now being retired and living with a wife and kids in a log cabin deep in the woods, is persuaded to infiltrate Mr. Mackey's dream in order to rescue Stan, Randy, and several other people who are trapped inside the dream from a sinister man in an owl costume who molested Mackey as a child. In episode 70 of Robot Chicken
Robot Chicken
Robot Chicken is an American stop motion animated television series created and executive produced by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich along with co-head writers Douglas Goldstein and Tom Root. Green provides many voices for the show...
, Freddy (voiced by Seth Green
Seth Green
Seth Benjamin Green is an American actor, comedian, voice actor, and television producer. He is well known for his role as Daniel "Oz" Osbourne in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as Dr. Evil's son Scott in the Austin Powers series of comedy films, Mitch Miller in That '70s Show, and the voice of Chris...
) appears alongside Jason Voorhees
Jason Voorhees
Jason Voorhees is a fictional character from the Friday the 13th series of slasher films. He first appeared in Friday the 13th , as the son of camp cook-turned-murderer, Mrs. Voorhees, in which he was portrayed by Ari Lehman. Created by Victor Miller, with contributions by Ron Kurz, Sean S...
, Michael Myers
Michael Myers (Halloween)
Michael Myers is a fictional character from the Halloween series of slasher films. He first appears in John Carpenter's Halloween as a young boy who murders his older sister, then fifteen years later returns home to murder more teenagers...
, Ghostface
Ghostface (Scream)
Ghostface is a fictional identity adopted by the main antagonists in the Scream series of slasher films. The character is voiced by Roger L. Jackson regardless of who is behind the mask...
, Pinhead
Pinhead (Hellraiser)
Pinhead is a fictional character from the Hellraiser series. Created by Clive Barker and portrayed by Doug Bradley, Pinhead is a prominent figure in the series, mostly featured as the main antagonist....
, and Leatherface
Leatherface
Leatherface is the main antagonist in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre horror-film series and its spin-offs. He wears masks made of human skin and engages in murder and cannibalism alongside his inbred family. He is considered by many to be one of the first major slasher film villains alongside Michael...
in the Big Brother show, where his sweater is shrunk by Ghostface, and he is later stabbed by Michael, which doesn't damage him but annoys him. In the Family Guy
Family Guy
Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...
episode "The Splendid Source
The Splendid Source
"The Splendid Source" is the nineteenth episode of the eighth season of the animated comedy series Family Guy. Directed by Brian Iles and written by Mark Hentemann, the episode originally aired on Fox in the United States on May 16, 2010. The episode follows Peter, Joe and Quagmire as they set out...
", Quagmire gives Freddy a joke to tell Peter in his dreams. Peter wakes up and paraphrases the line If you die in your dreams, you die for real from the 2010 remake
A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010 film)
A Nightmare on Elm Street is a 2010 American slasher film directed by Samuel Bayer, and written by Wesley Strick and Eric Heisserer. The film stars Jackie Earle Haley, Kyle Gallner, Rooney Mara, Katie Cassidy, Thomas Dekker and Kellan Lutz...
. In another Robot Chicken
Robot Chicken
Robot Chicken is an American stop motion animated television series created and executive produced by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich along with co-head writers Douglas Goldstein and Tom Root. Green provides many voices for the show...
episode, it is shown that Freddy made the claw glove to scratch an itchy sweater his daughter bought for him. His daughter later gives him a fedora, prompting her father to destroy the school bazaar where she got them. The adults mistake him as a child abuser, and attack him in an angry mob fashion. He is then consoled by spirits saying he can get out of it if he becomes a killer. He says yes but soon realizes he isn't able to take the sweater off. He sighs and states "well, at least I have my complexion" before a fire engulfs him and the school (a clear spoof of his origin). In an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Will scares Carlton dressed up as Freddy while in the back seat of a car, a game show from CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
in 2005 that ended up never airing called A Nightmare on Elm Street: Real Nightmares. As Robert Englund hosts, he makes contestants come face to face with their nightmares in an attempt to help them overcome their fears.
In the Supernatural
Supernatural (TV series)
Supernatural is an American supernatural and horror television series created by Eric Kripke, which debuted on September 13, 2005 on The WB, and is now part of The CW's lineup. Starring Jared Padalecki as Sam Winchester and Jensen Ackles as Dean Winchester, the series follows the brothers as they...
episode "Dream a Little Dream of Me", a killer is using dream root to invade people's dreams and kill them. Sam
Sam Winchester
Samuel "Sam" Winchester is a fictional character and one of the two main protagonists of The CW Television Network's Supernatural along with his older brother Dean. He is portrayed by Jared Padalecki.-Background:...
states "You take enough of it (dream root), with enough practice, you can become a regular Freddy Krueger".
A comic magazine
Comic magazine
Comic magazine may refer to:*A periodical containing comic strips, in the UK referred to as comic.*In the U.S., more commonly referred to as a comic book.*In Japan comic magazines are called manga.*See also Franco-Belgian comics magazines....
story featuring Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse is a cartoon character created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at The Walt Disney Studio. Mickey is an anthropomorphic black mouse and typically wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves...
written by Carol Mcreal centers around one of Mickey's foes, who breaks into his dreams as a figure called "Teddy Sluger". "Teddy Sluger" closely resembles Freddy, but has claws on both hands.
Krueger is also a musical topic. Eminem has mentioned Freddy numerous times in many of his songs such as, "Insane", "Underground" in which he says "Walked up Elm Street with a wiffle bat drew, fought Freddy Krueger and Edward Scissorhands too". For example, In 1985, "Freddy Krueger" by Stormtroopers of Death
Stormtroopers of Death
Stormtroopers of Death, better known as S.O.D., was a crossover thrash band formed in New York in 1985. They are commonly credited as being among the first bands to fuse hardcore punk with thrash metal into a style sometimes called "crossover thrash." The song "March of the S.O.D.," from their 1985...
, 1988, "Freddy Krueger" on the album Kneipenterroristen
Kneipenterroristen
Kneipenterroristen is the 5th album of the German Hard rock band Böhse Onkelz. It was released in 1988.-Track listing:#Kneipenterroristen #Religion#Lack + Leder ...
by Böhse Onkelz
Böhse Onkelz
The Böhse Onkelz were a German rock group that existed from 1980 to 2005. Although being ignored by the mass media for their controversial past, since Viva los tioz in 1998 almost every album reached number one on the German album charts. According to record certifications and additional sources...
, 1988, "Are You Ready for Freddy
Are You Ready for Freddy
"Are You Ready for Freddy" is a song by The Fat Boys from their 1988 album Coming Back Hard Again . Portions of the song were sung by Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger...
" by The Fat Boys
The Fat Boys
The Fat Boys are a successful African American hip-hop music trio from Brooklyn, New York City, that emerged in the early 1980s. Briefly, the group was known originally as the Disco 3.-Members:*Mark Morales a.k.a. "Prince Markie Dee"...
(the video actually features Robert Englund dressed up like Freddy chasing the band around in his house), "Nightmare on My Street
Nightmare on My Street
"A Nightmare on My Street" is the third single from DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince's second studio album, He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper. The song became a crossover hit in the US, reaching #15 on the Hot 100. The song was released as a single in early 1988...
" by D.J. Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, and an entire 1987 album, Freddy's Greatest Hits, by The Elm Street Group, where Freddy (voiced by Robert Englund) sings along on original songs like "Don't Sleep", "Obsession", "Dance Or Else" and "Down In The Boiler Room" as well as cover songs "Do The Freddy", "All I Have To Do Is Dream", "In The Midnight Hour" and "Wooly Bully".
Freddy Krueger is also mentioned in a loose cameo in "Weird Al" Yankovich's parody, "The Night Santa went Crazy," which mentions that Santa killed Dasher the Reindeer by cutting him up "just like Freddy Krueger." The music video sports a shot of santa armed with Freddy's glove.
In an episode of Everybody Hates Chris
Everybody Hates Chris
Everybody Hates Chris is an African American television period sitcom inspired by the teenage experiences of comedian Chris Rock , while growing up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York . The show is set from 1982 to 1987; however, Rock himself was a teenager during years...
, Malvo is dressed as Freddy Krueger in Chris' dream after threatening Chris.