Freddy Krueger

**Frederick Charles Krueger**, or publicly better known as **Freddy Krueger**, is a serial killer and the main antagonist of the *Nightmare on Elm Street* franchise, as well as the main antagonist of the crossover film *Freddy vs Jason*. He was a child killer in life, and in death, a malevolent dream demon who killed his victims in their dreams. He eventfully became well-known for the sick pleasure he displays while targeting children.

He was portrayed by Robert Englund.

## History

### Early Life

His biological mother, Amanda Krueger (now known as Sister Mary Helena), was a nun at the old Hathaway House asylum (once renamed "Fairview Hospital") who gave birth to Freddy after she was raped hundreds of times when she was accidentally locked in a cell of one hundred psychotic men in the 1940s a few nights before Christmas. Throughout his childhood, he was sent from orphanage to orphanage, where he constantly endured humiliation by the other children, who thought of him as a freak, even continuously referred to him as the "Son of 100 Maniacs".

He was eventually adopted by an abusive alcoholic, Mr. Underwood, who constantly neglected and physically abused him, until Freddy finally retaliated for all those tormenting years by killing him with a razor blade when he was a teenager.

Freddy then moved to Springwood, Ohio, where he secretly became a child murderer, killing dozens of children on Elm Street. His actions eventually earned him the alias "**Springwood Slasher**", where he killed several kids inside a boiler room within an old power plant where he used to work. His signature weapon was a clawed glove. When his wife, Loretta, discovered his secret, he strangled her to death in front of his daughter, Kathryn, who also found out about the murders, but promised she would never tell. However she did in fact tell someone and Freddy was arrested and put on trial. When Amanda found out on the news, she committed suicide. Unfortunately, Freddy was released because someone forgot to sign a search warrant in the right place, preventing the court from convicting him. So, the furious parents of Springwood formed a lynch mob and tracked Freddy to his boiler room hideout where he was preparing to skip town (though not before celebrating his release by brutally murdering a little girl), and lit the building on fire with torches and molotov cocktails, burning him to death.

However, three Dream Demons approached him before his death, where they made a deal, so that he could come back as a malevolent spirit and continue his killing spree from beyond the grave on the children where their parents cannot protect them; in their dreams. Freddy was made immortal because of this and began a new killing spree, making the murders look like accidents or suicide. After he killed his victims, he would absorb their souls into his chest for power.

### A Nightmare on Elm Street

From here, Freddy invaded people's dreams, where he would kill them using his clawed glove, or else manipulating the dream world in a way to reflect the victim's fears or personality. Whatever he did to them in the dream world would affect them in the real world.

Freddy's first victim in the film is Tina Gray, whom he killed by slashing her across the chest with his clawed glove. He then stalks Nancy Thompson in her dreams and kills Rod Lane, Tina's boyfriend who was accused for killing her, by hanging him with his blanket. Nancy pulls his hat out of the dream and devises a plan with her boyfriend Glen to catch him, but Glen falls asleep, and Freddy pulls him into his bed and shoots him upward in a fountain of blood, killing him. Nancy eventually pulls Freddy out of the dream world and sets him on fire. However, he kills her mother Marge by smothering her with his flaming body, vanishing her into the bed. Nancy's father, Donald, witnesses this. Afterwards, Nancy destroys Freddy by turning her back on him and taking away his power, however he is still able to temporarily trap her in a dream world where she is trapped in a red and green car with Glen, Tina, and Rod to end the film.

### A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge

However, Freddy was unable to return so easily, until he invaded the dreams of Jesse Walsh, who moved into Nancy's house sometime after she left. He possessed Jesse on several occasions, at one point killing his coach, Schneider (whom Jesse disliked) by slashing his back in the shower.

Soon, Jesse went to a sleepover at his friend's house, Ron Grady. But when they fall asleep, Jesse awakens and starts screaming and crying in pain as Krueger gruesomely comes out of him. Ron tries to escape but the door is jammed, leaving Ron to get strangled and then stabbed in the torso as Krueger laughes and waves at him. Freddy then takes full possession of Jesse at his girlfriend, Lisa Webber's, house during a party, killing several of the guests. In the end, Lisa is able to get through to Jesse, who fights Freddy from within and burns him to death using his power, releasing Jesse unharmed. However, the ending of the movie implies that Freddy returns; he is seen stabbing Kerry from behind (or from the inside) while she is on the bus with Jesse and Lisa. Whether this is a dream (and by who), or if he was possessing her, and whether or not Jesse or Lisa survived, is unclear.

### A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors

Freddy soon returns to his old ways of killing people in their dreams. Soon, all surviving teenagers of Springwood - Kristen, Kincaid, Phillip, Taryn, Joey, Will, and Jennifer - were committed to Westin Hills Asylum, as they were trying to avoid falling asleep. Nancy Thompson begins working there, and Dr. Neil Gordon, another worker, was seeing the spirit of Freddy's mother, Amanda Krueger under her alias "Sister Mary Helena". Freddy soon begins killing everyone one by one. First he uses Phillip's veins to control him like a puppet to make him fall out the window to his death, making it appear as a suicide inside a nightmare Phillip was having. Then he smashes Jennifer's head against the TV yelling one of his most famous lines: "*This is it, Jennifer, your big break in TV!*". When Kristen, Neil, and the others enter the dream world to use their powers and fight Freddy, Joey is attacked and trapped by Freddy, putting him into a coma.

The Dream Warriors (Kristen Parker, Taryn White, Will Stanton, and Roland Kincaid) fight Freddy alongside Nancy while Neil and Donald went to the Penny Bros. Auto Salvage junkyard to bury Freddy's bones on "hallowed" ground using holy water, a cross, and prayers to lay his unquiet spirit to rest. Freddy kills Taryn by injecting her with heroin in a knife fight, and then murder Will by stabbing him, as he was unaffected by Will's magic. Kristen, Nancy, and Kincaid manage to rescue Joey, but Freddy is much stronger than before, as it is revealed, he takes the souls of his victims to give him power. When Neil and Donald find the bones, Freddy takes control of them and kills Donald by throwing him onto the tail fin of a car. He then enters the dream world, disguised as Donald, and stabs Nancy to death. However, he is destroyed when Neil buries the bones and throws holy water and a cross on them.

Later that night, after Nancy Thompson's funeral, Dr. Gordon sleeps peacefully in his bed with Nancy's Malaysian dream doll on a dresser next to a dollhouse made by Kristen which frighteningly resembles Freddy's house. One of the dollhouse's windows lights up mysteriously, indicating Freddy's return and the uncertain fate of Dr. Gordon.

### A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master

Freddy was able to resurrect himself in Roland Kincaid's dream, reemerging from the ground in the junkyard and returning to power. He kills Kincaid by stabbing him, and then pulls Joey Crusel into his waterbed and drowns him. Kristen Parker tries to stay awake, but her mother gave her sleeping pills, so she fell asleep. Freddy throws her into the furnace, but before her death, her power to pull people into the dream world was transferred to Alice Johnson.

From here, Alice begins unintentionally pulling people into the dream world, where Freddy kills them. First, he kills Sheila by sucking the life out of her with a kiss, making it appear as an asthma attack. Then he kills Rick in martial arts combat by stabbing him with his clawed glove (which was being controlled by an invisible Freddy). Whenever Freddy killed someone, although he took their souls, Alice got their power and characteristics. As Alice and her boyfriend Dan attempt to get to Debbie, Freddy gets to her first, turning her into a cockroach and crushing her inside a roach motel-given her worse fear was bugs.

Alice and Dan chase Freddy down (while he delightfully gives them the middle finger gesture), which causes them to crash their car in the real world, nearly killing Dan. He is forced to leave the dream world when the doctors wake him up after he got cut, leaving Alice to fight Freddy alone. As the Dream Master and part of an old rhyme, Alice holds a shard of stained glass window in front of him "*Evil will see itself and it shall die*". Freddy is destroyed, torn apart by the souls of his victims, which are then released.

### A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child

However, Freddy was reborn through the pregnant Sister Amanda Krueger's spirit in Alice's dream. Using Alice's unborn son Jacob to pull victims into the dream world, he kills Dan by fusing him with a motorcycle so he crashes his truck, and then kills Greta by stuffing food in her mouth to make her suffocate, and then kills Mark by sucking him into his comic book, turning him to paper, and hacking him up. Alice fights Freddy again in the dream world, where Jacob informs her that Freddy is hiding inside her. She drives him out, but is unable to defeat him, until Yvonne releases Sister Amanda's spirit from the tower of the abandoned Hathaway House (once renamed as "Fairview Hospital" after Sister Amanda's torturous rape), and she gives Jacob his power, which he uses to revert Freddy back into an infant, which is absorbed by Amanda. Freddy is last seen clawing his way out as Sister Amanda walks through doors into a light.

### Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

Soon, all the kids from Springwood were killed by Freddy, who then put the adults into mass psychosis. He is unable to go outside Springwood, using John Doe to get to his daughter Kathryn, renamed Maggie Burroughs. When Maggie takes John (who hit his head on a rock and got amnesia) back to Springwood, three teens named Spencer, Carlos, and Tracy stow aboard and go with them. When they are unable to leave Springwood, they stop at Nancy's old house. Freddy kills Carlos by magnifying his hearing and making his head explode when he repeatedly scratches a chalkboard. He then sucks Spencer into a video game and knocks him down a hole. After learning that Freddy had a kid who was taken from him, John is convinced that Freddy is his father, but Freddy reveals the truth to John as he sends him falling onto spikes. He then enters Maggie's mind, and is able to leave Springwood and enter people's dreams outside Springwood. He attacks Tracy (by appearing to her as her sexually abusive father) and Doc, both of whom survive. When Doc takes out a piece of Freddy's sweater, they decide that he can be killed if he is pulled out of the dream world. Maggie enters Freddy's mind and pulls him out. She fight him, and Freddy's hand is broken and he is pinned to the wall with knives and throwing stars. Maggie stabs him with his clawed glove and sticks a pipe bomb in his chest-killing Freddy once it explodes.

### Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday

In the 9th film of the *Friday the 13th* series, the killer Jason Voorhees is destroyed and sent to Hell. Freddy's hand is briefly seen grabbing Jason's hockey mask and dragging it off.

### Freddy vs. Jason

Although Freddy was killed in *Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare* he could still come back to life if he was remembered and feared by the people of Springwood. At some point between the two films, when Springwood was populated with more people, he came back and killed Lori Campbell's mother and drove Mark Davis' brother, Bobby, to suicide by haunting him in his dreams. However, knowing he could return from Hell if anyone remembered him, the town of Springwood went through a process to forget about him, keeping him from coming back. So Freddy searched through Hell until he found Jason Voorhees. After pulling his hockey mask into Hell and giving it to him (as seen at the end of *Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday*), Freddy disguises himself as Jason's mother Pamela Voorhees and brings him back to life-convincing him to kill the people of Springwood, so Jason' killings will be mistaken for those of his, which will make him remembered. 3 murders by Jason lead people to believe that Freddy has returned, and if that was never enough, Mark Davis tells everyone at Lori Campbell's school all about Freddy. With enough fear spread around, Freddy was able to come back from Hell, and stalked Gibb in her dreams, but before he can kill her, she is killed by Jason, and Freddy realizes that Jason will not stop killing. Freddy's only victim in *Freddy vs. Jason* is Mark, whom he sets on fire and slashed in the face.

Freddy possesses Bill Freeburg when he gets high, and injects Jason with tranquilizers to put him to sleep (Freeburg is killed by Jason in the process). Freddy tried to kill Jason in the dream world, but as Jason was almost impossible to kill, this proved to be quite difficult, until Freddy nearly succeeds in drowning him, but he wakes up at the last second. Lori, Will, Kia, and Linderman take Jason to Camp Crystal Lake to fight Freddy, and after discovering that Freddy killed her mother, Lori pulls him into the real world where he fights Jason in a bloody and epic final battle. Jason is able to get some shots in before Freddy gains the advantage; cutting off Jason's fingers, Freddy takes Jason's machete and slashes him with both machete and clawed glove. When Lori sets the docks and some propane tanks on fire to get her revenge, Jason stabs Freddy with his fingerless hand and then tears off his arm. When the tanks exploded, both slashers are set on fire and sent flying into Camp Crystal Lake.

Freddy survives, however, and then turns his attention to Lori and Will. As he attempts to kill them on the pier, he was stabbed from behind by Jason with his own severed arm, causing Freddy to let go of Jason's machete. Jason then falls and sinks in the lake. Lori then grabs Jason's machete and decapitates Freddy. Freddy's body and severed head then too fall in the lake with Jason and his machete.

The next morning after the two left the 2 demonic murderers for dead, Jason rises up from the lake, indicating that he survived and regenerated. Freddy's head is seen being carried out of the lake by Jason, winking to the audience, followed by his laughter-leaving it up to debate as to whether or not he was truly killed, and what will become of Springwood's fate.

## Freddy Krueger's Victims

### Before the films

* 1: One of his class' 2 hamsters
* 2: Mr. Underwood
* 3-22: 20 children in Springwood
* 23: Loretta Krueger

### A Nightmare on Elm Street

* 24: Tina Gray
* 25: Rod Lane
* 26: Glen Lantz
* 27: Marge Thompson

### A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge

* 28. Two of Jesse Walsh's pet birds
* 29: Coach Schneider
* 30: Ron Grady
* 31-37: At least 6 Swim Party guests
* 38: Kerry Hellman
* 39: Lisa Webber (Debatable)
* 40: Jesse Walsh (Debatable)

### A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors

* 41: Unnamed Elm Street child
* 42: Phillips Anderson
* 43: Jennifer Caulfield
* 44: Taryn White
* 45: Will Stanton
* 46: Donald Thompson
* 47: Nancy Thompson

### A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master

* 48: Roland Kincaid
* 49: Joey Crusel
* 50: Kristen Parker
* 51: Sheila Kopecky
* 52: Rick Johnson
* 53: Debbie Stevens

### A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child

* 54: Dan Jordan
* 55: Greta Gibson
* 56: Mark Grey

### Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

* 57: Every child in Springwood and their population
* 58: Carlos Rodriguez
* 59: Spencer Lewis
* 60: John Doe

### Freddy vs. Jason

* 61: Mrs. Campbell
* 62: Bobby Davis
* 63: Mark Davis

## Powers and Abilities

Freddy Krueger can invade people's dreams and kill them within their nightmares, which will also kill them in reality. He usually uses his clawed glove, but can also manipulate the dream world in any way he wants, such as sucking them into a bed, a comic book or a videogame, making them fall, extending himself, or turning them into an insect. On some occasions, he can possess people, though unlike when Jason does this in *Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday*, the victim can survive.

Freddy is impossible to kill in the dream world. However, he is mortal while outside the dream world. He loses all his powers (though he can still disguise himself as his human form) in the real world. Even if he is killed, he can return from Hell if there is enough fear in the area he wishes to appear.

If a person touches fire (unless it is caused by Freddy to kill them) or anything burning hot, it can take them out of the dream world. Freddy also cannot leave Springwood unless inside the dreams of someone who is, in which case he still cannot invade other people's dreams unless the one whose mind he is inside is related to him. Freddy also seems to hate fire as it is what the parents used to burn him alive.

## Reception

Freddy Krueger is widely considered an icon in horror. *Wizard Magazine* rated him the 14th greatest villain of all time, and he was ranked 8th on British channel Sky2's *Greatest Villains of All Time* and ranked 40th on AFI's *100 Years*... *100 Heroes and Villains*. He was also ranked at #17 on Bravo's The 100 Scariest Movie Moments (2004).

## Trivia

* Freddy Krueger was created by the late Wes Craven.
* Freddy Krueger was based on the late real-life American criminal and cult-leader by the name Charlie Manson, while Freddy's appearance was based on Klaus Kinski's portrayal of Dracula.
* Although the backstory of Freddy being a pedophile was removed before the film's release, it is implied in *Freddy vs. Jason* that he very well still could have been more of a pedophile in nature, given he licked the photos of the children he killed. Either way, his actions do have sexual undertones.
* Freddy Krueger is featured in the 2018 sci-fi movie called *Ready Player One*.
* Freddy appeared in the gripping YouTube fan film "*Don't Fall Asleep*", a direct sequel to "*A Nightmare on Elm Street*" and a prequel to "*A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors*". He was portrayed by William Adams.
* A Yo-Kai called Freddy J from the 2014 anime TV series adaption of the roleplaying game franchise *Yo-Kai Watch* was based on Freddy Krueger himself.
* Robert Englund cut himself the first time when he tried on the infamous Freddy glove.
* In the original script, Freddy was a child molester. However, the decision was made to change him into being a child murderer to avoid accusations of exploiting a series of child molestations in California around the time of production. He was re-written as a child molester in the 2010 remake starring Jackie Earle Haley.
* The scene where Freddy's arms elongate were achieved by having men with fishing poles on each side of the alley operating a set of puppet arms attached to Robert Englund.
* It would take about three hours to get Robert Englund into his Freddy make-up.
* The inspiration for the character of Freddy came from several sources in Wes Craven's childhood. Fred Krueger was a schoolmate of his, with whom he had shared a paper route, and who had bullied him for several years. In The Last House on the Left (1972), Craven also used this experience as inspiration, calling the villain Krug. Freddy's appearance (especially the dirty clothes and hat) was inspired by a hobo, whom Craven saw staring at him through his window one day when he was ten.
* Wes Craven's original concept for Freddy Krueger was considerably more gruesome, with teeth showing through the flesh over the jaw, pus running from the sores, and a part of the skull showing through the head. Make-up Artist David B. Miller argued that an actor couldn't be convincingly made up that way, and a puppet would be hard to film, and wouldn't blend well with live actors, so these ideas were eventually abandoned.
* According to Wes Craven, Robert Englund was not the first choice for the role of Fred Krueger. Craven had initially wanted a stuntman to play the part, but upon testing several stuntmen, he realized he needed an actor.
* The very first time we see Freddy in the movie, he isn't being played by Robert Englund, but by special effects man Charles Belardinelli, as Belardinelli was the only one who knew exactly how to cut the glove and insert the blades.
* According to Robert Englund, he based the physicality of Freddy on Klaus Kinski's performance in Werner Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979). Englund also says on his DVD commentary that in his mind, the backstory for Freddy was based on something from his own childhood. On Valentine's Day when Englund was in school, everyone in the class made Valentine cards for one another, but there was one boy who received no cards from anyone. Englund theorized that this boy went on to become Freddy.
* In the original script, Freddy's famous red-and-green sweater was red and yellow (based on the colors worn by Plastic Man, who, like Freddy, could change his form; the idea was that whatever Freddy changed into would be yellow and red). However, when Wes Craven read an article in "Scientific American" in 1982 that said the two most contrasting colors to the human retina were red and green, he decided to alter the colors.
* The scene where Freddy presses through the wall above Nancy was shot by stretching a sheet of spandex across a hole in the wall and pressing against it. In the shot, Freddy is played by special effects designer Jim Doyle.
* Freddy Krueger was designed by Wes Craven to be the typical "silent" serial killer, such as Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers. However, in the sequels, Freddy developed a cheeky persona that enabled him to be the black-humored villain.
* Although he is credited as Freddy Krueger in the sequels, he is credited as Fred Krueger in this film.
* The only "Nightmare on Elm Street" film where Freddy does not have stripes on the sleeves of his infamous sweater is the original.
* A popular myth surrounding this film is that David Warner was originally slated to play Freddy Krueger and that make-up tests were done, but Warner had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts. This has been proven false by the filmmakers and by Warner himself in the recent book "Never Sleep Again".
* Sometimes after finishing on the film for the day, Robert Englund would tear off all of his makeup.
* For the Castilian Spanish language dub version, Fred Krueger's voice was dubbed by José Guardiola.
* The scene where Freddy is set on fire, chases Nancy to the top of the stairs, falls back down, and starts back up again, was all shot in one take, with several cameras, and was the most elaborate fire scene ever filmed up to that time. Stuntman Anthony Cecere won best stunt of the year for the scene.
* Robert Englund has stated that his favorite kill in the "Elm Street" franchise is Carlos' death in the sixth film. Carlos dies by having Freddy replace his hearing aid and causing his head to explode.
* Robert Englund says he based Freddy Krueger on serial killers Ted Bundy and Denis Rader (the BTK killer).
* Freddy appears as the main antagonist of A Nightmare on Oak Street.