Freddy Krueger (remake)

**Frederick "Freddy" Krueger** is the main antagonist of the 2010 remake of *A Nightmare on Elm Street*. He is based on his original incarnation with the same name.

He was portrayed by Jackie Earle Haley, who also played Braxton Red in *Dollman*, Rorschach in *Watchmen*, and Odin Quincannon in *Preacher*.

## History

### His Past

Freddy was a gardener who worked at the Badham Preschool. He was liked by the parents and adored by the children, on whom he seemed to dote. However, he was merely using this facade to get the children to trust him enough to lure them down into his "Secret Cave" in the school's basement, where he would torture and abuse them. His favorite victim was Nancy Holbrook.

Eventually, the children's parents discovered the scratch marks on their bodies (from Freddy's clawed gloves) and realized what Freddy was doing to them. Desiring revenge and wanting to spare their children the trauma of a trial, the parents ganged up on Freddy and prepared to kill him. Freddy ran into a nearby abandoned factory, and the parents locked him inside and set the building on fire, killing him.

Years later, Freddy returns as a ghost to haunt the now teenagers who told on him in their dreams to kill them in revenge.

### Present

Freddy is first seen following Dean through the diner where he pops out from a corner and slices Dean's hand open as he's dreaming. When Dean falls asleep again, he tries to stab Freddy with a knife which Freddy turns on him and makes him slit his throat.

He later appears when Kris falls asleep in class, but she wakes up before he can kill her. After Kris falls asleep again, she sees Freddy who's in the classroom who suggests that they play "hide and seek". Kris runs away and she thinks that she wakes up, but then Freddy appears and kills her.

Then, he goes after Jesse who falls asleep in jail. Freddy taunts Jesse a bit before shoving his arm through Jesse's chest, killing him. After that, Freddy shows Quentin what happened to him when Quentin falls asleep during swimming practice. Quentin begins to question whether or not Freddy truly was evil, to begin with, and was wrongfully accused. Nancy watches some videos online by Marcus Young who seems to be suffering from a nightmare about Freddy. In the final video, Marcus falls asleep and is killed via having his head smashed through the computer screen.

Then, Freddy goes after Nancy in a convenience store when she experiences micro-naps and he ends up slicing her arm but manages to pull a piece of his sweater out with her. Then, Quentin and Nancy go to the old preschool Badham, begin to remember what Freddy had done to them in his room and realize that he was indeed a pedophile as the kids said.

Later, Nancy falls asleep to get Freddy out of the nightmare. After a short fight with Freddy, Quentin injects adrenaline into Nancy and she wakes upbringing Freddy out with her. Freddy goes for Nancy first, but Quentin stabs Freddy in the leg to distract him and Freddy injures Quentin. When Freddy is distracted, Nancy slices off his claw hand and slits his throat with a broken paper cutter blade which kills Krueger.

Then, Nancy and Quentin burn down the school and his corpse, thinking it is all over. But when Nancy gets home, Freddy appears behind Nancy's mom in a mirror, stabs her mother through the head include the eyes and pulls her into the mirror, causing Nancy to scream in horror.

## List of Victims

1. Dean Russel
2. Kris Fowles
3. Jesse Braun
4. Marcus Yeon
5. Lisa Harper
6. Craig Jackson
7. Carrie Bush
8. Nancy Lumb
9. Sukari McGill
10. Elizabeth Cook
11. Bret Tanzer
12. Gwen Holbrook

## Trivia

* This Freddy's backstory is closer to the one Wes Craven originally intended for the original; to be a pedophile rather than a child murderer. Craven had to change him into a child murderer, however, to avoid being accused of exploiting a spate of highly publicized child molestation cases that occurred in California around the time of the original film's production.
* Jackie Earle Haley, the actor who played Freddy in the remake, coincidentally auditioned for the role of Glenn Lantz in the 1984 original film. However, his friend Johnny Depp (who accompanied him to the audition) was ultimately cast.
* Despite that the remake was negatively received, Jackie Earle Haley's performance as Freddy Krueger received some praise by some film critics. However, some have criticized it and stated that Haley's performance didn't outrank that of Robert Englund's.
* Johnny Depp accompanied his friend Jackie Earle Haley to auditions for the original *Nightmare on Elm Street*. Instead of Haley being chosen for a role, it was Depp who was spotted by director Wes Craven, who asked him if he would like to read for a part. Depp got a part in that film, Haley didn't, but Haley would go on to play Freddy in this remake 26 years later.
* Freddy says that the human brain will still function well over seven minutes after death. This is actually true, the human brain will function nearly ten minutes after death.
* At a Comic Con festival, Robert Englund supported Jackie Earle Haley as the new Freddy after he saw his performance of Rorschach in Watchmen (2009).
* When Jackie Earle Haley was asked what put him in the right mindset to play Freddy Krueger, he said "sitting in the makeup chair for three hours. After that, you feel like you could kill someone."
* Jackie Earle Haley scratched his corneas with the contact lenses he wore delaying production for a short time. He also had the whites of his eyes turn blood red for two weeks because of this.
* Robert Englund gave his personal blessing to Jackie Earle Haley to replace him as Freddy, saying "the torch has been well passed".
* Many scenes from the 1984 film were copied almost shot for shot. This was done to pay as much homage and respect to Wes Craven's original film as possible. This unfortunately backfired, as one of the biggest criticisms from the film's detractors was that this film constantly plagiarized the original film.
* After the financial success of this film, the studio greenlighted production on a sequel, and Jackie Earle Haley had met with the studio to discuss his salary and possible storylines for the script. However, after the film received a universally negative reaction from critics and fans alike, these plans were abandoned.
* Jackie Earle Haley had to wear contact lenses as Freddy. One was bloody and the other one was cloudy, the latter making it really difficult for the actor to see properly.
* Robert Englund, the actor who portrayed Freddy Krueger in all previous films in the "Nightmare" series, gave a general approval of the remake, as he felt the story could be better told in 2010 with the use of CGI and other special effects that were not available in 1984.
* Jackie Earle Haley was initially apprehensive about playing Freddy, as he was intimidated by playing a character that he felt was really owned by another actor (Robert Englund). However, the idea of playing Freddy excited him so much that he decided to accept the role.
* Freddy's voice was digitally altered in post-production in an effort to give his voice a "supernatural quality".
* The casting of Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy originally started as a rumor. During multiple interviews, Haley acknowledged the rumors, stating that he would enjoy playing the character. He was eventually cast as Freddy.
* Billy Bob Thornton and Steve Buscemi were considered to play Freddy Krueger.
* Jackie Earle Haley and Rooney Mara signed up for multiple films. Haley's contract was for three total films while Mara's for two. It is now nearly 10 years later and there is no indication that a sequel is ever going to happen.
* A sequel to the film was planned which would have had focused on Kruger going after the people who had burned him alive. The opening sequence of the sequel would have expanded on the flashback to when Kruger died which would reveal that he was taken to a hospital where he would had succumbed to his wounds.
* Their Freddy design is similar to what Wes Craven originally wanted back in 1984.
* As part of the Freddy makeup, Jackie Earle Haley had half of his face covered in a green appliance so it could be digitally altered in post production via green screen technology.
* This is Jackie Earle Haley's second time playing a child molester. He had previously played one in the film *Little Children*.