Horror Icon Robert Englund on How He Would Use ‘An Eli Roth Budget’ to Revamp Freddy Krueger

Robert Englund‘s iconic Freddy Krueger character in Wes Craven’s “A Nightmare on Elm Street” is considered one of the greats in the horror genre. But the actor revealed during the 2018 Summer Television Critics Association press tour (TCA) that if he “had an Eli Roth budget, I would have cast different actors to play Freddy for every potential victim,” he told the room full of journalists.

Adding, “Because Freddy is only alive in the imagination of his future victim.”

Englund joined Roth on a panel for “Eli Roth’s History of Horror” AMC docu-series, which will premiere later this year, and brings together the masters of horror to explore the storytellers and the stars who define the genre.

“I was sort of a repressed fanboy,” Mr. Englund shared of his relationship with horror during his early days as an actor. “I’d been a real snob when I was a stage actor and in my early A-list Hollywood career, it was sort of beneath me. And I think my girlfriend — who was one of the writers of “Lost Boys” — dragged me to see all three “Dr. Phibes” movies on Hollywood Boulevard once. We didn’t have a lot of money back then. This would have been the middle/early 70s. And my latent fanboy came alive again,” he explained.

“And then when I met Wes years later, he really taught me to respect horror. But I have always really enjoyed the genre and I’ve always supported it. I just sort of buried that for a while and I think that I’ve been able — over the years — to rediscover contemporary horror, as well as some of the product that sort of fell through the cracks with me, so that I can talk about it at least semi-intelligently.”

OTHER NEWS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: David Tennant on Playing ‘Someone Sweet, Long-suffering and Most Like the Real Me’ for HBO’s ‘Camping’ [EUR Exclusive]

In terms of how his perspective of Krueger has evolved over the years, Englund noted during the panel:

“Well, if I had an Eli Roth budget, I would cast different actors to play Freddy for every potential victim. Because Freddy is only alive in the imagination of his future victim. They talked about it at a slumber party or at a locker. It’s at school or on the bus going home and all they know about this Fred Krueger is that he wears a hat, he has a red and green striped sweater, and a claw hand. That’s the specifics, so it could be a red and green cardigan for one Freddy. It could be an old tattered baseball cap for another Freddy. Freddy could be tall. He could be short. He could be overweight. He could be muscular. Every one of the victims could have a different Freddy that they imagined and you can haunt them with that Freddy. And then at the end maybe, the ultimate victim, we see Freddy kind of peel and open like “The Howling” or the dogs in John Carpenter’s film.”

But is there room for Freddy in this age of social media and fast-paced online culture? 

“I think if we were all having a beer, we would be talking about the great golden era of practical effects. But I don’t see why someone, a director that really loves the story, the basic story of “Nightmare on Elm Street,” wouldn’t want to use some of those great effects that they used in “Inception” and that Robin Williams film, “What Dreams May Come.” I’m sure there’s a new CGI version of that effect that could be used now. Effects like that really lend themselves to the sort of landscape of the mind, a kind of a hallucinogenic nightmare, name-scape,” Englund explained.

Mr. Roth chimed in with, ”You also look at Slender Man, I mean that is a character born on social media, so there’s certainly room for it.”

Englund added, “I would love to see those effects used and not think of Freddy as just an 80s villain or any of those films as just 80s. There’s a huge nostalgia for the 80s for a variety of reasons, but I think that several of the horror films from that era transcend that decade.”

Robert Englund first appeared as the burnt serial killer who uses a glove armed with razors to kill his victims in their dreams in Craven’s 1984 cult classic and consistently portrayed the character in the franchise until the 2010 reboot when Jackie Earle Haley took over the role.

The franchise consists of nine slasher films, a television series, novels, and comic books. The films collectively grossed over $457 million at the box-office worldwide.

“Wes Craven changed horror at least three times, to my knowledge,” said Englund during TCA. “He started out with these sort of dark, Bergman-esque films, “The Hills Have Eyes,” and “The Last House on the Left.” Then the very successful franchise I was fortunate enough to be involved with, “The Nightmare on Elm Street” films which even mutated into a kind of graphic novel. Fun film, “Freddy vs. Jason” and then, he also did the “Scream” films, which were a huge change, because they were really acknowledging the fan base. And this was a fan base that didn’t get respect for a long time, very overlooked by Hollywood for a long time. And now they’re running the town. “

So, what frightening things do Roth and Englund think have yet to be depicted on television? Englund shared his view: 

“I think with the success of some of these reality shows, and some of them are guilty pleasure shows, “Hoarders,” something like that. It’s kind of like watching a snake eat a pig, but I can’t look away. And why do that? Why? How could that happen? And it could be your neighbor. It could be the guy down the street. And I was lucky enough to get a script last year, a terrific script about taking an OCD problem, or a problem like hoarding, and then evolving that into a horror story. And it was a terrific, terrific script. It’s one of the best ones that’s crossed my desk in years. And I think that might be a new direction that they could take in television,” he said.

“Also, I think that what happens is something will happen in culture and it gets absorbed by the writers, and the creators, and the actors, and it winds up in genre,” noted Roth.

“We look at “Walking Dead” — in 2010 it premieres, becomes the biggest show on television. But it’s very connected to the 2008 mortgage crisis where three million people lost their homes, then the prices go up. And this real increase of homelessness, and that cities are too expensive, and this fear of displacement, and fear of hostility all around you. And that there is an element of that where even if you’re watching it going, oh, this is great,” he explained.

“No one’s done a zombie show. There are things that are in there that you can kind of look back and go yeah, this is directly connected to that. So right now, what’s cool is, their show “Castle Rock” — which I haven’t even caught up on — which looks like it has every single genre and every Stephen King thing ever in one show. So it looks amazing. But I do feel like maybe in two or three years there’s going to be some show that will reflect the political divide in the country. It’s not going to be specifically about that, but a couple years after it starts, people are going to go, “Oh, that’s why we were all so into that show.” And that’s what’s so cool about the horror movies, is that they really can tap into the subconscious fear of the times and come out in these stories even if we don’t realize at the time what they’re about” Roth added.

“Yeah, even in the “Nightmare on Elm Street” films, Wes was always stressing divorce, and alcoholism, and drug abuse, and things like this,” said Englund. “Especially back in the 80s, when those things seemed to be spiking in the culture. And yet that was sort of the loss of innocence for a lot of the kids in there. Freddy symbolized some of that.”

“AMC Visionaries: Eli Roth’s History of Horror” premieres Sunday, October 14 midnight/11c on AMC.

We Publish News 24/7. Don’t Miss A Story. Click HERE to SUBSCRIBE to Our Newsletter Now!