One, two, Freddy’s coming for you…But which version? We all have our favorite Nightmare on Elm Street movies and kills, but for Robert Englund, his best performance as Freddy Krueger was in one that doesn’t usually rank near the top.
Asked by ComicBook.com what he considered his all-time favorite take on Freddy Krueger, he went with the fourth installment, 1988’s The Dream Master. “I like my performance in Part 4, the Renny Harlin film. Renny left me alone and he understood that Freddy only exists in this dream landscape. This sort of a landscape of the mind, of the dream, of the nightmare. And so, he’s not real. He’s been conjured by the subconscious of whoever is having the nightmare, and so it can be a little stylized, you know?” And now we can’t get the roach motel scene out of our heads!
The most famous of horror franchise icons – Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger – have all evolved for good and bad, but Freddy was one that would be molded in the name of fan service. While Englund noted that Freddy was always a bit of a joker, he developed fully into the killing king of one-liners as the core series grew over 20 years. “Wes included a lot of jokes in the original one, we kind of…[pushed] the envelope too much by the time we got to part six, Freddy’s Dead, but we were just embracing what the fans loved. And the fans loved Freddy’s personality. They loved his cruelty. They loved his political incorrectness, and they loved his jokes. So we just exploited that.” How’s that for a wet dream?
Robert Englund would play Freddy Krueger a total of eight times on the big screen, in addition to some appearances on TV. And while he won’t be strapping on the glove ever again, us horror fans will always appreciate what he did with the character and for the slasher genre.
It’s hard to top the original Nightmare on Elm Street or 1987’s Dream Warriors (my personal favorite of the lot), but if Englund wants to pick The Dream Master as holding his best go as Freddy Krueger, I’d hate to see anyone argue. But let’s hear what you think! Give us your favorite Freddy moments in the comments below!
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