Freddy Krueger
Known aliases:	Springwood Slasher
Location:	Springwood
Known relatives:	Amanda Krueger (Mother) Maggie Burroughs (Daughter)
Year of birth:	September 1942
Year of death:	N/A
Signature weapon:	Clawed glove
First appearance:	A Nightmare on Elm Street
Portrayed by:	Robert Englund

For infomation on the remake version, please see Freddy Krueger (remake timeline).

"Come To Freddy" - Freddy to Nancy

Frederick Charles "Freddy" Krueger is the main antagonist and a killer from the slasher film series A Nightmare on Elm Street. When he was burned to death in 1968 by the citizens of Springwood, he was offered the spot as "Dream Killer" from the demons who live in the depths of hell. He uses this new career of his to his advantage to murder the children of his killers in their dreams. Freddy has also recently won the award of "Best Villain" at the Scream Awards 2010.

Contents 1 Fictional character biography 1.1 Life story 1.2 Film series events 1.3 Death 1.4 Battle with Jason Voorhees 1.4.1 Comic book sequels 1.5 Freddy's Rhyme 2 2010 Remake 3 Freddy's murders 4 Powers and Abilities 5 In other media

Fictional character biographyEdit

Life storyEdit

Freddy Kruger is obviously a horror movie villain and probably the most infamous one. He was a murderer in Springwood notorious for killing children and was aprehended, then later released. But the mothers and fathers of the children tracked him down and found him in the boiler room where he took his victims. The parents released flamable gas into the room and set him on fire, which caused his melted-like facial fetures.

Film series eventsEdit

In A Nightmare on Elm Street through A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child, Krueger was referred to as an urban legend. The Elm Street parents remained tight-lipped about the events of the decade before, especially now that their children were teenagers. In the closing months of 1981, the children of Springwood, in particular those teens whose parents had formed the mob that killed Krueger, began dying in peculiar ways as they slept. The parents often ignored or denied the pleas of their terrified children, who told tales of a mysterious man named Freddy who was terrorizing them in their dreams.

Krueger met three notable female adversaries in the period before Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare:

• Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp): Nancy, whose family moved into Krueger’s old home, was the first of the Elm Street children to learn about his past and the first to vanquish him. Nancy returned in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, only to be killed by Freddy, who had taken the physical form of her father as a disguise.

• Kristen Parker (Patricia Arquette/Tuesday Knight): Kristen was a girl with the ability to bring people into her dreams. In A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, she, along with the last surviving “Elm Street children” battled Freddy in the dream world using self imaginative dream powers. Kristen used her natural gift of pulling others into her dream as a way for the group to battle Freddy at the same time. She was killed by Freddy in A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master by being tossed into his boiler and burnt to death.

• Alice Johnson (Lisa Wilcox): Alice gained Kristen's power and the dream powers of her friends to become the Dream Master. In A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, Alice removed the souls Krueger gained over the years and left him powerless. A year later, Alice became pregnant and Krueger started using the dreams of her unborn child to kill again in A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child. Alice vanquished Freddy a second time with the help of Krueger's mother, Amanda. After Krueger was contained, Alice moved away from Springwood before he escaped and caused the events in Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare.

The only male to ever be a main victim of Krueger and main protagonist of any the films, who at the end defeats Krueger, is Jesse Walsh in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge. Here, Freddy's tries to enter the real world through Jesse's body. With the help of his girlfriend, Jesse regains control over himself and banishes Freddy back to the dreamworld.

DeathEdit

After a decade of systematically slaughtering all of the children of Springwood in their dreams, the town was shown to be under Freddy’s influence in Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare. By absorbing the souls of his victims, Freddy was now powerful enough to blur the lines between dreams and reality. The remaining adults were kept in a mass psychosis after their children had been murdered. When there was no one left to kill, Freddy sought to leave Springwood — hoping to continue his murder spree in another town full of more children. Only one person could arrange for this to happen — his daughter, Kathryn Krueger.

Krueger used what was left of his supernatural powers to find his daughter, who was now an adult named "Maggie Burroughs" (Lisa Zane) and was working as a counselor to troubled teenagers in another city. Since her mother's death, Maggie was raised by adoptive parents and had suppressed the disturbing memories of her early childhood. After catching up with Maggie, Krueger attempted to convince her to do his bidding. She proved, though, that a compulsion for murder was not hereditary and instead schemed with Doc (Yaphet Kotto), her coworker (and dream psychiatrist), to help destroy Krueger. After pulling him out of her dream and into reality, Maggie stabbed Krueger in the abdomen with his own glove and then shoved a pipe bomb into Krueger's chest, effectively killing him and releasing the dream demons that had given him his power.

Battle with Jason VoorheesEdit

In the hybrid sequel, Freddy vs. Jason, Freddy was trapped in Hell. After Maggie defeated Krueger in Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, the people of Springwood sought to revitalize their town. Figuring out how Krueger operated, the authorities and town officials covered up any and all traces of his prior existence, which included blacking out obituaries and quarantining anyone who had ever dreamt about, or had any knowledge of Krueger. Other countermeasures included giving Hypnocil, a drug that prevents people from dreaming, to the children moved to Westin Hills. As a result, Springwood returned to obscurity and subsequently repopulated with no ill effects.

Meanwhile, Krueger was unable to escape the boundaries of Hell, thanks to the complete ignorance of his existence to the people of Springwood, and the use of Hypnocil to prevent those in Westin Hills from dreaming. Due to the fact that no one so much as knew of him, much less feared him, Freddy was unable to gain enough power to escape. Thus, Freddy hatched a plan to resurrect the undead, immortal killing machine, Jason Voorhees. First, at the conclusion of Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday, Freddy pulled Jason's abandoned mask into the ground. Then, in the disguise of Jason's mother, Pamela, Freddy manipulated Jason into rising from the dead once more and going to Elm Street to kill more teenagers. Jason committed a few murders, which were then blamed on Krueger (as planned). As a result, Krueger began to get his equilibrium back. Enough fear fell over Springwood to make Krueger strong enough to haunt the town again. The problem, which Krueger had not counted on, was that Jason would not stop killing. He became irritated when Jason continued to slaughter "his kids" before he could. Thus, a bloody fight ensued between the two murderous icons that raged from the dream world to the waking world at Jason's old haunt, Camp Crystal Lake. The film ends with Jason walking out of Crystal Lake holding Krueger's decapitated head, which he winks to the audience, followed by Krueger's laughter, indicating his reign of terror may not yet be over.

Comic book sequels Edit

Freddy hasn't been seen since, except in the comic book sequel, Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash, where Freddy is trapped inside Jason's mind and seeks out the Necronomicon to escape and to become more powerful. Freddy is able to do this, and fights with Jason and Ash Williams (in the process getting his head split open by Jason, releasing the souls of his previous victims) before Caroline uses the Necronomicon to open up a portal leading to the Deadite dimension, and Freddy is sucked into it (though Jason is not, instead being trapped under a frozen lake). In Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash 2: Nightmare Warriors, Freddy is pulled out by Gordon Russell, turns Maggie evil, and takes over Washington. In the end, the portal to the Deadite Dimension is reopened, and the Necronomicon itself takes Freddy's power away, turning him back into his human form, before Ash mercilessly blasts him into the vortex with his shotgun.

The canonocity of the Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash series is debatable, as it depicts Jason's death by decapitation at the hands of Tommy (Freddy even takes his soul before he loses his power), while he is clearly alive at the beginning of Jason X. The only way it would be possible to take place in the same timeline is if Jason was somehow resurrected, as he has been twice before.

Freddy's RhymeEdit

In the movies, Freddy's arrival is usually preceded by children in the dreams of his victims. They chant a rhyme about Freddy that warns others to stay away from him.

One, two, Freddy's coming for you.

Three, four, better lock your door.

Five, six, grab your crucifix.

Seven, eight, gonna stay up late.

Nine, ten, never sleep again.

2010 RemakeEdit

On January 29, 2008, Variety reported that Michael Bay and his Platinum Dunes production company would be rebooting the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise with a remake of the original 1984 film. In an interview, producer Brad Fuller initially explained that they are following the same line they did with their Friday the 13th remake, by abandoning the things that made the character less scary—the film's antagonist, Freddy Krueger, will not be "cracking jokes" as had become a staple of his character in later films—and focusing more on trying to craft a "horrifying movie". Fuller expresses how everyone at the studio loved the concept of being killed if you fell asleep. The producer stated that the film would be a remake of the 1984 film, but clarified that they would be borrowing certain character deaths and dream sequences from the entire Nightmare series.

In February 2009, The Hollywood Reporter announced that Samuel Bayer was hired to direct the film.[8] According to New Line production chief, Toby Emmerich, Michael Bay advocated heavily for Bayer's hiring, as Bay, Bayer, and director David Fincher came up as commercial directors together. It is Bay's opinion that Bayer has the "the ability to capture the kind of seductive and unsettling imagery that would make Nightmare feel like a fresh, visually arresting moviegoing experience". In a June 9, 2009 interview, Craven expressed his displeasure in the remaking of his 1984 film, primarily because the filmmakers chose not to have him as a consultant to the film, unlike with the 2009 remake The Last House on the Left where he "shepherd[ed] it towards production". In contrast, Robert Englund, who portrayed Freddy throughout the film series, feels it is time for A Nightmare on Elm Street to be remade; Englund likes the idea of being able to "exploit the dreamscape" with CGI and other technologies that did not exist when Craven was making the original Nightmare on Elm Street in 1984. Fuller and Form likened the new Nightmare film to their 2003 remake of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and retracted an earlier statement when they said they did not plan to "cherry pick" the best elements of the franchise, like they did with the reboot of the Friday the 13th franchise they released in 2009.

Instead, the 2010 film will be more of a reimagining. The pair also explained that A Nightmare on Elm Street would have a different tone than the Friday the 13th remake. Form states, "I think a Friday the 13th movie like we made was really fun. You know, sex, drugs and rock and roll, and I think a Nightmare movie is not that." When asked why New Line was rebooting the Nightmare on Elm Street film series, Emmerich explained, "The Nightmare films are profoundly disturbing on a deep, human level because they're about our dreams. It's why we thought that we could reach an especially broad audience with a new film, since the feeling of having your dreams being invaded was something that would translate to any country and any culture. Krueger appears in a 2010 remake of the original film,^[14] with Jackie Earle Haley taking over the role in Robert Englund's stead.^[15] In this film instead of a power plant worker who was a child murderer, Krueger was a preschool gardener who also was a child molester. The protagonist, Nancy Holbrook (Rooney Mara), being his "favorite", the parents have burned him to death without any actual evidence against him. During the climax, Nancy pulls Freddy into reality and kills him by severing his claw hand and slashing his throat with a broken paper cutter blade. He then appears behinde Nancy's mom in the mirror, stabs her and pulls her in while Nancy screams in horror.

Freddy's murders Edit

Main article: List of deaths in the Nightmare on Elm Street series

Apart from about 20 children that he killed before he was killed by those parents, he killed around 40 after he fused with the dream demons and became able to enter their dreams. Freddy's major kills include:

A Nightmare on Elm Street

• Tina Grey
• Rod Lane
• Glen Lantz
• Marge Thompson

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge

• Coach Schneider
• Ron Grady
• Several Party Guests

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors

• Phillip Anderson
• Jennifer Caulfield
• Taryn White
• Will Stanton
• Donald Thompson
• Nancy Thompson

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master

• Roland Kincaid
• Joey Crusel
• Kristen Parker
• Sheila Kopecky
• Rick Johnson
• Debbie Stevens

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child

• Dan Jordan
• Greta Gibson
• Mark Grey

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

• Carlos
• John Doe
• Spencer

Freddy vs. Jason

• Mark Davis
• Mrs. Cambell

Wes Craven's New Nightmare

• Chase Porter
• Chuck Wilson
• Terry Feinstein
• Julie

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

• Dean Russell
• Kris Fowles
• Jesse Braun
• Marcus Yeon
• Gwen Holbrook

Powers and AbilitiesEdit

As long as his victims were dreaming, Krueger could inhabit and control their dreams, twisting them to his own ends. He is also capable of entering a victim's mind via state of intoxication, whether the victim is drunk or stoned. Any physical harm done to a person in this dream world would carry over into the real world, though exactly how differs significantly between films, allowing him to easily commit multiple murders. Krueger often toyed with his victims by changing his form and surroundings, usually resembling the boiler room where he brought his child victims that had been missing in town. He also has the power to manipulate or possess any object or part of the dream environment not kept exclusively on the person of his victim at all times after initial creation, as he does in the fifth and sixth films.

His powers increased from those originally granted to him based on how many knew and feared his existence as well as how many souls were in his current possession. At the height of his powers, he could cause severe damage in the real world. This included possession of humans (as shown in the second Nightmare film, briefly in the fifth, and Freddy vs Jason), his corpse (as shown in the third), objects or animals (also shown in the second) or even literally pulling a victim from the waking world into the dream world (as shown in the fifth Nightmare film). If one of Freddy's victims wakes up while they're holding onto him in the dream world, he can be carried into the real world where he is still superhumanly strong and durable, but can be wounded. This was used for extensive fight scenes in the first Nightmare film, Freddy's Dead, and Freddy vs Jason.

In a person's own dream, Krueger could see into their minds and use their deepest fears and personality against them, which became his trademark in the films, at times taking the image of previous victims to help lure friends or relatives to their doom. A few victims managed to use their own imagination to consciously manipulate their dreams against him, a technique known as lucid dreaming, but this typically had little effect on Krueger, who remained in control of their dreams. Another of Krueger's powers involved absorbing the souls of his victims into his own body after they had been killed, which served to make him more powerful. As he gained a victim, their face would appear on his chest, each soul augmenting his power. Each soul he takes grants him the attributes of the victim. This has lead him to acquire skills such as martial arts skills, and high durability. In addition, he is a shapeshifter and can turn into anything, such as a cockroach. He can also use this power on others; in The Dream Master, he kills Debbie by transforming her into a cockroach and then crushing her inside a roach motel.

In other mediaEdit

• Freddy has appeared in some episodes of Robot Chicken, such as the episode "That Hurts Me", where he 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.
• Freddy appeared in the movie Stan Helsing as an antagonist. His appearance is changed, as he does not have the red and green sweater, and his face is even more burned than in his series. He does have his clawed glove, equipped with a toothbrush, and still invades people's dreams. He is renamed Fweddy. He is the first to be defeated; Stan uses a whip to take his clawed glove away, leaving him powerless, and he runs off.
• Freddy also appeared in the Imagination Land episode of South Park with other iconic villains such as Jason and the Xenomorph. He later appeared in the episode "Insheeption", where Freddy has a family and were hired to help peoples trapped in a dream.
• Freddy is a downloadable character in Mortal Kombat 9.