Freddy Krueger

"You want to know who Fred Krueger was? He was a filthy child murderer who killed at least twenty kids in the neighborhood. Kids we all knew."

- Marge Thompson

Frederick Charles "Freddy" Krueger is the central antagonist from the Nightmare on Elm Street film series and expanded media franchise. Introduced in 1984, he has proven to be one of the most popular and enduring horror film icons of all time. Freddy has been primarily portrayed by American actor Robert Englund, who played Freddy in the initial film as well as its six sequels and the crossover film Freddy vs. Jason. Chason Schirmer played a young Fred Krueger in Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare and Jackie Earle Haley in the 2010 A Nightmare on Elm Street remake. The character also appeared as the host of his own horror anthology series Freddy's Nightmares, but had no real involvement in the actual episodes. In 1988, the character appeared on an episode of D.C. Follies titled "Freddy Krueger's Nightmare: Dan Quayle Elected President". In 1998, Krueger appeared on an episode of The Simpsons titled "Treehouse of Horror IX". A version of the character has also appeared on a sketch on the animated stop-motion program Robot Chicken. Freddy Krueger is personified as a ghostly dream demon who stalks and murders his victims in their nightmares. His trademarks include a dirty, brown hat, a red and green striped sweater and a custom made leather glove with razor blades housed in the finger tips.

Origins
Freddy Krueger was a vicious child murderer who lived in the suburban town of Springwood, Ohio. He used to work in a boiler room and kidnapped more than twenty children from the neighborhood and brought them back to his lair where he would slaughter them with a custom-made razor-glove. Krueger was eventually found and arrested, but when the courts found that a judge had signed a search warrant in the wrong place, he was set free on a technicality. The citizens of Springwood knew better however. Many of them got together to dispense their own brand of private justice against Krueger. Led by people like police lieutenant Donald Thompson and his wife Marge, they tracked Freddy down and locked him inside his boiler room. They set the building on fire and watched it burn to the ground with Freddy trapped inside. Donald disposed of Freddy's corporeal remains in a junk yard, while Marge took possession of his razor knives.

The First Nightmares
Although Freddy was dead, his soul lived on. A trio of serpentine demonic entities selected Krueger to be their emissary - a veritable boogy man who would live on in the nightmares of others. His diseased soul was transformed into a dream demon.

As a dream demon, Freddy now had the power to exact his revenge against those responsible for his death. It was the fear generated by those he visited that gave him his power. He specifically targeted the children of the ones who burned him, most of whom lived on Elm Street. Several teenagers dreamed of Freddy, but few were willing to talk about it at length. Those that did, spoke of a hideously burned man with a dirty hat, a red and green striped sweater and a leather glove fitted with four straight razors.

His first victim was fifteen-year-old Christina Gray. Tina had dreams where she found herself wandering about in her night gown throughout Freddy's boiler room. He toyed with her at first, but waited to kill her until she had time to tell her dream to others, thus spreading the fear and by extension, giving Freddy even more power. One evening, Tina fell asleep after having sex with her boyfriend Rod Lane. It was then that Freddy struck the final blow. He levitated Tina in her bed where she began violently convulsing as he slashed her multiple times with his razor glove. When he was done with her, he let her dead body drop to the floor. Freddy then began stalking Nancy Thompson, daughter of police lieutenant Donald Thompson. Nancy had already dreamed of Freddy several times, but she now realized that he was the same individual who appeared in Tina's dreams. On the day following Tina's death, Nancy fell asleep in English class and found herself wandering the dark passageways of the boiler room - just as Tina had the night before. Nancy encountered Freddy disguised as a hall guard, but managed to run away. He assumed his true form and continued to chase her, but Nancy awakened after she had burned her arm on a hot boiler pipe in her dream. In the real world, a burn mark appeared on Nancy's arm.

Rod Lane was the number one suspect in Tina's death and the police promptly arrested following a short-live citywide manhunt. That evening, Rod fell asleep in his jail cell. Freddy manipulated his bed sheets into a rudimentary noose and wrapped one end around his throat while the other end was tied to a bar on his window. He broke Rod's neck, but his death was ruled as a suicide.

Freddy nearly got Nancy again, this time after she had fallen asleep while taking a bath. As she dozed, Freddy's glove came up out of the bath water and dragged her down into the tub where she floundered in a seemingly endless column of water. Thanks to her mother banging on the door, Nancy was able to wake up and save herself.

The following day, Marge took Nancy to the Katja Institute - a university school specializing in sleep disorders. The doctor gave something to help her fall asleep so he could study her EEG. Nancy had another encounter with Freddy and managed to grab his hat from head. She woke up, but discovered to her amazement that she was holding the hat in her hands. She had somehow developed the ability to pull things out of her dreams. This led her to believe that if she could Krueger into the material world, then he could be stopped through conventional means.

Nancy conspired with her boyfriend Glen Lantz to set a trap for Krueger. He was to watch over her while she slept and wake her up if he thought she was having a nightmare. As it turned out however, Glen fell asleep himself and Nancy nearly died as a result. Freddy then decided to take Glen out of the equation. The following evening, Glen was lying in his bed watching television when he fell asleep. To torment Nancy, Freddy telephoned her saying "I'm your boyfriend now, Nancy", indicating that he was going after Glen next. He used his power to open a hole in the middle of Glen's bed, pulling him through. Afterward, a geyser of blood vomited from the aperture, spraying across the walls and ceiling.

Nancy had learned that ancient cultures used to combat monsters in their dreams by turning their backs upon them, exorcising their fear and thus robbing them of their power. She decided to set a trap for Krueger one final time. She called her father and told him that she was going after Freddy. She was setting her alarm clock and wanted him to come to the house in twenty minutes to arrest Freddy after she pulled him out of her dream. Donald didn't truly understand what Freddy actually was now, but agreed to come to the house if only to humor his traumatized daughter. She then set up various booby traps throughout the house then went to sleep. In her dream, she encountered Freddy outside the rose garden in her front yard. She tackled him and awakened while they grappled with one another on the ground. Her plan had worked as Freddy was now in the real world. He chased her throughout the house falling prey to each of her carefully constructed traps. Frustrated, Freddy decided to go after Nancy's mother who had been sleeping upstairs. Nancy chased after him, but she was too late. Freddy, now on fire, had reached Marge Thompson's room and killed her in her bed. Nancy recalled the dream skills she had learned and turned her back as Freddy came up behind her. Frightened, but maintaining her calm, she plainly stated that she was taking back all of the power she had fed into him. Freddy lunged, but without any residual power left, he could no longer maintain himself in the real world.

Freddy returned to the dream dimension, but he was not done with Nancy yet. He plagued her with a dream wherein her mother and friends were still alive, only so he could kill them all over again.

Forgetting Freddy
In 1999, the town of Springwood experienced another wave of terror at the hands of Freddy Krueger. Very little information is known about incident, but there were at least two confirmed victims. On January 18th, a young man named Bobby Davis died of an apparent suicide. The belief is that he may have slit his wrists in the bath tub. Bobby's younger brother, Mark Davis, who was around 14-years-old at the time, was devastated, and eventually sent to Westin Hills. Another victim was a woman named Mrs. Campbell, who lived at Freddy's favorite haunt at 1428 Elm Street. Mrs. Campbell's husband, Doctor Campbell, tried to save his wife, but failed. A young man named Will Rollins had sneaked into the house on the night in question to visit his girlfriend, Lori Campbell. He walked into her parents' room and found Doctor Campbell standing over his wife's body with a knife. Naturally, the boy believed that it was the Doctor who had killed Lori's mother. To keep Will quiet, Doctor Campbell had him committed at Westin Hills.

By this point in time, the townsfolk of Springwood were well aware of who Freddy Krueger was and the power that he wielded. They determined that the only way to truly defeat him was to get people to forget about him. To this end, the town leaders systematically removed all evidence and references to Freddy Krueger and his crimes from public records. Youths who had experienced severe nightmares were remanded to the care of the Westin Hills Psychiatric Hospital where they were prescribed regular doses of Hypnocil, to prevent them from dreaming. In extreme cases, many of the patients overdosed on Hypnocil and lapsed into a coma. Even the Springwood County Sheriff's Office made careful measure to keep all knowledge of Freddy Krueger suppressed, even to the point of refusing to speak his name out loud. Miraculously, the plan worked. Without a state of ambient fear to keep the children of Springwood in a perpetual state of anxiety, Freddy Krueger began to lose power. For the next four years, Springwood was able to enjoy some relative peace.

A new ally
Freddy could not abide being cut off from his victims. As Freddy himself put it, "Being dead wasn't a problem, but being forgotten? Now that's a bitch!". He needed to give Springwood a reason to know fear again. To this end, Freddy scoured the bowels of Hell to find the perfect agent; someone whose mere presence was sure to evoke fear the likes of which no one could imagine, and thus allow Freddy the ability to regain his lost power. What he found was Jason Voorhees.

In life, Jason Voorhees was a deranged serial killer who terrorized the environs of Camp Crystal Lake, wracking up a body count of several dozen victims over the course of two decades. Having been killed, reborn, and killed again numerous times over, Jason was truly an immortal being. Freddy weaved his way into Jason's dreams, inspiring him to resurrect himself from Hell once again. Silently guiding his actions, he sent Jason to Springwood to begin randomly killing people so that people would remember true terror.

It began with the brutal slaughter of a boy named Trey Cooper. This was but the spark that begat the slow burn to Freddy regaining his power. It was enough to get people talking, and the name Freddy Krueger began circulating once again. Lori Campbell had a dream wherein a little girl with no eyes cryptically warned her that Freddy was coming back. Freddy also invaded the dream of a boy named Blake Mueller. Manifesting as a giant shadow, he tried to slice his way through Blake, but had not mustered enough power just yet to murder. He decided to let Jason have some fun. Voorhees killed Blake and Blake's father that evening.

Freddy's next target was a girl named Gibb Smith. Gibb attended a rave at a corn field along with many other teenagers. Gibb was highly inebriated and passed out in the middle of the field. She had a nightmare where Freddy beckoned her to a silo, which then morphed into a grotesque version of the Springwood power plant boiler room. Freddy toyed with Gibb in his traditional cat and mouse fashion. However, when it came time to vanquish his prey, Gibb disappeared from the dream world. As it turned out, Jason Voorhees had appeared at the corn field and began randomly slaughtering partiers, including Gibb. Freddy was outraged and realized that Jason had grown beyond his control.

Despite this, Jason's rampage worked in Freddy's favor and he was nearly at full power again. He selected another target, Mark Davis, as his next victim. While Mark was asleep in his bedroom, Freddy took the form of his late brother, Bobby Davis, and told him how he needed to send the people of Springwood a message. He set Mark's body afire and burned the words "Freddy's back" into Mark's back. Mark's friends, Will Rollins and Lori Campbell, were present during Mark's death, but were helpless to do anything. Along with Charlie Linderman, Bill Freeburg, Kia Waterson and a Sheriff's deputy named Scott Stubbs, Will and Lori determined that the only way to protect themselves from Freddy was with Hypnocil. They drove back to Westin Hills with the intent of taking as much Hypnocil from the dispensary as they could find. Freeburg, who was a stoner, smoked a joint, which yielded euphoric effects similar to that of being in a dream. It was apparently enough for Freddy sink his hooks into him. He took the form of a demonic caterpillar and produced a hookah. Blowing a large puff of smoke in Freeburg's face, he was able to guide the young man's actions. Freeburg went to D-Ward where he saw a bunch of comatose patients. The patients began whispering to him, instructing him to take all of the Hypnocil from a supply cabinet and dump them down the drain. Krueger's caterpillar form appeared on the ceiling and jumped on Freeburg, forcing its way into his mouth.

Freddy now had complete control over him. Locking the doors to the ward, he began dumping the Hypnocil into the sink. Afterward, he filled up two giant tranquilizer needles. Jason had grown beyond Freddy's ability to control him and he needed to bring him down. The possessed Freeburg marched down the corridor as Lori, Will, and Kia ran past him. Will tried to get him to come with until Freeburg told him in Freddy's voice, "Let me handle this bitch". Jason stalked down the corridor towards them and Freeburg stabbed him in the neck with both needles. Before the tranquilizer could take effect, Jason cut him in half with one swing from his machete.

Freddy vs. Jason
As the tranquilizers worked their way through Jason's system, Freddy could now confront him in his dreams. He first took the form of Jason's late beloved mother, Pamela Voorhees. As Mrs. Voorhees, he berated Jason for his perceived failures, calling him a big stupid dog that can't stop eating even though his master said that he has had enough. Morphing back into Krueger, he jumped down from a catwalk and attacked Jason. Jason fought back, but quickly came to realize that in the dream world, he was facing up against an unstoppable foe. He cut off Freddy's arms, but they instantly grew back. Freddy executed hit and run tactics against Jason, using his dream power to knock the killer all around the boiler room as if he were a pinball in a giant arcade game. He even dropped a large steel boiler drum down upon him, crushing Jason into the ground. Jason got up and Freddy slashed into some water pipes, creating a waterfall that cascaded down between them. Jason lurched towards Freddy, but stopped at the waterfall, refusing to pass through it. Freddy mused about how there was something Jason was afraid of after all. Freddy took advantage of Jason's hesitation. He changed the landscape so that Jason appeared to him as a child wearing a hockey mask. Prying it back, he scoffed at Jason's facial deformity, citing that he had a face that only a mother could love. Piercing the side of the child's head with a single claw, he decided to go a little deeper into Jason's dreamscape. Jason's dream became a re-imagining of the events that led him to drown back in 1957. Lori Campbell (who had tranquilized herself as part of a plan to enter the dream world and pull Freddy out of it), appeared and tried to help Jason. She ran to two fornicating camp counselors for help, but one of them revealed himself to be Freddy having sex with a dead woman. Freddy quipped about how his partner was "dead on her feet". Lori ran back to the dock to try and save the drowning Jason, but Freddy appeared in the water and pushed the child back down.

Jason awakened at this point, leaving only Lori in the dream. Freddy refocused his attention on her, changing the landscape again to that of a dilapidated version of her home. He chased her through the house and even allowed her to experience a flashback of events to when her mother died, revealing to her that it was actually he and not her father who had murdered Mrs. Campbell. He then jumped on top of Lori and began slashing at her chest with his claws.

Lori suddenly woke up and had managed to pull Freddy Krueger into the real world. They were in a cabin at Camp Crystal Lake and Jason Voorhees was there, anxiously awaiting to begin round two. Jason had the immediate upper-hand in this fight and smacked Freddy across the room. Grabbing him, he smashed his head through a window and then dragged his body through the remaining window panes. He pulled him outside and effortlessly flung him across the campground.

Will and Lori meanwhile limped out towards one of the docks. Freddy jumped out and was ready to attack them. Kia appeared and called out Freddy's name. She kept his focus trained on her, allowing Will and Lori a chance to escape. She taunted Freddy, asking him "What kind of a faggot where's a Christmas sweater?", and further goaded him by singing, "You're not even scary". Freddy was amused, even when she made fun of his masculinity. But then he gestured behind her, and when Kia turned around, she saw Jason who brought his machete down, killing her.

With Kia out of the way, Krueger was free to resume his attack on Jason. He leaped at him, stabbing him multiple times in the back and chest with his claws. Freddy was fast and very dexterous, but he was not a match for Jason's size and strength. Jason pushed him back and Freddy landed near a pile of oxygen tanks. Using his claws, he cut off the valves on the tanks, turning them into veritable torpedoes that began shooting in Jason's direction. One rocketed right into his chest, pushing him back towards an area that was under construction.

Freddy appeared at the top of a construction workers' scaffolding and let loose a pile of metal rods, which rained down, spiking Jason through the leg and chest. He then sent a cement mixer down, which rebounded off Jason's stunned body. Unfortunately for Freddy, the ricocheting cement bin also knocked Freddy down from his perch and he became entangled in some of the machine's cables. Jason pulled him down and they began trading blows again. A mining car became dislodged during the chaos and came down the ramp, knocking into both of them. Lori found a gas hose hooked up to a generator, and began spraying the dock with fuel. Freddy sliced off Jason's fingers and then caught his machete and began hacking at Jason with his own weapon. Once he got Jason down on the ground, he stabbed him through the eye holes of his mask with his claws. By this point, Lori was storming down the dock with two flaming pieces of wood in her arms. She screamed for Freddy to "Go to Hell!" and set the dock to the torch. As the flames raced down the dock, Jason took advantage of Freddy's surprise and punched his fist through his back with his fingerless hand. He then ripped off Freddy's claw arm. Krueger then plunged the machete into Jason's heart. The fire reached some nearby propane tanks, which exploded, destroying the entire dock. Freddy and Jason's flaming bodies rocketed across the lake.

An injured and exhausted Krueger managed to make his way back and climbed onto the dock. Still holding onto Jason's machete, he slowly strode towards Lori and Will. Jason emerged from the lake and impaled Freddy from behind with his own severed claw-arm. Freddy dropped the machete and fell to his knees. Lori picked up the machete and screamed, "Welcome to my world, bitch!", and cut Freddy's head off.

Although his presence in the waking world was once again undone, Freddy Krueger can never truly die.

Weaknesses
Freddy Krueger has very few weaknesses and the means by which to defeat varies depending upon the circumstances. In the dream world, Freddy has complete power over his subjects, but drawing him into the real world greatly reduces his effectiveness for he is bound by the laws of physics. Freddy draws power from the fear he generates in his victims. One of his most notorious adversaries, Nancy Thompson, proved that bolstering one's nerve and turning their back on Freddy will weaken him and make him more susceptible to conventional injury in the real world.

Notes & Trivia



 * Interestingly, Freddy Krueger only has one actual kill in the present-day timeline of the film Freddy vs. Jason. He kills mental patient Mark Davis. Per the complete timeline of the film, Freddy actually kills four people in total, the first three of which occur in flashback. He kills a little girl from his Springwood Slasher days, he kills Mrs. Campbell in a dream sequence and he kills Bobby Davis as revealed by his brother.

Body count
Incomplete