“A Nightmare on Elm Street” stars talk about the film’s legacy, Freddy Krueger’s nightmares

When it comes to slasher icons, only one name has haunted the thoughts and dreams of horror fans for the past 40 years: Freddy Krueger.

Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street made its way into theaters on November 9, 1984, spawning an entire film franchise, a spin-off anthology television series, a remake and many Halloween costumes. It gave the horror a typical new villain in Krueger, played by Robert Englund, and a memorable new final girl in Nancy Thompson, played by Heather Langenkamp.

Stars also had real nightmares about the villain, known for wearing a red and green striped sweater, a brown fedora, a bladed glove and disfiguring burn marks.

“I definitely had a lot of nightmares about Freddy Krueger,” Langenkamp told Good Morning America in a new interview. “There were certain makeup effects and special effects that we did that really stuck with me in the deepest part of my soul.”

“The worst was Wes Craven’s New Nightmare, when Freddy’s tongue wraps around my head,” she said of the 1994 meta film, her third and final appearance in the franchise, in which she played a version of herself. “It took me about 10 years for this nightmare to stop bothering me in the middle of the night.”

Englund’s nightmares began quite early – in fact, while working on the first film.

The actor explained how one night during a late shoot he decided to take a nap without taking off his makeup. As he dozed off, he heard a knock on the door and someone called him back to the set. When he woke up—“just those seconds before you regain consciousness,” he noted—he sat up and saw Freddy Krueger himself staring back at him.

“I forgot I was wearing makeup and it was so disorienting. I can close my eyes right now when I tell this story and I can bring it back,” he recalled, admitting that even now, “sometimes… that moment goes back to my dream state.”

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Looking back, Langenkamp said there was nothing at the time that would have given her any clue that A Nightmare on Elm Street would become as beloved as it is now.

“It was hard for people to imagine back then that a horror movie wasn’t something that everyone in Hollywood was waiting to audition for. But it was actually the opposite,” she said, adding that it was a “sensitive topic” and something your agent would warn you about.

However, this washed away when she began to see what Craven, whom she called “mentor, teacher and friend”, was doing while looking through dailies during filming.

“I knew when we did it, it was something special,” Englund agreed, noting that he “knew we were really snowballing and going international” with the franchise’s third film, Dream Warriors. , a fan favorite.

The character became typical for Englund, who played Krueger for many years.

“This world is real. They don’t make cowboy movies anymore, and every week a horror, sci-fi or fantasy movie makes the top ten. I will stick to it,” he said. “Horror films are once again the new currency of Hollywood, just as they were in the glory years of the 30s and 40s.”

Why the strength of the Nightmare franchise is its “woman warrior”

As for what Langenkamp and Englund believe is behind A Nightmare on Elm Street’s enduring legacy and connection with generations of viewers, they point to the power of Nancy as the final girl and other characters in the franchise.

Langenkamp said people come to her having had a “really visceral reaction to the way (Nancy) treated Freddy Krueger in her life and in her dreams… facing your fear, making sure you don’t turn away from it, you don’t Don’t avoid it.”

“You really just face it head-on,” she continued. “That philosophy, that mentality, that way of life has really become, you know, what I strive for, and I think that’s how a lot of the younger fans… really connect with it and it becomes special to them. there”.

Englund agreed, saying, “Our girl survivor is a warrior woman, and I’m really proud of that.”

He noted that Nancy followed in the footsteps of Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode in 1979’s Halloween and Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley in Alien (1979), noting that Langenkamp’s character’s journey “touched so many of her fans.”

“Be it Heather, or Lisa Wilcox (from A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Master of Dreams (1988) and A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989)) or Monica Keena (from Freddy vs. Jason) or Lisa Zane (from Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)), we always have a female warrior,” he added.

This isn’t the only aspect that Englund believes helped the film connect with audiences.

“But the other element is so simple. It’s such a basic hook that Wes came up with,” he said of Craven’s use of dream sequences. “It’s really a trick because it’s universal. Everyone in the world dreams and has nightmares.”