Freddy Krueger (original)

"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."

- Children singing the nursery rhyme about Freddy Krueger.

Frederick Charles "Freddy" Krueger is a pyromaniac serial killer and the main antagonist of the 1984 horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street, and its many sequels, as well as its 2010 remake. He was a sadistic child murderer in his life, and when vengeful parents found out, they burned him alive in his boiler room hideout. Unbeknowest to them, Freddy made a deal with demons and came back as a burned demon that got revenge on the parents of Springwood, Ohio by killing their children where they can't protect them, in their dreams, usually with his signature claw glove.

Wizard Magazine rated him the 14th greatest villain of all time, and ranked 8th on British channel Sky2's Greatest Villains of All Time and ranked 40th on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains. He likes killing and torturing children. It is thought that his murderous ways were a result of an abused and neglected childhood.

Early Life
"His name was Freddy Krueger. He was a child murderer before he died, after he became something worse."

- Nancy Thompson about Freddy Krueger.

His biological mother, Amanda Krueger was a nun, who gave birth to Freddy after she was raped hundreds of times while visiting a mental institution. Throught his childhood, he was sent from orphanage to orphanage, where he constantly endured humiliation by childrens, who thought of him as a freak. He was eventually adopted by an abusive alcoholic who constantly neglected and physically abused him, until Freddy finally retaliated by killing him with a razor when he was a teenager. Freddy then moved to Springwood, Ohio, where he secretly became a child murderer, killing dozens of children. This mysterious killer became known as the Springwood Slasher, killing several kids inside a power plant boiler room. When his wife, Loretta, discovered his secret, he strangled her in front of his daughter, Kathryn, who also found out about the murders and later informed the authorities. Freddy was arrested and put on trial, but was released on a technicality. So the furious parents of Springwood formed a lynch mob and tracked Freddy to his boiler room hideout where he was preparing to skip town, and lit the building on fire with torches and molotov cocktails, burning him to death. However, three dream demons approached him before his death, and he made a deal so that he could come back as a demon and get revenge from beyond the grave on their children where they can't protect them, in their dreams. Freddy was made immortal because of this and began a new killing spree, making the murders look like accidents or suicide.

A Nightmare on Elm Street
"My children. From the very beginning, it was the children who gave me my power. 'The Springwood Slasher.' That's what they called me. My reign of terror was legendary. Dozens of children would fall by my blades. Then the parents of Springwood came for me, taking justice into their own hands. When I was alive, I might've been a little naughty, but after they killed me, I became something much, much worse: the stuff nightmares are made of."

- Freddy Krueger's story (as told by him)

From here, Freddy invaded people's dreams, where he would kill them using his clawed glove, or else manipulating the dream world in a way to reflect the victim's fears or personality. Whatever he did to them in the dream world would affect them in the real world.

Freddy's first victim was Tina Gray, whom he killed by slashing her across the chest with his clawed glove. He then stalked Nancy Thompson in her dreams and killed Rod Lane, Tina's boyfriend who was accused for killing her, by hanging him with his blanket. Nancy pulled his hat out of the dream so she devised a plan with her boyfriend Glen to catch him, but Glen fell asleep, and Freddy pulled him into his bed and shot him upward in a fountain of blood. Nancy eventually pulled Freddy out of the dream and set him on fire. However, he killed her mother Marge by smothering her with his flaming body, vanishing her into the bed. Nancy's father Donald witnessed this. Afterwards, Nancy destroyed Freddy by turning her back on him and taking away his power, however he was still able to temporarily trap her in a dream world where she was trapped in a red and green car with Glen, Tina, and Rod.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge
However, Freddy was unable to return so easily, until he invaded the dreams of Jesse Walsh, who moved into Nancy's house sometime after she left. He possessed Jesse on several occasions, at one point killing his coach, Schneider (whom Jesse disliked) by slashing his back in the shower, and later strangled Jesse's friend Ron Grady. He then took full possession of him at Jesse's girlfriend, Lisa Webber's house during a party, killing several of the guests. In the end, Lisa was able to get through to Jesse, who fought Freddy from within and burned him to death using his power, releasing Jesse unharmed. However, the ending of the movie implies that Freddy returns; he is seen stabbing Kerry from behind (or from the inside) while she is on the bus with Jesse and Lisa. Whether this is a dream (and by who), or if he was possessing her, and whether or not Jesse or Lisa survived, is unclear.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
Freddy soon returned to his old ways of killing people in their dreams. Soon, all surviving kids of Springwood - Kristen, Kincaid, Phillip, Taryn, Joey, Will, and Jennifer - were committed to Westin Hills Asylum, as they were trying to avoid falling asleep. Nancy Thompson began working there, and Neil Gordon, another worker, was seeing the spirit of Freddy's mother, Amanda Krueger. Freddy soon began killing everyone one by one. First he used Phillip's veins to control him like a puppet to make him fall out the window, making it appear as a suicide. Then he smashed Jennifer's head against the TV. When Kristen, Neil, and the others entered the dream world to use their powers and fight Freddy, Joey was attacked and trapped by Freddy, putting him into a coma.

The Dream Warriors (Kristen, Taryn, Will, and Kincaid) fought Freddy alongside Nancy while Neil and Donald went to the junkyard to bury Freddy's bones on holy ground. Freddy killed Taryn by injecting her with heroin, and then killed Will by stabbing him, as he was unaffected by Will's magic. Kristen, Nancy, and Kincaid managed to rescue Joey, but Freddy was much stronger than before, as it is revealed he takes the souls of his victims to give him power. When Neil and Donald found the bones, Freddy took control of them and killed Donald by throwing him onto the tail fin of a car. He then entered the dream world, disguised as Donald, and stabbed Nancy dead. However, he was destroyed when Neil buried the bones and threw holy water and a cross on them.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master
Freddy was able to resurrect himself in Kincaid's dream, reemerging from the ground in the junkyard and returning to power. He killed Kincaid by stabbing him, and then pulled Joey into his waterbed and drowned him. Kristen tried to stay awake, but her mother gave her sleeping pills, so she fell asleep. Freddy threw her into the furnace, but before her death, her power to pull people into the dream world was transferred to Alice Johnson.

From here, Alice began unintentionally pulling people into the dream world, where Freddy killed them. First, he killed Sheila by sucking the life out of her with a kiss, making it appear as an asthma attack. Then he killed Rick by stabbing him with his clawed glove (which was being controlled by an invisible Freddy). Whenever Freddy killed someone, though he took their souls, Alice got their power and characteristics. As Alice and her boyfriend Dan attempted to get to Debbie, Freddy got to her first, turning her into a cockroach and crushing her inside a roach motel.

Alice and Dan chased Freddy down, which caused them to crash their car in the real world, nearly killing Dan. He was forced to leave the dream world when the doctors woke him up after he got cut, leaving Alice to fight Freddy alone. As the Dream Master and part of an old rhyme, Alice held a shard of stained glass window in front of him "Evil will see itself and it will die". Freddy was destroyed, torn apart by the souls of his victims, which were then released.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child
However, Freddy was reborn through Amanda Krueger's spirit in Alice's dream. Using Alice's unborn son Jacob to pull victims into the dream world, he killed Dan by fusing him with a motorcycle so he crashed his truck, and then killed Greta by stuffing food in her mouth to make her suffocate, and then killed Mark by sucking him into his comic book, turning him to paper, and hacking him up. Alice fought Freddy again in the dream world, where Jacob informed her that Freddy was hiding inside her. She drove him out, but was unable to defeat him, until Yvonne released Amanda's spirit from Westin Hills tower, and she gave Jacob his power, which he used to revert Freddy back into an infant, which was absorbed by Amanda. Freddy was last seen clawing his way out as Amanda walked through doors into a light.

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
Soon, all the kids from Springwood except one named John Doe were killed by Freddy (Alice moved out of Springwood before this, so she was not killed), who then put the adults into mass psychosis. He was unable to go outside Springwood, using John to get to his daughter Kathryn, renamed Maggie Burroughs. When Maggie took John (who hit his head on a rock and got amnesia) back to Springwood, three teens named Spencer, Carlos, and Tracy stowed aboard and went with them. When they were unable to leave Springwood, they stopped at Nancy's old house. Freddy killed Carlos by magnifying his hearing and making his head explode when he scratched a chalkboard. He then sucked Spencer into a video game and knocked him down a hole.

After learning that Freddy had a kid who was taken from him, John was convinced that Freddy was his father, but Freddy revealed the truth to John as he sent him falling onto spikes. He then entered Maggie's mind, and was able to leave Springwood and enter people's dreams outside Springwood. He attacked Tracy and Doc, both of whom survived. When Doc took out a piece of Freddy's sweater, they decided that he could be killed if he was pulled out of the dream world. Maggie entered Freddy's mind and pulled him out. She fought him, and Freddy's hand was broken and he was pinned to the wall with knives and throwing stars. Maggie stabbed him with his clawed glove and stuck a pipe bomb in his chest. Freddy was killed when the pipe bomb went off.

Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday
In this film, the ninth in the Friday the 13th series, the killer Jason Voorhees is destroyed and sent to Hell. Freddy's hand is briefly seen grabbing Jason's hockey mask and dragging it off.

Freddy vs. Jason
Knowing he could return from Hell if anyone remembered him, Springwood went through a process to forget about him, preventing him from coming back. So Freddy searched through Hell until he found Jason Voorhees. After pulling his hockey mask into Hell and giving it to him (as seen at the end of Jason Goes to Hell), Freddy disguised himself as Jason's mother Pamela Voorhees and brought him back to life. Three murders by Jason led people to believe that Freddy had returned, and if that was not enough, Mark Davis told everyone at Lori Campbell's school all about Freddy. With enough fear spread around, Freddy was able to come back from Hell, and stalked Gibb in her dreams, but before he could kill her, she was killed by Jason, and Freddy realized that Jason would not stop killing. Freddy's only victim in Freddy vs. Jason was Mark, whom he set on fire and slashed in the face.

Freddy possessed Bill Freeburg when he got high, and injected Jason with tranquilizer to put him to sleep (Freeburg was killed by Jason in the process). Freddy tried to kill Jason in the dream world, but as Jason was almost impossible to kill, this proved to be quite difficult, until Freddy nearly succeeded in drowning him, but he woke up at the last second. Lori, Will, Kia, and Linderman took Jason to Camp Crystal Lake to fight Freddy, and after discovering that Freddy killed her mother, Lori pulled him into the real world where he fought Jason in a bloody battle. Jason was able to get some shots in before Freddy gained the advantage; cutting off Jason's fingers, Freddy took Jason's machete and slashed him with both machete and clawed glove. When Lori set the docks and some propane tanks on fire to get her revenge, Jason stabbed Freddy with his fingerless hand and then tore off his arm. When the tanks exploded, both slashers were set on fire and sent flying into Crystal Lake.

Freddy survived, however, but was stabbed from behind by Jason with his own severed arm. Lori then decapitated Freddy with Jason's machete.

Freddy's head was seen being carried out of the lake by Jason, winking to the audience. It is unknown whether this was a dream or was real. This could be Freddy's final end, if one doesn't consider Freddy vs Jason vs Ash canon.

Remake
A remake of the original film was released on April 30, 2010, starring Jackie Earle Haley as the new face of Freddy. And the remake is produced by Michael Bay, well known as the director of all three of the Transformers films. Interestingly, his back story is closer to the back story Wes Craven originally intended for Freddy; to be a pedophille rather then a child murderer.

Freddy is first seen following Dean through the diner, where he pops out from a corner and slices Dean's hand open. When Dean falls asleep again, he tries to stab Freddy with a knife witch Freddy turns on him and makes him slit his throat. He then appears when Kris falls asleep in class but she wakes up before he can kill her. After Kris falls asleep again she sees Freddy is a classroom who suggests that they play hide and seek." Kirs runs away and she thinks she wakes up but then Freddy appears and kills her. He then goes after Jesse who falls asleep in jail, Freddy taunts Jesse a bit before shoving his arm through Jesse's chest, killing him. After that Freddy shows Quentin what happened to him when Quentin falls asleep during swimming practice. He then goes after Nancy in a convenience store when she experiences micro-naps and he ends up slicing her arm, but manages to pull a piece of his sweater out with her. Quentin and Nancy get to the old preschool and Nancy falls asleep to get Freddy. After a short fight with Freddy Quentin injects adrenalin into Nancy and she wakes up bringing Freddy out with her. Freddy goes for Nancy first but Quentin stabs Freddy in the leg to distract him. Freddy then injures Quentin. When Freddy is distracted Nancy slices off his claw hand and slits his throat with a broken paper cutter blade. Nancy and Quentin burn down the school and his corpse thinking its all over but when Nancy gets home, Freddy appears behind Nancy's mom in a mirror and stabs her through the head and pulls her into the mirror, causing Nancy to scream in horror

Robot Chicken
Freddy has appeared in some Robot Chicken episodes, one of which he is in the Big Brother show alongside Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, Ghostface, Pinhead, and Leatherface. Freddy wanted Ghostface voted out because he shrunk his sweater, but apparently decided to evict Michael when Michael stabbed him multiple times (which merely annoyed him).

In another sketch, Freddy is seen as a typical male character with a loving wife and daughter. The daughter buys items like his signature hat and sweater. After constructing his bladed hand to help him scratch due to the itchy sweater, the daughter buys another gift, causing Freddy to go mad towards the School Bazzar. When he barges into the school wearing his glove and the school made gifts, the parents assume that Freddy is out to harm the children. When trying to calmly explain the situation, Freddy starts a fire, unable to escape. The three souls from hell approach him and offer him immortality, which he accepts to get him out of the mess he made. After asking for a second to take off the sweater and fedora, the souls state that it is done, locking Freddy in his current appearance. After complaining for a bit, the skit ends with him stating "At least I have my Complexion..."

The Nightmare Ends on Halloween
Freddy also appeared in Chris .R. Notarile's fan video, The Nightmare Ends on Halloween, where Freddy, after his death in Freddy vs. Jason, is stuck in limbo, where he meets Michael Myers (whose mind is in limbo for most of the year, except on Halloween). He tries to get him to spread fear (much like he did with Jason), but Michael refused. When his mind became active, he began dreaming, causing Freddy to return, but Michael fought him. In the end, Freddy was cornered by Michael, Jason, and Leatherface, all of whom were sent by Pinhead to return Freddy to Hell. Freddy is torn apart by the three silent slashers, and is presumably taken to the Labyrinth in Hell.

The Simpsons ~ Treehouse of Horror IX
Freddy appeared in the opening sequence in the Simpsons Halloween episode Treehouse of Horror IX. He is seen watching TV on the couch with Jason, commenting on why the Simpsons aren't at the couch yet.

Stan Helsing
An expy of Freddy also appeared as an antagonist in the spoof movie Stan Helsing. His is named Fweddy. He still attacks people in their dreams on Elm Street. He has a toothbrush on his glove. He was defeated when Stan took off his clawed glove, and ran out the door.

South Park
Freddy also made an appearance in South Park's Imaginationland Trilogy amongst the other evil imaginary characters.

He then appeared out of "Imaginationland in "Insheeption", he made another appearance, with a different design. Apparently having retired and living in the mountains with his family, he refuses to help the government, not wishing to kill again. After they explain that innocent lives are at stake, he agrees to help, killing Woodsy Owl and rescuing Stan Marsh and Mr. Mackey. This version of him is arguably entirely different to the imaginationland version who was truer to the film version.

Mortal Kombat 9
Freddy Krueger becomes both a guest and a downloadable character for the 2011 Mortal Kombat game in August 9th 2011.

Freddy's Story
When Freddy Krueger encountered Shao Kahn when he was attempting to steal souls. Freddy and Shao Kahn fought each other, but Shao Kahn was too strong for him. Freddy ended up getting pulled out of the Dream Realm, turning him mortal, and thus defeated by Shao Kahn. Not wanting to surrender to his injuries, Freddy is determined to kill Shao Kahn by any means necessary, and return to the Dream Realm with his immortality, thus continuing his sadistic reign of terror.

Freddy's Ending
Freddy Krueger's bladed hands tore through Shao Kahn. The demonically-enhanced weapons had been more than a match for the emperor's dark magic. Though Freddy had saved Earthrealm, Nightwolf recognized him as an evil spirit and in a shamanistic ritual, sent him back to the Dream Realm. But that decision proved ruinous. Freddy did not resist. He welcomed the return to immortality. From the Dream Realm, he will again create a Nightmare in Earthrealm.

Fatalities, Babality, X-ray move
Like all of the Mortal Kombat characters in Mortal Kombat 9, Freddy Krueger has 2 fatalities, a Babality, and an X-ray Move.

Fatalities

 * Tell 'Em Freddy Sent Ya: Krueger teleports at the back of the opponent. He impales the back of the opponent and then summons a hole underneath them. He then drags them into that hole, making them scream. Afterwards, the hole spews a HUGE amount of blood, presumably killing the victim.
 * I'll see you in Hell: Freddy summons a large furnace behind the opponent. He stabs the opponent in the neck and stomach, and then throws them into the furnace. As the opponent is being burned alive trying to escape the furnace, Freddy waves goodbye and then slams the door shut. At the same time the opponent's arm is hanging out of the furnace, and as Freddy slams the door the arm gets cut off, as the opponent burns to death.

Babality
A baby carriage appears out of nowhere and the camera zooms in to reveal a teddy bear with some cuts on it's stomach. A baby version of Freddy then jumps up from behind the carriage and attempts to take a slash at the camera.

X-Ray Move

 * What A Rush: First Freddy impales the opponent through the chest with his knives, causing the ribs to break and the lungs to be punctured. After that he swipes the opponent across the face with his knives, causing damage to the opponent's skull.

AVGN
Freddy Krueger also makes an appearance in an AVGN episode while The Angry Nintendo Nerd was reviewing Nightmare on Elm Street for the NES. After one of the Nerd's clone took a dump on the game, Freddy came in and killed each of the clones one by one. When he was about to kill the actual Nerd, the Nerd used the Power Glove to kill off Freddy Krueger

Family Guy


In "Love, Blactually" he is referred to when Brian Griffin is at the family's costume party and meets a girl dressed as an aborted fetus. He asks if she is one of Freddy Krueger's victims.

In "The Splendid Source", Glenn Quagmire goes into the dreamworld and pays Krueger to tell Peter Griffin a dirty joke in his dreams so he can poop in his bed. Peter wakes up and realizes when one defecates in their dreams, they defecate in reality.

In "And Then There Were Fewer", it was revealed that Tom Tucker once auditioned for the role of Krueger until James Woods convinced him to back out. The extended version of the episode expands upon this, showing Tucker act out a scene in-character during filming.



The Grim Tales From Down Below
Mandy's Vault is a secret chamber found in Castle Evergrim. It appeared in Grim Tales From Down Below. Mimi went inside of here to find the Horror's Hand for Him to retrieve Jeff again. After returning from her worst memory Mimi screamed so hard that she broke all the glasses in the vault thus also the artifacts that were in the vault were freed, much to Mandy's anger. Freddy Krueger's Claw is an object that was seen in the background in Mandy's Vault.

Freddy himself is never seen in the webcomic but this implies he & Mandy met sometime before the events.

Powers and Abilities
Freddy can invade people's dreams and kill them in their nightmares, which will also kill them in reality. He usually uses his clawed glove, but can also manipulate the dream world in any way he wants, such as sucking them into a bed, comic or video game, making them fall, extending himself, or turning them into a insects. On some occasions, he can possess people, though unlike when Jason does this in Jason Goes to Hell, the victim can survive.

Freddy is impossible to kill in the dream world. However, he is mortal while outside the dearm world. He loses all his power (though he can still disguise himself as his human form) in the real world. Even if he is killed, he can return from Hell if there is enough fear in the area he wishes to appear.

If a person touches fire (unless it is caused by Freddy to kill them) or anything burning hot, it can take them out of the dream world. Freddy also cannot leave Springwood unless inside the dreams of someone who is, in which case he still can't invade other people's dreams unless the one whose mind he is inside is related to him. Freddy also seems to hate fire.

Videos
thumb|right|300px|Freddy's Powers

thumb|left|300px|Freddy in Mortal Kombat