Freddy Krueger (original)

"He was a child murderer before he died, after he became something worse."

- Nancy Thomson

Frederick Charles Krueger is a serial killer in the 1984 horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street . He tried to kill children, usually with his signature claw glove. His mother, Amanda Krueger was a nun, who born Freddy after she was attacked in a prison. 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.

"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."



Early Life
Freddy was known as Springwood Slasher, killing several kids from Springwood inside a boiler room. When his wife discovered his secret, he strangled her in front of his daughter, Kathryn, who also found out about the murders and informed the authorities. Freddy was arrested and put on trial, but was released on a technicality. So the parents of Springwood burned him to death inside his boiler room using molotov cocktails. However, three dream demons approached him before his death, and entered him to give him their power.

A Nightmare on Elm Street
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 a party as Jesse's girlfriend Lisa Webber's house, killing several party 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.

Remake
A remake of the original film is scheduled for release on April 30, 2010. Freddy will be played by Jackie Earle Haley. And directed by Michael Bay, well known as the director of both Transformers films.

In other media
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).

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.

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.

Freddy also appeared as an antagonist in the spoof movie Stan Helsing. His appearance is changed a bit and he is renamed 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.

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

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 comic or video game, making them fall, or turning them into a cockroach. 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 pulled out of the dream 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, however, he can return from Hell if there is enough fear of him.

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.