The Freddy Kreuger saga spans decades, with haunting highs and leaden lows.
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He has a burned, hideously scarred face, skin covered in cysts and boils.
Yellow eyes glare over a crooked nose.
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A fiendish grin exposes rotten teeth.
He’s bone-thin, leans sideways, and wears a torn red-and-green-striped sweater and brown fedora.
His trademark right-hand glove is made of leather, bolts, and sheet metal with knives as fingers.
Jackie Earle Haley in ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’.Everett Collection
Cackling, lurking in the dark, he cuts into the flesh of his victims in their sleep.
The story is the same, as teenage neighbors are hunted in their dreams by a mangled man.
But the stark differences between 2010’sA Nightmare on Elm Streetand the original set them worlds apart.
Lisa Zane and Robert Englund in ‘Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare’.Everett Collection
Baby Freddy rips his way out, shrieking so loud the windows shatter.
The plot: Freddy’s been burning in hell sinceThe Final Nightmare, unable to occupy anyone’s dreams.
The only way to regain power is for the town to believe he’s returned.
Robert Englund in ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child’.Everett Collection
The result is reliably mindless but not void of fun in its showdown of evil vs. evil.
The protagonist is Jesse (Mark Patton), another high schooler experiencing nightmares.
Although still filled with cringe-worthy scenes,Freddy’s Revengeremains a favorite.
Robert Englund and Ken Kirzinger in ‘Freddy vs. Jason’.James Dittiger
As Freddy roars through the film with a vengeance, there’s a whirlwind of artistic sequences.
Producer Marianne Maddalena also plays herself in the film.
“Wes loved female heroines,” Maddalena tells EW.
Robert Englund in ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master’.Everett Collection
“Nancy is pretty feminist, turning her back on Freddy and taking things into her own hands.
Wes was an intellect, a true auteur.
No detail was too small for him.”
Robert Englund in ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge’.Everett Collection
It cuts deep, tapping into our subconscious fears and clawing long marks that will last forever.
Where to watchA Nightmare on Elm Street: Max
Zsa Zsa Gabor and Robert Englund in ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors’.Everett Collection
Robert Englund and Miko Hughes in ‘Wes Craven’s New Nightmare’.Everett Collection
Robert Englund in ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’.Everett Collection
