Fan Fest’s ’31 Days of Slashers’: 6 Facts You Probably Didn’t know about Freddy Krueger
Happy October, my fellow geeklings! Now that October has finally stumbled upon us, we can officially begin our haunting season. For the month of October, we will be doing ’31 Days of Slashers’, which will feature facts, spotlights and even some interviews from some of our favorite iconic horror villains.
Are you ready for Halloween?! We sure are!
Today we will be covering 6 Facts You Probably Didn’t know about Freddy Krueger!
1. He’s in the Original Nightmare only 7 Minutes
Seems almost impossible, right? Freddy is only in A Nightmare on Elm Street for seven minutes of the 101-minute film. In a sense, it kind of followed along the story of JAWS. The shark was implied and talked about, but it had minimal screen time. Wes Craven did an excellent job at making Freddy’s presence felt even when he wasn’t there.
2. He was stood up at Prom
Image: New Line Cinema
In “It’s My Party and You’ll Die If I Want You To,” Freddy’s Nightmares we see Freddy Krueger crashing his high school reunion. Essentially, it is like Carrie all over again. Freddy massacres his entire graduating class, but the reason he’s seeking vengeance in the first place is because the prom date that stood him up is attending the reunion. Note to all, don’t stand up your prom date… like ever.
3. He is Based off real people in Wes Craven’s Life
Most writers and directors will tell you that they draw their inspiration from real life people. Well, Wes Craven was no different! Wes Craven named ‘Freddy’ after a bully who would terrorize Craven in elementary school. Krueger’s signature hat was an item that was worn by the local drunk, another figure in the community that would terrify Craven during his youth. Finally, Krueger’s iconic red-and-green striped sweater. Craven had read an article in Scientific American that the human eye struggles to recognize these two shades when they’re next to each other. Also, it was rumored to have been inspired by a homeless man that Craven once encountered multiple times in his childhood. Yeesh!
4. ‘Krueger Day’ is real!
In conjunction with the release of Freddy’s Dead, New Line talked Los Angeles into declaring Friday, September 13th as “Freddy Krueger Day.” I mean… I guess since Jason gets almost every other Friday the 13th and Michael Meyers gets Halloween… it was time to give Freddy his own day?
5. His most Iconic line was Improvised
In Dream Warriors, Freddy delivers his most iconic line in the entire series; ‘Welcome to prime time, b*tch!’. The actual scripted line was simply, “This is it Jennifer, your big break on TV!” Rogert Englund delivered it as scripted in the first couple of takes, but then improvised, “Welcome to primetime b*tch!” Director Chuck Russell decided to use both the scripted and improvised lines, editing the two together.
6. Cats Inspired Freddy’s Clawed Glove
Wes Craven didn’t want Freddy to wield a simple knife like Michael Myers in Halloween or Jason Voorhees in Friday the 13th, so he drew on his fear of his own cat’s claws and a series of late-night commercials selling sets of knives to create Freddy’s iconic knife glove. Me-ow!
Sources: Screen Rant, Horror Freak News
Julia recently published her first novel, titled; Anomic. She is currently co-authoring a novel called ‘Snow Falls’. She has a B.A in Communications with concentrations in Professional Writing and Public Relations. She is also in the United States Army Reserves as a Military Police Officer, and is currently in the process of going back to school for her Masters Degree in Business. When she isn’t writing, she is co-owner of a film production studio called ‘Valentine Productions LLC’ and she frequently spends her weekends acting in films, or being a stuntwoman.
