"His name is Freddy Krueger. He was a child murderer before he died, and after he died...well, he became something worse."
"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 have been a little naughty, but after they killed me, I became something much, much worse. The stuff nightmares are made of. The children still feared me and their fear gave me the power to invade their dreams. And that's when the fun REALLY began. Until they figured out a way to forget about me. To erase me completely. Being dead wasn't a problem, but being forgotten, now that's a BITCH. I can't come back if nobody remembers me. I can't come back if nobody's afraid. I had to search the bowels of Hell, but I found someone, someone who'll make 'em remember. He may get the blood, but I'll get the glory, and that fear is my ticket home."
Freddy Krueger has been terrorizing the children of Springwood since 1984. Here are some of his worst deeds, along with other characters who match him in vileness.
All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
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Films
Examples
- Original continuity:
- Frederick Charles "Freddy" Krueger is the dream-invading ghost of a child murderer, who seeks to continue killing. In life, he kept missing children's pictures of his victims in a scrapbook and posed as an unassuming, caring father before his wife discovered the truth; he then murders his wife with no hesitation. When he got off on a technicality, the people of Springwood lynched Freddy, at which point he makes a bargain with demonic forces to become, in his own words, "what nightmares are made of". He uses his newfound powers to find increasingly creative ways to torture and murder his dozens of victims for his own amusement by using their primal fears against them, all the while cracking sick jokes; afterwards, he harvests the souls of his victims and keeps them in a hellish state within his body to draw their power. By the time of The Final Nightmare, Freddy's body count was in the hundreds, reducing Springwood to a child's graveyard and driving the adults into madness. He goes on to taunt a girl by appearing as her sexually abusive father, and even attempts to murder his own daughter Kathryn upon reuniting with her. Freddy makes it clear to Kathryn of his intent to continue his killing spree across the world until he runs out of victims, declaring "every town has an Elm Street." Freddy is one of the few Slasher Movie killers with a distinct and talkative personality, and has always simply been a sadistic monster who extends his victims' suffering for its own sake.
- Freddy vs. Jason: Freddy Krueger is just as vile and revolting as he is in the main series. Seeking to regain his powers and start a new killing spree, Freddy resurrects Jason Voorhees from Hell and sics him onto Springwood to spread fear in his name. Growing annoyed that Jason is killing those he wanted for himself, Freddy makes an attempt to kill his pawn. It's later revealed he murdered Lori Campbell's mother, and attempts to rape Lori herself in her nightmare when she tries to help Jason.
- Wes Craven's New Nightmare: "The Entity" is an ancient, demonic being that has tormented mankind for centuries in many forms, its only goal being the brutal slaying of innocent people. Able to be trapped inside "stories" for a time, the Entity was once the Witch of Hansel and Gretel, and in the present is the form of Freddy Krueger himself. Yearning to escape the Nightmare on Elm Street story, the Entity reaches out and begins butchering people around Heather Langenkamp, from the crew of the films to Heather's beloved husband Chase. All the while mentally tormenting Heather and her 5-year-old son Dylan on a nightly basis with violent dreams, the Entity forces Dylan to watch as it butchers his surrogate aunt Julie. The Entity plans to torturously kill both Heather and eat Dylan alive so it can finally enter reality and begin a full-fledged murder spree on humankind.
- 2010 reboot: Freddy Krueger is as monstrous as always. A sadistic pedophile, Freddy used to be a preschool gardener who would take the children to his underground cave, where he would rape them and take photos of them, his favorite being Nancy. When the parents of the kids find out and murder him, Freddy returns from the dead years later in order to kill the kids for snitching on him. In their dreams, Freddy gives the teens a head start so that he can enjoy their screaming and fear before he brutally murders them, all the while making snide comments at them. He then hangs the bodies up in his boiler room as trophies. Setting his sights on Nancy once again, Freddy saves her for last, so that, once her brain goes into a coma via sleep deprivation, he can keep her as his sex toy forever. Despite getting killed again, Freddy immediately returns, killing Nancy's mother.
Comic Books
Examples
- Nightmares on Elm Street: Freddy Krueger returns once again in this Interquel to continue his never-ending killing spree. Gleefully haunting the dreams of Springwood for over twenty tears and setting his eyes on Nancy Thompson's old roommate, Cybil, Freddy brutally murders her friend and husband, revealing his intentions to mask the latter's death as a tragic accident that would subsequently "drive Cybil to commit suicide". Planning on using the young Jacob's psychic powers as a bridge to "have a hot time in the old town tonight", Freddy tries to manipulate him with the memories of his father, one of his many victims. Committing a series of murders by proxy to claim more souls with the help of his unstable girlfriend, Devonne, Freddy orders her to kill Jacob's mother and anyone with her, leading to Devonne shooting up Mercy Hospital before Freddy eventually betrays his lover and leaves her to die.
- Avatar Press comics, by Brian Pulido, Juan Jose Ryp, et al.: Freddy Krueger, as usual, is a perverted, wise-cracking mass murderer who haunts the dreams of Springwood's youth after the events of Freddy vs. Jason. Lynched in life for murdering "a child or a hundred", Freddy now jumps into the dreams of any teenagers he can so that he may torture and butcher them in the real world. Destroying the town's supply of dream-suppressing Hypnocil to leave the entire population defenseless, Freddy murders multiple characters and even their parents in gory ways, and gleefully dooms their souls to eternal torment as his puppets.
- New Line Cinema's Tales Of Horror's "Copycat":
- Freddy Krueger remains a Soul Eating demon. Twenty-five years after the Springwood massacre, Freddy continues haunting the dreams of residents until Otis Emerson threatens Freddy into making Otis his accomplice. Using Otis to murder a young exorcist, Freddy has another teen delete the threatening computer files Otis has, allowing Freddy to safely kill Otis before torturing the teen to death for fun.
- Otis Emerson himself was an animal-dissecting sociopathic child who fell in love with murder after Freddy's killing spree. Over the next 25 years, Otis kills countless people and when he finally meets Freddy intends to work as the demon's underling to spread fear and death across the world.
- Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash: Freddy Krueger is the same sadistic child-murdering monster he is in the films, and more. Following the events of the film, Freddy continues his spree of evil by once again manipulating Jason Voorhees into finding the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis to grant him reality-warping powers before sending the Deadites against Jason when he turns against him. He takes things further in The Nightmare Warriors, where upon his return, Freddy takes control of the Deadite army, placing Jason as general. At Freddy's behest, Jason and the Deadites leave death and destruction throughout Washington, where Freddy takes control of the White House where he reveals his plan for "No Child Left Alive" and the carnage he plans on spreading across the world. Revealing himself to be in an incestuous relationship with his daughter Kathryn, possibly due to brainwashing, when she fights with Jason, Freddy admits he plans to kill her when they are finished. Freddy possesses Stephanie to seduce and abduct Jacob, before encouraging Stephanie to kill as a Voorhees. Upon Jason's death, Freddy absorbs his soul as well before boasting himself as a "Dream God". Now desiring power and domination in addition to his bloodlust, Freddy takes his evil from the films to a more grandiose level.
Freddy vs. Jason scripts
Examples
- Nightmare 13--Freddy Meets Jason (link
): Freddy Krueger, having been the one who drowned the young Jason Voorhees, is the true commander of the Freddy Cult, a group of Satanic punks who commit vast murder in his name. Using them to regain his powers, Freddy seeks to marry a young virgin in order to be properly reborn into the mortal world at full power, having his followers kidnap the young Lizzie for him to marry. Killing off Meagan's friends in the meantime, Freddy, after his fight with the resurrected Jason, plans to use a TV satellite to beam himself anywhere in the world and continue his mass killing spree. - Jason vs. Freddy (link): Freddy Krueger returns after having been presumed dead. With the young Jason Voorhees serving as his first kill decades prior, the demonic Freddy later discovers a portal to the real world within the comatose Jason. Upon finding out that his presence in the real world grants him the power of Mass Narcosis, Freddy uses it to enact a massive killing spree, using people's nightmares to violently murder them, from making a reporter think she's being raped by a prison riot, to making dozens of drivers believe they were caught in a massive car accident. Heading to the Springwood mall, Freddy has tons of teenagers and children killed in particularly gruesome ways, with hopes to team up with Jason to claim the entire world as their own.
- Peter Briggs's screenplay (link): Thanos is the ruler of the Underworld, the master of Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees, and the architect behind the two's massive killing sprees. Having made a deal with Freddy to keep him immortal should he grant him the souls of the innocent, Thanos also gets Freddy to corrupt Jason into becoming a murderer to obtain more souls. With all the power he's achieved, Thanos decides to destroy the entire universe in order to create a new one in his own image, throwing away Freddy and Jason upon having no need for them anymore.
- Jonathan Aibel & Glenn Berger's screenplay (link): Freddy Krueger, originally a teen counselor at Camp Crystal Lake, would force the young Jason Voorhees to play "The Nightmare Game" with him. Sadistically scaring Jason for kicks, their game would eventually lead to Freddy drowning Jason, with Freddy later taking great pride in turning Jason into an undead, murderous, rage-filled monster with a high body count. Having also inspired murderers like Dominic Necros, Freddy tries to kill Jason for attempting to steal his latest kill.
Other Works
Examples
- Freddy's Nightmares: Freddy Krueger is once again portrayed as a sadistic monster. In life, he molested and murdered more than a dozen children, with victims as young as four and six. After his death, he returns as a demon to continue killing by murdering people in their dreams. Freddy murders his arresting officer, and proceeds to target his daughters, killing one and framing the other for her own sister's murder. In one episode, he tricks a sleepwalking man into killing his own wife and daughter, while another suggests that he murdered nearly half of his former class from school, which had 300 students. Freddy also appeared in segments in which he would interact with people to torment them. In one instance, he offered a girl the ability to change the past so that she could prevent her mother's death, but then revealed that now her father was dead instead, and promptly took away the ability. Evil as always, Freddy proved just as monstrous on the small screen as on the big screen.
- Halloween Horror Nights' "Freddy vs. Jason": Freddy Krueger proves just as sadistic and vile as ever. A serial child killer in life, Freddy continued the murder and torture of children far after his death, including eating one alive. Resurrecting Jason Voorhees and tricking him into spreading as much death as possible, Freddy terrorizes both Crystal Lake and Elm Street, including gouging the eyes from a young girl. When Jason becomes too unruly for Freddy to control, Freddy attempts to kill him and send him back to Hell, even succeeding in one of the attraction's endings.
