The Gloves Are Off: Robert Englund Reveals His Favorite Freddy Krueger Kill

Time to rummage out that striped jumper, dust off the fedora, and reach for that rusty glove, because #FreddyKrueger is STILL haunting our nightmares.#RobertEnglund played the iconic slasher from the original #NightmareonElmStreet in 1984 right the way through to Freddy vs. Jason in 2003.

While Jackie Earle Haley took over from Englund in the box-office bomb remake in 2010, Robert will always be the definitive Freddy. Englund has reprised the role for documentaries and Comic Cons ever since, but looking back on his time as the Springwood Slasher, what was his fondest memory from the eight films as Freddy?

One, two, Freddy's coming for you.

Known for its imaginative dream world and the kills within, Elm Street is one of the most creative horror franchises out there, and that was what ultimately drew Englund to the role time and time again. With some 60 actors losing their lives to the Freddyverse, we have watched Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, and Johnny Depp all perish in a series that is more remembered for its deaths than its characters.

With Freddy clocking up so many murders in his tenure, it is clear that some ideas may have looked better on paper than screen. My personal favorite was always the death of Jennifer in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors; it involved a Zsa Zsa Gabor cameo and that classic Freddy quip, "Welcome to prime time, bitch!" While we all have our favorite series death, it appears Englund does too!

Listen up, horror fans!

The film itself is one of the worst-received in the series and features Freddy at his campest, even pulling off a Wizard of Oz impression. However, one thing that director Rachel Talalay did get right was the Looney Tunes death of Carlos Rodriguez.

Englund sat on a Q&A at Monsterpalooza in Los Angeles and the subject obviously turned to Freddy's. Speaking about the scene, Englund gushed at why Carlos got his favorite death:

"It’s such a Cronenberg head explosion. The guys loved doing that. But yeah, what I love is that it’s a real politically incorrect sequence, ya know. And I hate the fact… I know many, I don’t even know what the politically correct term is anymore… I don’t think it’s disabled anymore – special needs actors. Gosh, I work with actors that are in wheelchairs or have problems with their sight, and they don’t just want to play goody goody people all the time.

They don’t just have to be the good guy. Or the nice guy. Or the saint. Or the martyr. They want to be bad guys and villains as well. And I love the political incorrectness of that. Freddy’s an equal opportunity serial killer. He doesn’t care if you’ve got a hearing aid. He’ll get ya. That’s my favorite Freddy kill. Because of all the ramifications for it."

Away from the visceral carnage of seeing Carlos's head explode, the film wasn't afraid to kill off the kid with the disability. It was a tough subject matter to handle, especially considering that Carlos was the shelter kid who had been made deaf from his abusive childhood. As his earpiece turned into an Alien-esque face-crawler, it perfectly balanced #horror and #comedy, especially with Freddy's, "Nice hearing from ya, Carlos."

While Carlos wouldn't be my first pick, it is definitely one of the more memorable deaths from the waning years of Freddy Krueger. While Robert sticking on the melted cheese face again in a live-action film looks increasingly unlikely, after leaving behind such a legacy, maybe that it isn't a wholly bad thing. For the time being, we are still trying to wash the taste of the reboot film out of our mouths some seven years later.