A nightmare of a job

The 80s might have been the worst dressed decade of all time – those who lived through it shudder at the thought of leg warmers and fingerless gloves. Along with its crimes against fashion the 80s were horrific in a more literal way – this was the decade that produced some of the greatest horror films ever made. These films featured a host of killers and psychos that went on to become pop culture and horror icons that were as beloved as they were repulsive.

Cut to the present day and we now find cinemas in the grip of remake fever, where just about every recognisable film is being dusted off and given the reimagining treatment with various degrees of success. Icons such as Michael Myers and Jason have already been retooled for modern audiences, so it is inevitable that Freddy Krueger has now been given a fresh stab at killing teenagers.

Replacing Robert Englund as the demonic Freddy is Jacky Earl Haley who last year agreed to be buried under latex to portray Krueger in the remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street, which hits cinemas this week. Haley, a former child star, recently came back from the wilderness when he won critical acclaim in the Oscar nominated Little Children and as the crazed vigilante Rorschach in last year’s superhero epic Watchmen.

It’s the latter film that people will probably most recognise him from, despite the fact that his face was covered with a mask for the majority of the film. A Nightmare sees the actor once again burying his face under a mask in order to transform him into the horribly burned killer.

Latex horrors

The hassle of spending hours having the latex applied is something the actor used to his advantage. “It started out at six and a half hours of make-up, a process which they got down to about three and a half hours and another hour to get out of it and you sit there for hour while these guys meticulously glue stuff all over your entire noggin,” he says.

“The last thing they do is put these contact lenses in your eyes and they’re oversized and they scratch and burn…it really helps to put you in the headspace of Freddy. Three hours of make-up is enough to make me want to kill anyone.”

As well as the hours spent in the make-up chair, Haley also had another  piece of the Krueger  wardrobe to contend with; the knife fingered glove, the wearing of which is something that he says was easier said than done.

“The glove went through several different designs but they decided stick to something close to what he had before but was made for my hand. It’s very articulate and fitted super well but the knives were forged from steel and they had sharp points on them. I gotta tell you, there were a lot of times when I was on the set where I was constantly trying to tuck that thing away and making sure I’m not falling on it or getting it too close to the actors .It was really tough ,” he says.

Perhaps the reason it has taken so long for A Nightmare remake to appear is because the character of Freddy is so much more complex than the blank faced killers of the other films who don’t talk and have only the most basic reasons for killing. In contrast Freddy has much more complex and horrifying motivations; he really means to kill the children of Elm Street and this is something that Haley says the remake will capitalise on.

Re-envisioning

“That’s what is kind of interesting about this re-envisioning of the film. We are paying homage to the first film in a lot of ways but I think this film is going to be a bit darker, a bit more serious and I think we are going to learn a bit more about Freddy than we had before… a little bit more about what makes him tick. It’s fascinating that what’s scary on screen has triggers in outside life, and Freddy encompasses so much of what terrifies us.”

Haley recalls that fans of the original Nightmare filled the internet with speculation about him portraying Freddy after the project was announced.  “My immediate reaction was, ‘That’s kind of cool!’  And then when the producers called and actually offered me the role, I was pretty flabbergasted.  It’s such an amazing, iconic character.  It was just an absolute honor to be offered the role.”

Haley credits his predecessor, Robert Englund, for giving the role such power and wicked humor.  “It was a very cool process for me, trying to figure out how to make Freddy my own,” Haley reveals.

“Robert did an amazing job portraying Freddy over the years.  He made him who he is.  What we’re doing with Freddy with this new approach is still trying to be true to those things that fill him with rage, and the specifics that make him the malevolent villain that he is.  But I think we’re trying to capture him in a new light that’s less jokey and, hopefully, more scary.”

Leo Stiles