Freddy Krueger’s 20 Most Terrifying Quotes From The A Nightmare On Elm Street Franchise

Freddy Krueger from the A Nightmare on Elm Street series is one of the most well-known characters from the horror genre. The character has appeared in a total of nine films since 1984 including a remake in 2010 and a TV series called Freddy’s Nightmares.

While Jackie Earle Haley was the man behind the character in the reboot, Robert Englund is mostly known for playing the role. While the remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street was mostly panned by fans and critics, the original series has a much stronger fan base. During the original eight movies starring Englund, there were several Freddy lines that have shaped the character with horrifying dark humor. Here are some of his best and most horrifying one-liners.

Update Nov. 1, 2021: Michael Meyers may have returned to the screen in the recent Halloween Kills, but, barring a failed revival in the late 2000s, it seems like A Nightmare on Elm Street’s Freddy Kreuger will be remaining firmly in the past.

That said, he’s so full of weird and often hilarious quips and quotes that fans will always have reason to re-watch the old movies. From a goofy one-liner after blowing a man’s ears off to a silly statement about meatballs on his pizza, here are even more of Kreuger’s best comments.

Freddy The Foodie

“I Love Soul Food.”

Midway through the fourth A Nightmare on Elm Street film, Alice falls asleep and dreams that she’s snuck out to see a movie. However, Kreuger sucks her into the screen, and she’s confronted by him in a decrepit diner.

The two are served a meatball pizza, and a close-up reveals that the tormented souls of Kreuger’s victims are on the meatballs. Kreuger plucks one from the pie using his iconic clawed glove and chews it down, offering up this incredibly silly remark as he does so.

Nails On A Chalkboard

 “Nice Hearing From You, Carlos!”

The final film in the original A Nightmare on Elm Street lineage, Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare has a reputation for placing an emphasis on humor, resulting in a strange tone. It’s not one of the most well-remembered films in the Freddy saga, but it did feature more than a few noteworthy lines.

After confronting a teen named Carlos in a dream, Kreuger summons a chalkboard and scrapes his claws across it, producing a noise so irritating that it blows Carlos’ head apart. Nabbing one of the ears out of the air, Freddy offers up this ridiculous one-liner.

When He’s About To Kill Tina

“This… is God.”

The original film featured one of Freddy’s most terrifying quotes because it showcased his beliefs in his own dark abilities as he stalked Tina Gray, played by Amanda Wyss, in her nightmares as he grew in power.

After Freddy terrified Tina by slicing through her sleeping gown in their first encounter, the final meeting resulted in Tina whispering “please, God” at the sight of him. Freddy whipped his clawed glove up to his face and quickly responded with this iconic quote.

When He Tries To Possess Jesse

“Kill For Me!”

The first sequel to the original 1984 horror was A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, which took place five years after the events of the first film and introduced Jesse Walsh, played by Mark Patton, as he begins to have terrible nightmares.

Freddy Krueger manages to lead Jesse to his hidden glove as he revealed his plans to possess Jesse’s body and use it to continue his killings. When Jesse threw the glove away in disgust, Freddy made his demands known.

Freddy Knows That He’s Immortal

“Sticks And Stones May Break My Bones, But Nothing Will Ever Kill Me.”

One of the traits that make Freddy such an unstoppable horror movie villain is the fact that he just keeps coming back. Even Freddy is aware of his apparent immortality, as he twisted a classic rhyme to comment on it in 1991’s Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare, the sixth film in the long-running franchise.

He then dramatically listed off the various ways his victims had tried to kill him while slicing off his own fingers. “Well, let’s see now. First, they tried burning me. Then they tried burying me. But this—this is my favorite. They even tried holy water! But I just keep on tickin’, because they promised me that.”

Freddy Is Proud of His Legacy

“My Reign of Terror Was Legendary.”

“The Springwood Slasher, that’s what they called me.” 2003’s Freddy vs. Jason starts off with a quick recap that features Robert Englund in his human serial killer form before he was burned by the vengeful parents of Springwood.

It was a dark reminder that Freddy Krueger wasn’t turned bad because of his terrible death, but that he was always a monster who preyed on those weaker than him who was sadly proud of his “reign of terror.”

The World’s Worst Spotter

“No Pain, No Gain.”

After toying with Alice in a dream, Freddie intimates that his next victim will be Debbie. Trapping Alice and her friends in a dream cycle, Kreuger then moves on to his next victim, whom he finds lifting weights.

After Debbie remarks that she “doesn’t believe” in Freddy, he bends her arms backward with the bench press bar, snapping them off at the elbows as he spouts this quip. In an utterly bizarre sequence of events, Debbie then sprouts insect-like appendages and transforms into a cockroach-like being, giving the film some distinctly Cronenbergian vibes.

Misquoting Historical Figures

“The Only Thing To Fear Is Fear Himself.”

Freddy’s one-liners aren’t always the most original, as he tends to subvert common sayings and modern lingo for his own purposes as often as he twists classic nursery rhymes, something he demonstrated again in 2003’s Freddy vs. Jason.

Freddy paraphrased Franklin D. Roosevelt’s iconic 1933 inaugural address speech as he was preparing to kill Katharine Isabelle’s Gibb Smith, though she was killed by Jason in the real world, beginning the divide that would lead to the ultimate battle between the two horror icons.

Penchant For Low-Brow One-Liners

“How’s This For A Wet Dream?”

Given Freddy Krueger’s dark backstory, a lot of his one-liners are sexually-driven. In A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, a character named Joey Crusel (Rodney Eastman) was introduced. He was mute and had a crush on one of the nurses at Westin Hills Asylum. Freddy, of course, uses that to his advantage to subdue Joey.

The character returns in A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Master, but the character doesn’t have a happy ending as he did in Dream Warriors. This time, Joey dreams that a nude model is swimming in his water bed, but, soon after, he gets pulled into the bed by Freddy, who offers this ridiculous remark.

Freddy Is A Fan of Nintendo

“Now I’m Playing With Power.”

One of the sillier installments of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise came in 1991 with Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare. Instead of relying on his darker roots, the film turns him into more of a comedic figure, with him cracking jokes for the whole movie. That being said, Freddy still has some brutal kills in the film, one of which involves a Nintendo Power Glove.

The Power Glove was released in 1989, and, while Nintendo wouldn’t let the filmmakers use the actual product, Freddy still uses a similar-looking toy and says the famous Nintendo Power catchphrase when he kills Spencer.

Freddy Has A Way With Words

“I’m Your Boyfriend Now, Nancy.”

Out of all the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, the original is still often regarded as the best of the series. Part of this is due to how dark Freddy Krueger originally was. The first film introduces his awful crimes, which makes this line all the more horrifying.

The line is delivered after Freddy kills Glen in his sleep. When Nancy unplugs her phone, it rings, and she finds Krueger on the other end of the line. Krueger says the famous line and the bottom half of Nancy’s phone turns into a tongue, which is just as iconic as the line itself.

“Wanna Suck Face?”

Throughout the Nightmare on Elm Street series, Englund has delivered some chilling one-liners when his character murders teenagers. One of these lines came in A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master. The Dream Master takes place after the events of Dream Warriors despite recasting Patricia Arquette with Tuesday Knight as Kristen Parker.

The film sees several returning characters, but it also introduces a new group of friends. One of these friends is named Sheila, played by Toy Newkirk. When it comes time for her character to die, Krueger says offers this remark before literally sucking the life out of the teenager. In the real world, though, her death was played off as an asthma attack.

A Fear of Needles

“What A Rush.”

One of Freddy Krueger’s most iconic kills came in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. One of the patients at Westin Hills Asylum was named Taryn White, played by Jennifer Rubin. Taryn was a recovering drug addict, but she got one last high as Freddy killed her.

Taryn put up a good fight against Freddy with a couple of switchblades, but she met her demise when Freddy’s fingers turn into needles. Freddy jabs Taryn with the needles in both of her arms and says this line as Taryn screams in agony.

Freddy The Hallway Monitor

“No Running in the Hallway.”

Though later films would change him into something of a laughing stock, Freddy Kreuger is a force to be reckoned with in the original A Nightmare on Elm Street movie. The vengeful spirit of a child murderer, he’s come back to torment the families of those who murdered him.

One day during class, teenager Nancy discovers an apparition of her murdered friend Tina. Following her as she’s dragged down a hallway in a body bag, Nancy accidentally runs into a student who, after a second glance, is a clawed-glove brandishing Kreuger who offers up this quote.

A Fresh Cut of Beef

“How Sweet, Fresh Meat.”

While Tuesday Knight replaced Patricia Arquette in A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, she wasn’t really in the film for that long. Instead, Lisa Wilcox’s character Alice Johnson was introduced as the new heroine. Before Freddy kills Kristen, she accidentally pulls Alice into her dream. Upon seeing Alice in the dream world, Freddy exclaims this overbearingly silly line.

Alice would turn out to be more than the average teenager, however, since she was able to defeat Freddy not once, but twice. Alice was last seen at the end of A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child, which means she is one of the few characters to survive the wrath of Fred Krueger.

Freddy Is A Fan of The Wizard of Oz

“I’ll Get You, My Pretty, And Your Little Soul, Too.”

Anybody who has seen the Nightmare on Elm Street movies knows that later sequels had a lot more comedy than the earlier films. Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare probably has the most comedy out of any of them, and the Wicked Witch of the West scene is a prime example.

For those unfamiliar with the film, the beginning of the film shows Freddy torturing John Doe in his sleep. In one scene, John is in a house that is falling from the sky. When he looks out his bedroom window, he sees Freddy in a witch’s hat riding a broomstick. As a parody to a line from The Wizard of Oz, Freddy yells out a twist on a famous line from the film. Many people reacted negatively to the film’s excess comedy, but this line was just too ridiculous to not like.

Freddy Is A Caring Father

“You’re All My Children Now.”

It is widely known in the horror community that Wes Craven didn’t want to turn A Nightmare on Elm Street into another slasher series like Friday the 13th. Despite his wishes, New Line Cinema went ahead with a sequel, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, since the original was so popular. The first sequel not only had a ton of not-so-subtle undertones, but it also had a huge plot hole since Freddy was somehow able to enter the real world.

After Freddy hops up from the ground and starts slashing teenagers, he stops and says this memorable line. Despite the film being one of the poorer installments in the series, this specific line was still one of Krueger’s most sinister ever.

“Every Town Has An Elm Street!”

Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare wasn’t a great sequel and it also wasn’t the final nightmare, as the title suggests. The film did expand on Freddy’s backstory, even including a flashback of Freddy being burned alive. It is also revealed that Krueger had a daughter named Maggie, played by Lisa Zane.

During one of Maggie’s dream sequences, Freddy is haunting her despite them not being in Springwood, Ohio. Freddy explains that it doesn’t matter where they are since, as “every town has an Elm Street.” While the movie doesn’t hold up today, the line certainly does, and it’s true that many towns in real life actually have an Elm Street.

Stalking His Prey

“Come to Freddy.”

After cornering Nancy in his boiler room in the first A Nightmare on Elm Street film, Freddy takes the opportunity to taunt her. Maliciously dragging his claws across rusted metal, Nancy cowers in a corner as Kreuger draws closer.

Freddy makes this remark as he closes in for the kill, but, thinking quickly, Nancy burns her arm on a nearby pipe, which jerks her awake. Now screaming and causing a scene in her high school classroom, Nancy discovers that she still has a burn mark on her arm, revealing that Freddy’s machinations are even more dangerous than they seem.

Freddy Is A TV Fanatic

“Welcome to Primetime, b*tch.”

Jennifer Caulfield was yet another patient at Westin Hills Psychiatric Hospital, but her death stands out a bit more than those of her friends. Jennifer tries to stay awake by watching TV, but, eventually, she dozes off, and Freddy slips in. Freddy shows up on the show Jennifer was watching and even kills Zsa Zsa Gabor before Jennifer tries to change the station.

Freddy’s head stretches through the top of the TV and two mechanical arms reach out to grab Jennifer and pull her through the screen. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors is full of memorable deaths, but Freddy’s line “welcome to prime time, b****!” is among the greatest quotes of the entire franchise.