Nightmare on Elm Street: 10 Hidden Details About Freddy Krueger’s Costume

Hailed as one of the most influential horror films of all time, Nightmare on Elm Street proved that even when you’re sleeping, you’re not safe from the things that go bump in the night. Master of horror Wes Craven brought it to audiences in 1984, on the heels of standout franchises like Friday the 13th and Halloween. Just like Jaws kept people out of the water, Nightmare on Elm Street made people never want to fall asleep.

Though it starred a then-unknown Johnny Depp, the real star of the show was Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund). Wes Craven knew that a horror film was only as good as its villain, and Krueger was a truly diabolical one. Though he appeared in the film only sparingly, the child murderer was characterized by his haunting silhouette more than his dialogue.

The striped sweater, brown hat, scarred face, and clawed-glove are now staples of Halloween thanks to the impact of his performance and Craven’s makeup effects team. Put on a pot of black coffee and turn on your nightlight, here are 10 hidden details about Freddy Krueger’s iconic costume.

IT WAS BASED OFF A SCARY MAN WES CRAVEN ENCOUNTERED

When famous horror director Wes Craven was seven years old, he heard a man shuffling and muttering outside when he was trying to fall asleep. As he approached the window to look out, the man stopped, turned, and looked directly up to Craven’s window on the second floor of the apartment complex he lived in with his family.

The man continued to stare Craven down until he backed away from the window. After enough time had passed, he thought the man was gone, but when he approached the window again he was still there. He flashed Craven a sinister smile, and then walked towards the entrance to the apartment  building. Craven never forgot the old man in the brown felt hat and made him the inspiration for the infamous Freddy Krueger.

HIS FACE IS SUPPOSED TO LOOK LIKE PIZZA

Dave Miller was hired by Wes Craven as the special effects makeup artist in charge of making Freddy Krueger look the way he does in the film. He needed to be an old, terrifying burn victim. At first Miller was going to make his face look more melted off, but Craven wanted more scarification and muscle sinew to be visible beneath open wounds.

Miller was mulling over his task while eating some cheese and pepperoni pizza one night, pushing the toppings on his slice around with his fork, when the action suddenly made him realize how he wanted Krueger’s face to look. He went home and immediately started sketching Freddy’s face based on his dinner.

HIS FACE WASN’T A MASK

During Halloween season, you may see a lot of latex masks at costume shops of Freddy Krueger’s face, but Robert Englund never wore a mask as Freddy. Instead, he would sit in David Miller’s makeup chair as the makeup maestro spent 3 hours transforming him into the dream demon.

The Freddy Krueger full look was comprised of a neckpiece and cowl which slid over Englund’s head (think Batman without the ears), and then a series of prosthetic pieces (the forehead, cheeks, nose, and chin) were added with adhesive and blending together with makeup to form a cohesive look.

THE ORIGINAL MAKEUP WAS GOING TO LOOK EVEN MORE DISGUSTING

Horror fans would argue Freddy Krueger looks plenty gross, but originally Wes Craven wanted him to look even more disgustingly disfigured. Originally, his face was supposed to be melted off from the fire that killed him, with flesh oozing down his face, an exposed jaw, and even part of his skull missing.

David Miller, in charge of his makeup, told Craven that after studying burn victims at UCLA Medical Center, he discovered burn victims only have skin melting off after being very recently burned. He also felt that sort of effect would be too difficult to create, especially with the exposed jaw. Freddy would eventually end up looking more disgusting in later films in the series.

HIS EYES ARE ONLY GREEN IN THE FIRST FILM

Discerning fans of the film series will notice that in every film after Nightmare on Elm Street, Freddy Krueger’s eyes are a demonic red, orange, and yellow. However, in the first film, they’re green because Robert Englund didn’t wear any special contacts and kept his own eye color.

Makeup effects artist David Miller wasn’t available after the first film, so the creation of Freddy’s look fell to Kevin Yagher. Very few pieces of reference material existed from Miller’s creation, so Yagher altered a lot of Freddy’s facial structure, and decided to give him demonic eyes that mimicked the fires that ravaged his body.

IT ALL STARTED WITH ONE FINGER

Lou Carlucci, who was the special effects designer and coordinator on several of the films beginning with Nightmare on Elm Street, was charged with the task of building Freddy’s iconic glove. Wes Craven gave him a sketch of just one finger and instructed him to make a glove around it.

According to the Making of Nightmare on Elm Street, it needed to be a crude killing device, like “an old man made it in a basement”. The famous glove prop “mysteriously disappeared” after the second film, forcing Carlucci to make another version, which was used for the third and several more. The blades are tomato knives, but other incarnations were made from syringes.

HIS WEAPONS WERE MEANT TO BE ANCIENT

Though we know him as a serial killer in the first film, Freddy’s spirit is representative of an ancient demonic force. As long as there have been humans able to dream, there’s been someone like Freddy Krueger causing them to fight epic battles in them.

When it came time for Wes Craven to conceive of what sort of weapon he wanted Freddy to fight with, he decided on it being an edged weapon, as those were the most common tools found in the natural world. He combined the dexterity of the human hand with the razor-claws to create a primordial glove weapon he felt epitomized Freddy’s ancient demonic essence.

THE SWEATER WAS ROOTED IN MYTHOLOGY

As Freddy’s costume developed, taking elements from Wes Craven’s childhood (the old leering man in the brown felt hat), and his concept of the glove Freddy would wear, Craven decided he needed the sweater to represent something specifically significant.

Shapeshifting is a part of mythology that is found in all the cultures of the world, and Craven wanted Freddy’s costume to reflect that. He wanted Freddy to have the ability to transcend his physical realm, like Plastic Man whose colors are red and yellow. Craven made the sweater the two colors that are the most difficult to be processed by the human eye instead; red and dark olive green.

IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE WORN BY A MUCH OLDER ACTOR

When Wes Craven was first casting the part of Freddy Krueger, he was auditioning actors in their 60s and 70s. Unfortunately, he found that they lacked the energy levels to embody Krueger’s vitality. When he auditioned Robert Englund, though he was over three decades younger than what he was looking for, he found that Englund could convey the appropriate zeal.

Makeup effects artist David Miller was able to make him look old enough, so it was really up to Englund to bring the vibrant physicality to Krueger. He gave him the wide-legged stance of a ’30s gangster, and with the glove on, the swagger of a gunslinger. His strange way of walking and moving gave Krueger a memorable eccentricity.

THE COSTUME ONLY HAD 7 MINUTES OF SCREEN TIME

Freddy Krueger’s costume is an iconic staple of Halloween and the horror genre. Like Jason from Friday the 13th or Michael from Halloween, his costume is a terrifying purveyor of menace in Nightmare on Elm Street. And Robert Englund only wore it for seven minutes.

Knowing he had to make a big impact in a short amount of time, he took his cues from other horror monsters. One was the original Nosferatu who, despite being in a silent movie, was able to convey horror through elaborate body language. Englund worked with his physicality, as well as light and shadow to create graphic silhouettes that would resonate with audiences.