The brand new season of Stranger Things Freddy Kruger inspiration doesn’t just spot at Robert Englund being included in the cast.
One of the most famous villains in horror movie history Freddy Kruger is the main star in the Nightmare on Elm Street movies. Robert Englund plays Victor Creel, a man blamed for the murder of his daughter and wife.
Despite no one believing him, Creel is adamant that he was under demonic control (Devil Made me Do It Case springs to mind) when the murders were commited.
Creel has been sectioned in a mental asylum and during an investigation, Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Robin (Maya Hawke) make contact with Creel and find him in a terrible situation.
It’s not just the appointment of Robert Englund into the cast that gives off the Stranger Things Freddy Krueger inspiration, oh no. In fact, a lot of this darker more horror-themed season was heavily inspired by the Nightmare on Elm Street movies.
In an interview with IGN, Stranger Things creator, writer and director Matt Duffer discussed Englund reaching out to him and his brother with an idea for a guest-starring role:
“The fact that he came to us in a season that’s so deeply inspired by the Nightmare series and by his performance especially in those movies, it felt like fate. It felt like, ‘okay, this is meant to be.'”
Creel (Robert Englund) appears in the 4th episode of the new series and whilst executive producer Shawn Levy uses The Silence of the Lambs as the main inspiration behind a certain scene he also references a homage to Krueger’s metal glove.
“There’s a closeup of [Creel] scratching his fingernails on the desk in his cell. It’s implied that he’s done it for so long that the linoleum desktop is worn away by the scrape of his fingertip.”
Villain Vecna in the series has also been compared by fans to Krueger too with its ability to attack victims through mind power and trapping them in a nightmare state.
Other references of the series to Nightmare on Elm Street include a face pushing through the wall and the character Nancy being named after Nightmare on Elm Street’s very own Nancy played by Heather Langenkamp.
Stranger Things season four, Volume I is currently streaming on Netflix with Volume II set to premiere on July 1.
