Every Halloween I make a point to watch the very first horror movie I ever saw, “A Nightmare on Elm Street.” And I don’t think my early exposure to the still brilliant slasher pic has anything to do with it being my favorite. There is just something undeniably chilling about the concept of dream killer Freddy Krueger. But he’d be just another striped sweater sucker were it not for Robert Englund filling him with the kind of white hot fear that kept generations of children wide awake.
Now, on the 25th anniversary of that landmark movie Robert is starring in “Fear Clinic,” a new webseries on FearNET that promises to give you a whole new set of nightmares. But instead of dreams coming to life, it’s your deepest, darkest, phobias. I had the extreme honor (seriously, I checked one thing off my bucket list here kids) of speaking with Robert about his greatest fear, got his thoughts on the upcoming “Elm Street” reboot and discovered which scary movie made the horror legend afraid to go to sleep!
PopWrap: Were you actively looking for an web series?
Robert Englund: I had read a feature script called “Fear Chamber” and I loved it. Then FearNet came on board and asked us if we could reconfigure it as a webseries. Of course the challenge there is truncating the information episodically. So we made it equal parts “Girl, Interrupted,” “One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest” and “Altered States.”
PW: Plus the cast is like a horror fans wet dream!
Robert: Yes, you’ve got Danielle Harris and Kane Hodder from “Halloween” and Lisa Wilcox from “Nightmare” — she’s like my beautiful Nurse Ratched…but she’s kind of like the Angel of Death. Then there is Lucas Till from the Miley Cyrus movie — he looks like he stepped right out of a Norman Rockwell painting!
PW: And each of them has their own “fear” which truthfully, are brought to life in a totally terrifying way!
Robert: We wanted to give some real nasty stuff for the genre fans, so we had to budget the storytelling to accommodate that. We’ve got bugs pouring out of girls’ stomach, hydophobia nightmares and a great claustrophobia sequence that involves gang members coming out of a grave. I’m a little partial to that one.
PW: The chamber where Dr. Andover treats the patients is enough to make anyone feel claustrophobic!
Robert:Part of the concept is that there’s a residue from the successful treatments, where the patient is cured of their fear, that is left in the machine. And it begins to accumulate and manifest itself as an evil entity. We’ve already got another 15 nasty phobias written that we’re just dying to get out there if people like this series.
PW: If Robert were to be locked in Dr. Andover’s chamber, what fear would you have to face?
Robert: Snakes. It stems from a movie I saw as a child, “The Naked and the Dead.” I couldn’t have been more than 8-years-old and it was about this GI that’s bitten by a lime green snake. He thrashes about with poison coming out of his eyes, ears, nose and mouth — he screams in agony before dying in his buddies’ arms. That just imprinted itself on me.
PW: But you’ve worked with snakes?
Robert: Years later. Yes, I did “Python,” which perfected the technology from Jennifer Lopez’s “Anaconda.” I was the mad scientist again and had to use a real snake. That was a baby python, really little, so I fell in love with that one. But I worked with an albino one in one of the “Nightmare” movies that was nasty. That freaked me out.
PW: Speaking of, I’m dying to know your thoughts on the upcoming “Elm Street” reboot!
Robert: I’m looking forward to it! Looking at the cast, I have to say it’s a really interesting group of actors. I’m a big fan of Clancy Brown and love Connie Britton on “Friday Night Lights.” Her playing Nancy’s mother is great casting.
PW: What about Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy?
Robert: I’ve been a fan of his since “Breaking Away.” I’ve paid attention to him over the years. I’ve always conceived Freddy as a little wirey — like a junkyard dog. And I know that Jackie’s smaller than I am but I think he brings that wound tight physicality naturally to the part. So I’m really curious and interested.
PW: Did they ask you to cameo?
Robert: I think they want to stand on their own. I always thought it would be fun to play one of the dream experts. I’ve got a nice white beard going now for “Fear Clinic,” so it would be cool to do a hip in-joke, because I’m the original Freddy. But I’m excited because if there was ever a remake that could really use the new technology available, I think it’s “Nightmare.”
PW: How so?
Robert: Well, one of the things I remember from the first “Elm Street” is that we ran out of money. I always regretted that we didn’t have as much money for the dream sequences on the first film that we didn on the sequels. And the first film really had those dreamy, surreal sequences. I’m curious to see what they do — hopefully it’s not a rubber stamp of the original.
PW: What horror movie has impressed you the most recently?
Robert: “Let the Right One In.” I just read the source material too and it’s even better, which tends to be the case. The movie is the essence of the book, but that book is the nastiest, most frightening, most brilliant reconceived take on a genre that I’ve ever seen. Speaking of vampires, I also really liked “30 Days of Night.” There is a terrific sequence where they’re all trapped in an attic — it takes a lot to scare me these days and that really got to me.
PW: You just released “Hollywood Monster: A Walk Down Elm Street with the Man of Your Dreams.” What made you want to write an autobiography?
Robert: Originally I saw it as a valentine to my fans who had been so loyal and supportive, so I filled it with gossip and spent a lot of time talking about all my horror movies, particularly “Nightmare.” But I’d done 15 TV series before I donned the Freddy makeup — so I wanted those stories to get out.
PW: So it’s juicy?
Robert: It’s a great Hollywood memoir. I worked with people who told tales outside of school. I spent 8 weeks in a Winnebago with Henry Fonda, so I know Bette Davis stories, Jimmy Stewart stories, Henry Fonda stories. Then I worked with Barbara Streisand, Burt Reynolds, Charles Bronson and other icons at the height of their fame. So I go through all that. I’ve seen people starting out, like Johnny Depp, stars on the way up and stars on the way out.
PW: So lets say Hollywood wants to make a movie out of it — who should play you?
Robert: It’s a pretty simple biography, I don’t see anyone wanting to do a “Man of a Thousand Faces”-style Lon Chaney movie, but…hmm. You know who I really like, the guy who played T-bag on “Prison Break.” [Robert Knepper] is real interesting. I could see him doing a great version of me.
PW: If there’s one message fans should take from your autobiography, what would it be?
Robert: Stick to your guns and your dreams can manifest in such different ways than you were expecting. I want people to know that there are so many options out there. I never would have thought that I’d be my generations’ Vincent Price, but it’s given me longevity and kept me young. This has been a great ride and it’s still going!
“Fear Clinic: Episode One” is now available on FearNET while Robert’s book can be purchased here!