New Nightmare (1994) Freddy is not the Freddy we are familiar with. Normally doppelgangers are fictional devices that are used in conjunction with sympathetic characters. I think it is a tribute to Robert Englund that even under the make-up he can make a slight variation on his most famous role noticeable. This Freddy isn’t a lurching twisted ghost. He isn’t a dark comedian. He’s much closer to the original Nightmare on Elm St. (1984) incarnation. He’s surer of himself in his physicality. What tiny bit of humanity Freddy possessed has fallen away, because this Freddy was never human
Visually, he appears as someone who has an understanding of what Freddy Krueger is supposed to look like, but is one step removed. This Freddy isn’t ragged and dirty. His clothes aren’t torn. Interestingly, he isn’t burned. It is more like his skin is tearing away as something underneath is pushing through, which is, in fact, what is happening. The demon that is contained by the fiction of Freddy Krueger is emerging, this is reflected in Freddy’s normally human eyes, which are now strangely light. Freddy’s most famous feature, his claw, is now organic rather than manufactured and features an additional thumb blade.
Freddy isn’t Freddy but his aim is the same: Kill Nancy…
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