A Nightmare On Elm Street stands the test of time, and puts Freddy Krueger front and center with other prominent horror villains from massive slasher franchises. He may not be the traditional masked killer, but he’s effective, funny, plus he has unique abilities and an interesting weapon which has aided in his notoriety and practically unlimited marketing potential since the 1980s.
After eight films in the original Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, Robert Englund has cemented the role and made it his own, despite an admirable attempt by Jackie Earle Haley to fill his shoes in the 2010 reboot from director Samuel Bayer. While his iconic sweater and bladed glove were the same, Haley’s performance lacked the comedic nuance that Englund made just as much a staple to the role as the rest of Krueger’s abilities.
Freddy Krueger was a breath of fresh air to the slasher sub-genre in a lot of ways, and part of that was due to his unique kill styles, supernatural abilities, the franchise’s dedication to embracing camp and humor, and his very unique weapon, which has an interesting history and has changed ever-s0-slightly throughout the franchise.
A Nightmare On Elm Street: Freddy’s Glove History & Powers
Originally, director and franchise creator Wes Craven got the inspiration for Freddy’s iconic bladed glove from his cat after he watched it claw the side of his couch. This denotes some of the playful humor behind the slasher’s weapon of choice. It’s not Freddy’s only weapon, as he’s used numerous items throughout the series to murder people, but it’s the one he leans on most heavily both to seal the deal and taunt victims before they fall prey to his lethal advances. In the original film series, Freddy made the glove himself before he was burned to death by the parents of Springwood, who had discovered his predatory ways concerning their children. He made the glove out of sheet metal, pipes, fishing knives, rivets, and an old leather work glove; it was made with the intention of killing.
In the original A Nightmare on Elm Street, the glove had fourteen parts in total: the glove itself, the backplate, four fingers, four fingertips, and four blades. Part of the glove’s creation was seen in the original film; the thumb wasn’t part of the original model. In A New Nightmare, the glove was upgraded to include five blades. In the 2010 reboot, the glove was re-designed as a hybrid of the original glove and the New Nightmare version; it didn’t have the blade on the glove and didn’t appear as organic, meaning that it was more clean and streamlined instead of having a roughly hewn, homemade appearance. In his Mortal Kombat appearance, he made a glove for the second hand, which was closer to the glove used in the remake. The glove has changed slightly throughout the original film series, with minute differences in color and style.
As far as powers go, the glove is unique because it allows Freddy to kill people in the dream world and ensure they die in real life. This is considered to be an off-set of his dream world powers; Freddy is considered to be a dream demon, and the glove was meant to be his real-world weapon before he perished, so it carried over to serve him in the afterlife. Typically, the glove doesn’t have a wide array of unique abilities beyond this, however, in Dream Warriors, Freddy transformed the knives on his glove to hypodermic needles and syringes, which implies he can change its physical form at will. In New Nightmare, the glove was more of an extension of his arm with blades that grew from his bones and included exposed muscle and veins. Freddy Krueger’s glove is just as much a part of the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise as the killer himself.
Next: Nightmare On Elm Street’s Freddy Almost Killed Actor Robert Englund
