Robert Englund
I'd rather be Vincent Price than a red-neck character actor. You can't predict what will happen.
Any film you make is a crap shoot.
When you see Robert Englund in a movie, you think he is the bad guy, but if I'm not the bad guy, and I'm supposed to just kind of fool the audience, it makes it a lot easier for whichever actor is the bad guy. So I find myself doing a lot of those, I think they're called red herring characters, faking out the audience.
The truth of it is when you get an audience to laugh and camp along with you, it's much easier to scare 'em again because they're using two sides of their emotions. It's much easier to set them up for a good cheap thrill scare again.
It's real simple - we all have nightmares, and the idea you can be in real jeopardy in them is a great gimmick. It's universal.
The roughest make-up I ever wore was for 'Phantom of the Opera' because the phantom's face was all disfigured, and he's trying to pass in public so he can attend his beloved opera. That was make-up over make-up.
I have very liberal parents. People forget that Fidel Castro was on the cover of 'Time' magazine, and the one that I remember the most - it's not necessarily my favorite - was when they dressed me as Castro when I was eight years old. I was in fatigues, camouflage hat, beard and cigar. I don't think I did that well with candy that year.
I'm a big fan of Brian De Palma's 'Sisters,' and I also love 'Let The Right One In.'
We were having a sleepover when I was eight or nine, and we all got to stay up late and watch the original 'Frankenstein.' It was uncensored, so as a child, I saw the scene where he throws the little girl into the lake, and that freaked me out. Though not as much as when he hangs the hunchback.
Horror does better when it's bubbling under. It's a niche. It doesn't like the limelight.
I did a lot of stuff before I became known for horror. I did a lot of small films in the '70s, in all kinds of styles. I worked with all kinds of people when I was just starting out: I was incredibly lucky.
While I still do a lot of horror, it doesn't feel to me like I'm repeating myself. I like to stay interested. I'm kind of turning into one of those elder statesmen, like a Vincent Price or a Donald Pleasence. I like to think of myself alongside those guys.
Fear has been good to yours truly.
The technologies of convenience are making our sphere of exploration and experience smaller.
I know there's a certain love and affection for the homemade on the Internet, and I'm all for that, too, and I appreciate it in alternative music, and I appreciate it in B-movies and in Sundance, independent films.
When I was 9, I went to a birthday party. We were supposed to see a cowboy movie, but the programming got screwed up and we saw 'The Bad Seed' instead. Horrifying. For years I was frightened of girls with pigtails.Collection: Girl
I get a lot of teenagers going, 'Yo, Krueger,' and honking their horn and giving me the claw. Yeah, I'm recognized.Collection: Teenager
We have to open our minds and be ready for the changes.Collection: Mind
Everybody underestimated the universality of the concept of a nightmare or a bad dream.Collection: Dream
You have to get your hands dirty. You've got to really deliver the goods, and when you do, you can get something really special.Collection: Dirty
I love the idea that all genres can have subsets.Collection: Ideas
People actually were worried that I was going to get stereotyped as a monster after Freddy, but my God, I got stereotyped as white trash for years, the best friend for years, the redneck for years, the nerd for years and let me tell you...it's better to be a monster than to be a nerd.Collection: Redneck
I know there really is someone out there for everyone.Collection: Knows
Because I am known in the horror genre now, I try and do at least one horror movie a year for my fans, my fans have been so good to me.Collection: Horror Genre
That old rock and roll song, "looking for love in all the wrong places," it's true.Collection: Song
I think that what's happened is that there's been a rediscovery of some good old-school films and a realization that there's always a place for them. We don't have to outgrow them with the new technology and we can do them with it and we can do them without it. We shouldn't always have the demands made on us to do it.Collection: School
I have some friends that just stick to the same criteria over and over again not realizing there are lots of other kinds of people and that may be what you like. People get in that mindset and put their blinders on.Collection: People
With all the new technology, DVD's, Blu-Ray's, NetFlex, everyone has access to older movies. There is a new generation now of Freddy fans. Fathers that saw the movie originally, these guys are dads now, and they let their kids watch them.Collection: Dad
Sometimes we spend our money on something we think is gonna be great, and the titles shall remain nameless, but they're just a little disappointing.Collection: Thinking
When you see a guy flying into the air on fire, that's not me, obviously. I do all the water tricks, though.Collection: Fire
There's a lot of dark horror, and a lot of sci-fi fantasy that's great, but what gets hyped a lot the big stuff. The most expensive stuff gets hyped a lot, and I love it, don't get me wrong, but there's things that fall through the cracks.Collection: Fall
I always liked the skinny punk girls; I even loved them before punk.Collection: Girl
I'm of the opinion that you go where you're wanted.Collection: Opinion
It's hard for young people to understand when you tell them how great relationships are.Collection: People
I love the idea of comedy in horror. I think this should be allowed.Collection: Thinking
We used to take girls to scary movies all the time, I don't know about you, but that was the place we would go for dates.Collection: Girl
I do love old horror, everytime I watch Rosemary's Baby the performances just get richer and richer and more multi-layered, and I see images that are just so politically outrageous. I love it all.Collection: Baby
I liked girls with pale skin because I am a California boy, tanned and blonde hair.Collection: Girl
I'd like to see a really good kind of closeted 1950s vampire movies. The war is over, the Korean war is over, we're happy now, a little bit of Cold War paranoia ya know, and then mix it up a little bit. I just think there are so many avenues that you could do that.Collection: War
Whats great about Freddy in this is when he gets to comment and manipulate the back stories and the fears of the characters - especially with Jason.Collection: Character
If a girl comes into your arms, that's pretty romantic.Collection: Girl
If you don't invest in the characters, you don't care if they get killed. It's more fun if you know them.Collection: Fun
In a great horror movie, you've gotta have some character development and you've gotta set some of your people up and you've gotta have a little back story going. You've gotta take that time for exposition.Collection: Character
I'm kind of like a combination of a red herring and a fake-out.Collection: Fake
I'm getting older now, and though I still surf well, it's hard for me to paddle in big surf.Collection: Getting Older
I'd like to see a slasher movie set in the depression.Collection: Movie Sets
Arguably, the Venice Film Festival is the second best film festival in the world, after Cannes.Collection: Venice
There's plenty of great stuff out there. I think it's just what we do is we all spend our allowance on the thing that we're told is going to be the big event, and sometimes the big event is disappointing.Collection: Thinking
The cowboy movies is not our go-to programmer anymore, here's a horror film.Collection: Cowboy