Some horror movies are so scary, even those making them get a little creeped out. Or a lot, if you ask Robert Englund, longtime Freddy Krueger actor, who was so shook by his own prosthetics in A Nightmare on Elm Street, he still has bad dreams.
As he revealed to The Guardian, one particular glance at himself all Freddy Krueger-ed up left him shaking. He’d turned the lights down in his tiny room, and when going to answer the door, caught his reflection, and got a fright. “I was waiting to be called on set and heard this banging on the door,” he remembered. “As I sat up, I saw this disfigured face looking back at me in the mirror. The shock made me jump out of my skin.”
It was only when he felt his own face again that he realised it was all a testament to the work of the makeup people. “I brought my hand up and I realised: ‘Oh my God, it’s my own reflection!’,” Englund states. “But it was such a startling moment that it still inhabits a variety of nightmares.”
One drawback of all those practical effects is having to wear them all day. I imagine many zombie movie and ghost movie stars have had moments similar to Englund, where they forget for just a second they’re caked in makeup.
Englund recently returned to terrify us with an appearance in Stranger Things, as the horrifying Victor Creel. He also starred in Netflix movie Choose or Die. He’s lending his voice to some bizarre creation next, in puppet-animated movie Abruptio, currently in post-production.
As scary as those all are for us, at least they were probably pleasant for Englund to film. Check out the best monster movies if this has you hankering for a thrill.