When people think of Freddy Krueger, some picture the boogeyman’s dark fedora hat or his tattered red and green striped sweater. But, more likely, most people will immediately think of something even more unmistakable: that glove. The four-bladed weapon instantly made its mark on audiences when movie-goers first encountered it on screen in A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, which celebrates its 30th anniversary today.
But why did director Wes Craven pick the clawed glove for Krueger (one of the greatest movie villains of all time)? Why didn’t he end up with some other apparatus?
In the below clip from the AFI Archives, Craven explains that the glove’s genesis was inspired by primal man, the claws of a certain animal and even our own primitive fears.
