12 Legendary Monster Actors You Didn’t Recognize In Other Roles – Looper

From Elm Street to Hawkins, Indiana, Robert Englund is a horror legend who continues to haunt our nightmares after all these years. Most know him for his frightening role as Freddie Kreuger in Wes Craven’s “A Nightmare on Elm Street.” In Monsterland’s “Nightmares on Elm Street: The Freddy Krueger Story,” Craven describes Freddy as “the worst of parenthood and adulthood — the dirty old man, the nasty father and the adult who wants children to die rather than help them prosper. He’s the boogey man and the worst fear of children — the adult that’s out to get them.”

After six sequels and a crossover film with “Friday the 13th’s” Jason Voorhees, it’s hard to imagine Englund without Freddy’s burns and scars, green and red sweater, and deadly glove. So when he appeared in Season 4 of “Stranger Things” as the blind prisoner Victor Creel, many fans had to do a double take.

This time Englund isn’t haunting the dreams of teens. Instead, his character Victor opens up to Hawkins teens Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Robin (Maya Hawke) about what happened the night his family was murdered. Englund makes a thoughtful connection between his two roles, telling Netflix’s Tudum, “A lot of what’s happening in ‘Stranger Things’ in these last [few] seasons, just like in ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street,’ is about the loss of innocence.” Next time you watch Season 4, Episode 4 of “Stranger Things,” you can appreciate the meta ’80s nostalgia just a little more now that you know the significance of the actor behind the character.