"Robert Englund Interview"
"Killer Pad" and "A Nightmare on Elm Street"
by Tim Nasson
Publisher Wild About Movies
February 5, 2008
Whether or not you live on Elm Street, chances are, if you’re between the ages of thirty and fifty, you had many nightmares related to the street, especially in the 1980s.
Robert Englund, who made Freddy Krueger a household name, around the world, in the “A Nightmare on Elm Street” movie franchise, is not just an actor...
New on DVD, “Killer Pad,” is Robert Englund’s second directorial effort. While straight to DVD, as many sex/slasher films are, “Killer Pad” targets the same age group that the original “A Nightmare on Elm Street” did in 1985, namely, your children – if you were one of the millions of teens who made “A Nightmare on Elm Street” one of the most popular horror/slasher movie franchises of all time.
While it took Robert Englund nearly twenty years to tackle his second movie – behind the camera – (“976-EVIL” was his first, in 1989), he is already back to work as director, for the third time, in Italy, on “The Vij.”
“The Vij,” in theaters sometime in 2009, tells the story of a young priest who is lead by an evil genie to commit murder and fall in love with an old witch who is actually not what she seems.
The reason we haven’t seen more of ‘Robert Englund’ as a director, is simple, according to him.
“Directing a movie is so time consuming. There is the pre production, sometimes a whole year, Then twelve weeks of shooting, and post production. Being the director of a movie can take up a whole year and a half or more of your life. And unless I am really passionate about the project, unless I really love it, I am not going to direct it,” says Englund, via telephone from his home in Los Angeles – a day after arriving home from Sundance, and a couple of days before rushing off to Italy to direct “The Vij.”
What was so special about “Killer Pad,” so fantastic that Englund was compelled to direct the film?
“There aren’t a lot of new movies that I can just sit and watch with my nephew,” says Englund. “If you have young, especially male teenagers around sometimes you just want to pop a DVD in that caters to their humor. Gross out humor. T & A. Fart jokes. The inability to get laid easily. That’s the type of plotline 15 ½ year old boys with raging hormones want. I think of ‘Killer Pad’ as a ‘Three Lame Stooges’ meet ‘Faust.’”
Though Robert Englund can claim the title of director two years in a row, this year, he still considers himself “an actor for hire.”
And that is evidenced by the many slasher films he has leant a hand to that are currently scheduled for release this year, 2008; “Monster Slayer,” “Zombie Strippers,” (opposite Jenna Jameson), “Land of Canaan” and “Red,” which tells the story of a reclusive man (Robert Englund), who sets out for justice and redemption when three troublesome teens kill his dog for no good reason.
As for a starring role in a possible addition to the “A Nightmare On Elm Street” franchise?
“I can still play 48,” says the sixty-one year old Englund. “I always thought of Freddie as 48 and can still play that, especially under all that makeup. I would love to do another ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street,’” says Englund, reminiscing fondly.
What with New Line Cinema, the studio that gave birth to Freddy Krueger and “A Nightmare On Elm Street” being put to sleep in February of 2008, the chances of a prequel to the original story, remains up in the air.
Expect Robert Englund to star in more movies than he directs as the years pass, as each movie he appears in takes up only a couple of or three months at the most of his time.
“But I would love to direct a movie like ‘Tender Mercies.’ If something like that came along I would jump at it,” reveals Englund.
"Killer Pad" is now on DVD.
"Zombie Strippers" is in theaters April 18, 2008.
