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Robert Englund didnt set out to be scary, but its worked out pretty well anyway.
However, all of that changed in 1983 and 1984.
Since then, Englund has largely stuck to the scary stuff.
This is a documentary series, but it seems of a piece with your horror career in many ways.
What about hostingTrue Terrorappealed to you?I like that they all began as actual news stories in newspapers.
People took it seriously.
Now, we were more superstitious back then.
The idea of precognitive dreams were taken more seriously.
And then some of these stories are absolutely verifiable and happened.
Its corruption and its a lack of respect for life.
But its also so macabre and dark and strange and it triggers one of our most primal fears.
And yet it happened all through the yellow fever and the smallpox epidemics in New Orleans.
I love those kinds of stories because theyre really true.
Some of its what-if, and some of its we-know-better-now terror, but some of its actually true terror.
Or what do you think really happened?
One of the most bizarre ones, obviously, is the one about cowboys and pterodactyls.
So what do we think they really saw?
What do you think it really was?
Were there giant buzzards?
Were there monitor lizards, or geckos, that still existed in that part of the desert back then?
And so, its that: What if?
What could that be?
Youve acted for decades now.
So, theres a bit of Rod Serling.
Theres a little dusting of Vincent Price.
When Im hosting its sort of a darker version of me.
Its the part of me that loves this stuff.
Reporting on serial killers or stuff like that.
It does intrigue me.
Its that part of my energy that I have a go at bring to the on-camera hosting.
I mean, I did embrace a bit of Rod Serling in both of them.
Your history with horror goes back well beforeA Nightmare on Elm Street.
You were in Tobe Hoopers first film afterTexas Chain Saw Massacre,Eaten Alive.
I was going to be Strother Martin or Warren Oates.
Those are the parts I was playing: the buddy, the sidekick.
And I went from being just a utility character actor to being an internationally recognized actor, overnight.
It was like a one-two punch.
Thats a class they dont teach anywhere.
But thats what Wes was trying to do.
He was trying to create his own strange folk thing.
Because Freddys also a lot about loss of innocence, so theres a real subliminal thing going on.
Teenagers, they dont intellectualize their reaction to Freddy, but he is a lot about loss of innocence.
Whats the name of the series?Nightmare on Elm Street.
Whats Elm Street?Its the street where Jack Kennedy was assassinatedin Dallas, Texas.
Our country was Mom, Dad, and apple pie.
And from the moment that they killed Jack Kennedy, we havent trusted anything.
We lost our innocence.
And thats Elm Street.
And thats the nightmare on Elm Street.
I mean part ofTrue Terror …its very American.
The difference is thatTrue Terrors not legend or myth.
Its actual stuff that was in newspapers.
Now, weve outgrown some of it.
Science disproved much of it.
Were more skeptical of a lot of it.
Were less superstitious, but it was still part of who we were, and who we are.
