10 Times Two Actors Perfectly Executed The Same Character

10. Freddy Krueger - Robert Englund & Jackie Earle Haley

Writer and director Wes Craven changed the face of the horror genre when he created A Nightmare On Elm Street in 1984 and unleashed the terrifying antagonist Freddy Krueger onto an unsuspecting audience. The movie broke new ground with the character, a razor-fingered demon who stalks his teenage victims in a place they have no escape from… their dreams. The concept devised by Craven allowed for endless creative possibilities for what the killer was capable of doing. And in Robert Englund, he found the perfect actor to take on the despicable role.

Englund would play Freddy in seven sequel movies and truly made the role his own, although it is fair to say that over time the quality of the films drastically diminished. The character of Freddy would eventually become a parody of himself, leaning heavily on humour over horror. Then, the unimaginable happened when the series was rebooted by director Samuel Bayer, with a new version of A Nightmare On Elm Street in 2010 and with Jackie Earle Haley stepping up to play Krueger.

The movie was almost completely discounted by the franchise's fickle fanbase. However, despite this Haley would actually go on to create an entirely acceptable version of Freddy; moving the character back into darker waters, foregoing the humour and providing a version that was about as good as you could hope for, without Robert Englund himself donning the dirty striped jumper and knife-fingered glove.