20 Things You Didn't Know About Your Favourite Horror Movies
2. Freddy Krueger's Most Iconic Line Was Improvised
In the third entry of the Nightmare On Elm Street series, Freddy Krueger takes his dream stalking crusade away from Elm Street to Westin Hills, a psychiatric hospital for the youth. One of his victims is Jennifer, an idealistic and adorable young lady who has aspirations of going to Hollywood and becoming a famous actress.
One evening as she’s watching a late night TV talk show she makes the mistake of falling asleep. Dick Cavett turns into Freddy and slices up Zsa Zsa Gabor, and that’s when it becomes pretty obvious that Jennifer is dreaming. She is drawn to the TV, then some mechanical arms burst out and grab her while Freddy’s head emerges from the top. He grins and hisses “Welcome to primetime bitch!” Which would go on to be one of the series’ most immortal lines.
As great as it was, the actual scripted line was simply, “This is it Jennifer, your big break on TV!” Rogert Englund delivered it as scripted in the first couple of takes, but then improvised, “Welcome to primetime bitch!” Director Chuck Russell decided to use both the scripted and improvised lines, editing the two together.