I’m barely 5’5” and there are people towering over me in a packed elevator. Security guards, the creator of the Freddy glove to be used for the photo ops, Anders Eriksen, Mrs. Nancy Englund, special effects artist Robert Kurtzman, and THE Freddy Krueger and right in the middle of all these people: “little old” me! Could this moment be more surreal?! How the hell did I end up in an elevator with one of the most famous movie monsters of all time!?
This was Flashback Weekend in Chicago but it was a personal flashback for me as well. Not only did I get to spend time with Robert Englund, but I was also working with the famous and talented, special effects artist, Robert Kurtzman. We both came from the small town of Crestline, Ohio; a town that seems to stay the same year after year. You graduate with the same kids that you start kindergarten with. Robert “Bobby” Kurtzman was in the class behind me so we really didn’t start having classes together until high school. By my senior year, we were friends.
Nothing, not any of the conversations could have prepared me for the most mind-blowing weekend I had ever experienced!
The presidential suite of the hotel was reserved for the application. The makeup was set on a long counter backed by a smoky mirror and prosthetics were pinned onto the Robert Englund bust. Cameras, lights and a chair for him were in place. I played it cool, but I was truly anxious to get started. Once Robert Englund came in and greeted Bob Kurtzman, all that went away.
Mr. Englund.
The man is smooth and personable. He’s one of those people that every one notices has entered a room. Introductions were made all around and after talking with Kurtzman for a few private moments. Robert Englund sat in the director style chair for the process to begin. You could hear a pin drop as we all held out breath for what was, we all felt, a momentous occasion. Can you imagine if you sat in on the last time that Lon Chaney created one of his last magical transformations? Maybe the last time that Jack Peirce turned Boris Karloff into Frankenstein!? And of course, there’s the infamous Dick Smith. Without whom most people in the special effects business today would not be where they are due to his influences. Can you imagine watching him perform his final artistry?
This may seem that I’m taking it to the extreme but I can guarantee that there is not a person in that room that day that will not tell the story of what they watched and how they felt for the rest of their lives. How throughout the two and a half hours of application, Robert Englund engaged us all with stories of movie sets, actors, producers and fans. There wasn’t a moment while he was speaking where the people present weren’t enraptured by his enchanting story telling skills.
When he would take a break from talking, the mood in the room was so intense you could slice it. We all felt as if we couldn’t breathe. No one wanted to say anything and ruin the mood.
During the application, you could see that Bob Kurtzman was “in the zone”. He later told me that he didn’t even realize how many people or who was even in the room. He moved from one piece of prosthetic to the next with mastery and applied each with precision. Everything he did was fluid as he went from one piece to another, covering the seams of each and then detail painting the entire surface of Robert’s head, face and neck. Lastly was the airbrushing that gave the final coloring and then the spritzing that gave the disgusting sheen that makes it all too real.
Robert Englund’s transformation was complete. We all instantly saw the changes that occurred in him as the makeup changed him into the character he played for all too well for decades. The process was internal for him along with the obvious external changes. His eyes transformed, his mannerisms slightly distorted and his voice…oh, the Freddy voice, just slipped out of him with ease.
As we left the elevator and people began spotting Freddy Krueger, the volume in the lines of people grew, excitement running like an electric current down the hallway in to the hall where the photo shoot was to take place. Freddy was finally there!
I could go on and give some details of a fabulous weekend filled with meeting the cast of Phantasm, Amanda Wyss (original Nightmare on Elm Street/Fast Times at Ridgemont High), Will Forsythe (Devil’s Rejects/Mob Doctor), Lance Henriksen (Alien films/Terminator/narrator of the Strain series), Bob Murawski (Editor of the Hurt Locker/Spiderman 2002 & 2004/Drag Me To Hell), having dinner with the Englunds, and on and on…. A weekend like this is the kind that is hard to beat in a lifetime. The stories we all have will be shared for years and the photos will last a lifetime. My greatest vision is my grandson opening Robert Kurtzman’s biography (which is currently being worked on by the author Michael Aloisi) and seeing a photo I took that day. He’ll say, “My Nana took that picture. She was there that day to see it all!”
by Marcia Mattern, Freelance photographer/videographer
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