Get Ready, Freddy!

After creating “Nightmare on Elm Street’s” monstrous Freddy Krueger, writer-director Wes Craven tells us he’s aiming for “industrial-strength evil” with his new horror-flick matinee idol. Christened Horace Pinker (and played by newcomer Mitch Pileggi), this “intense, intelligent and bald” monster man will terrorize a small city in Craven’s new shocker, “No More Mr. Nice Guy,” due out in November from Alive Films.

“He’s fascinating because even after he dies, he comes back by putting his energy into other peoples’ bodies,” explained Craven, who’s also cast aging guru Timothy Leary as a TV evangelist. “He gets into electrical systems, microwave transmitters--he even rockets through TV programs and crawls out of people’s TV sets. At another point, he takes over a 7-year-old girl’s body, who immediately starts swearing like a storm trooper.”

Craven wouldn’t discuss his falling out with New Line Cinema, “Nightmare’s” distributor, but he did compare his new monster to Freddy: “(Horace is) ferocious, absolutely ruthless and physically intimidating. You won’t see him being the jokester Freddy’s become. He has an insanely surreal wit, but he’ll never be lovable. In fact, you could say he’s pretty appalling.”

Where would Craven put Horace on a 1-to-10 scale, 10 being most frightening?

“He’s an 11.”