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40 Years of “A Nightmare On Elm Street”: How Freddy Changed The Game In The 80s and Beyond

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The year was 1984.  The very first commercial for the revolutionary Apple Computer premiered at the beginning of the year, foreshadowing an irreversible change in the way we live for an entire generation. While one can argue this may very well be, the most significant moment in ’84, (or hell an entire decade), most horror fans may dispute that. 40 years ago, one of horror’s biggest and influential icons was born from the mind of the late Wes Craven-Freddy Krueger. Robert Englund gave him a body, Craven gave him the brain- see what I did there- and unleashed Freddy Mania unto the generation that became the golden era for Slasher movies; and shows no signs of slowing up all these years later.

While I can’t speak for every single child of the ’80s, Freddy Fever rose high and rampant over the course of a decade, introducing an entire generation to the horror genre due to Springwood’s Slasher popularity. Nancy said it best, “Every kid knows who he is. He’s like Santa Claus.” 

And even celebrated much more so by the horror fandom than the generous, jolly ol’ dude. With on-screen heroes emerging in the decade like Indiana Jones, Rambo, and pretty much any Arnold Schwarzenegger film, Freddy rose to the ranks as a hero of a generation of horror movie fans by being nothing more than the ethos of pure evil-slapstick comedy added later-which only BOOSTED all the diehard FredHeads (myself included) to put him on a higher pedestal; rounding out the Holy Horror Slasher Trinity with his buddies Michael and Jason.

I mean, you’ve really made it when MTV (when it was, you know, amazing) lets you VJ and just end up doing whatever the fuck you want. That’s some star power.

And it all stemmed from an idea inspired by real-life horrific events that dated back a decade earlier.

As most of you are aware by now, Craven was enthralled by a story he came across in the LA TIMES about a family who had survived the Killing Fields in Cambodia. They made it safe and sound to the United States, but their young son was soon terrorized by horrible nightmares and was eventually found dead.

From Vulture Magazine, circa 2014:

“He told his parents he was afraid that if he slept, the thing chasing him would get him, so he tried to stay awake for days at a time. When he finally fell asleep, his parents thought this crisis was over. Then they heard screams in the middle of the night. By the time they got to him, he was dead. He died in the middle of a nightmare. Here was a youngster having a vision of a horror that everyone older was denying. That became the central line of Nightmare on Elm Street.”

All that being said, WHAT exactly had the youth of our generation so insanely captivated by, well, a brutal child killer? I can only speculate on watching Freddymania evolve throughout the ’80s, and ’90s, to today’s hardcore fan base that follows Freddy and Friends to the ends of the Earth via social media and horror conventions (I’m totally one of those people), and speaking with fellow FredHead buddies. And the answers are pretty quite simple: The children are the warriors of this horror franchise. They are the ones who recognize the evil while the adults stand around with their thumbs up their asses. THEY are the ones who stand together, (just look at Dream Warriors) and face their enemy head-on. So it’s only natural an adolescent would gravitate toward something they could possibly relate to. Society is often guilty of not listening to our youth, and A Nightmare On Elm Street made that loud and clear, folks.

Another reason, and this is personally true in my case being a female, is that each of the NOES films gave us the absolute, most ass-kicking heroines that any young girl would be proud to look up to. First off, let’s just get this right out of the way- Nancy is the goddamn Queen. Even though it was quite clear that she was slowly getting edgier as the film progressed- to be fair she was working on a week’s worth of almost no sleep while Fred was trying to murder her– she really had the most logical and sturdy head out of EVERYONE in that entire film. Including her parents. Not to mention, she went full Rambo on Krueger’s ass. I’m not going to sit here and try to argue how she managed to set all those booby traps, fall asleep, and capture Freddy all in twenty minutes of film time. Let’s just appreciate the fact that this girl went balls to the wall, going as far as tackling her predator to the ground WWF style in one giant FUCK YOU to his face. And then she turns her back on him and calls him “shit”.

Goddamn. GIRL FUCKING POWER.

35 Years of Freddy: A Clawed Imprint On An Entire Generation

Prior to Heather Langenkamp’s debut as a horror heroine, there really hadn’t been too many “final girls” who actually used their wit and a bit of critical thinking to overcome danger. Sydney Prescott said it best, “Some stupid killer stalking some big-breasted girl who can’t act who is always running up the stairs when she should be running out the front door.” Ironically, another character of Wes Craven-which is a big reason why I adore him and the strength he gave his female heroes.

The stupid girl trope in horror movies had always really bothered me until I got a dose of Nancy. The only other final girl that came remotely close to being a full-on badass that any young girl would admire prior to NOES, is Amy Steel’s Ginny from Friday the 13th Part 2. Nancy is Ginny turned all the up. And I respect the fuck out of it. We finally had someone willing to fight back with both her mind and skills she obtained. The strong female presence would continue throughout the franchise, and personally, I really think it made other horror films and franchises really think twice about the dumb girl victim angle. Post 1984, the main female characters in BOTH Friday the 13th and Halloween, respectfully, had a bit more fight in them. Think of Megan from Jason Lives, or Rachel from Halloween 4 who helped break the cycle. We can thank Nancy for that.

If someone wants to chime in about Jamie Lee Curtis, don’t make me remind you that just screamed her way through the first one until Loomis saved her ass; and then again in the sequel. A sequel where she literally laid in a parking lot where help was 10 feet away and waited to call out until they were gone.

I fucking love these movies to death, but I can never get past the stupidity of that.

Last but not least, A Nightmare On Elm Street has always been seen by me as a “comfort horror film”.  Over the years, I’ve written several articles on how horror films actually soothe my anxiety- And the NOES films are exactly that for me. Comfort in times of stress and the harsh realities of the real world. I refer to films like these in a term I coined, “FANTASTICAL HORROR”. Films like Halloween and Friday the 13th (only the first, after that they became FANTASTICAL), were very much real to me. THAT SHIT COULD ACTUALLY HAPPEN. It’s very plausible an escaped lunatic could go on a killing spree or a deranged childless mother going apeshit on a group of kids. With NOES, mehhhhhhhhh, highly doubt a burnt-faced demon is gonna kill me in my dreams. This is not to say that one could never die in their sleep, or to take away the fact that the movie is really terrifying in other aspects. But, it’s not realistic to me. And that’s ok! In times of real-world tragedies, shitty adult issues, and when the world seems so ugly that you want to pack up and move to Mars, Freddy, and the gang are here to take us to Dream Land. To a place that takes us out of reality and into the world of Fantastical Horror.

You know, kinda like Harry Potter but cooler. Don’t you Hogwarts fans @ me.

Happy 40th anniversary, Freddy and the gang. And to all my fellow sons and daughters of 100 maniacs who keep the fandom of this movie as strong as ever. We are all his children now and forever.

35 Years of Freddy: A Clawed Imprint On An Entire Generation

On a last note for all you Fred Heads, make sure you grab the latest revised edition of “NEVER SLEEP AGAIN” that has all new information about the making of the movie via the cast and crew! The book releases on November 9th, 2024 and you can grab it here on Amazon!

Horror Nostalgia

That One Time Horror Icons Got Together For A People Magazine Photoshoot in 1988

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Image: Bloody Disgusting

To be a horror fan, and what’s more, a horror slasher fanatic in the year 1988 was probably peak orgasms for genre enthusiasts, and we had more than material in that year alone to make every one of us cream our jeans. Classics like THEY LIVE, CHILD’S PLAY, and KILLER KLOWNS IN OUTER SPACE touched just the tip of the iceberg in the massive slew of horror films we got this year; including sequels to the unholy trinity of the horror slashers-Jason, Freddy, and Michael. So it was only appropriate, and damn right of them, for People Magazine to give these guys their due credit with a special spread and photoshoot honoring horror’s greatest icons.

Bringing together for the first time Robert Englund (Freddy), Kane Hodder (Jason), George P. Wilbur (Michael- HALLOWEEN 4), and Bob Elmore (Leatherface- TCM 2) like this is not something we’ve seen before, and never will again in the light of Wilbur’s passing in 2023; and it’s just beautiful.

The article in People that banded together the foursome of fear was unleashed on newsstands on November 7th, 1988, with a cute picture of Baby Jessica on the cover (remember that debacle)? That kid went through more trauma than any of these bad boys could give her so why not, eh? And with the releases of HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 4: THE DREAM MASTER, and FRIDAY THE 13th PART VII: THE NEW BLOOD dominating the horror game in 1988, it was time for horror fans to truly celebrate as these homicidal maniacs were finally to be taken seriously as major influences in the genre and pop culture fandom as a whole. It really was a major win for us as only a few years prior, the MSM ran countless stories, and news pieces about how horror films were trash and led to violent teenagers. Just another arm of the whole Satanic Panic bullshit that needed to be laid to rest. And the fact these iconic characters and their legacies are even stronger today than it was over 35 years ago, is a testament of the power the four horsemen of the slasher films have on our dark, corroded hearts.

So let’s take a look at what PEOPLE had to say about our boys, huh?!

They’re the reason that Hollywood accountants sleep well at night and American teens don’t. Averaging 20 victims per outing, these Hollywood horror hounds have laid a trail of death over a quarter-mile long (assuming a 5-foot skull-to-toe-tag span per corpse). The box office take from their combined 17 monstrous flicks has topped a bloody $500 million. So, for Halloween, it seemed ghoulishly appropriate that Jason, Freddy, Michael and Leather-face, the peerless princes of the pathological, gather to compare notes.

Jason Voorhees (Kane Hodder, 33), the hockey-masked murderer of the Friday the 13th movies, which have grossed $172.5 million to date, groans about his teenage telekinetic adversary in Friday Part VII. “I chase her out onto the porch, and she causes the entire front of the house and the roof to collapse. About 700 pounds fell right on my head,” he moans. “Kind of rang my bell.”

George P. Wilbur, 46, the new endoskeleton beneath the other masked maniac, Michael Myers of the Halloween series ($168 million), is not to be outdone. Myers has just emerged from a 10-year coma to launch more mayhem in the new Halloween 4, and Wilbur is trying to number his latest cache of victims. “Oh, it’s countless,” he says despairingly. “A minimum of 15. I’ve got a massive body count on this one.”

Resting on the 45-inch blade of his insatiable chainsaw, Leatherface (Bob Elmore, 35) reminisces about filming the first sequel to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre($100 million) in 1986. “It was 170°,” he moans. “But I destroyed a Mercedes, killed lots of people and cut a guy’s head off. So that was real nice.”

Freddy Krueger (the recently wed Robert Englund), 39, is the only actor here to have played his fiendish character in every sequel of A Nightmare on Elm Street I through 4, which have grossed $148 million. Now star of the new TV series Freddy’s Nightmares, he looks undead on his feet per usual. The char-grilled “bastard son of a hundred maniacs” is lazily skewering apple slices on his razor fingers. Sneering in perfect Freddy fashion and baring his rotting fangs, he raises his wineglass and hisses a toast: “This blood’s for you, sucker.”

Uh, thanks, Freddy, and Happy Halloween, guys.

I’m pretty sure we won’t ever see something that fucking cool again.

Horror Nostalgia

{WATCH} Give Yourself a Halloween Treat and Revisit Freddy’s Nightmares Halloween Special!

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Ahh. Freddy’s Nightmares– the Nightmare on Elm Street primetime series that starred Robert Englund in all his primetime bitch glory as Freddy. Who, in total Crypt Keeper fashion, hosted a show focused on the residents of Springwood and their wacky as hell nightmares. I want to believe most 80s’ kids remember the short-lived, basic cable phenomenon where Krueger had risen to God-like heights of popularity. However, if you don’t even know what the hell I’m talking about, here’s a refresher:

Freddy isn’t really a part of the stories but merely serves as your horror host; a trend that had become ever so popular in this era. But yes, for most of the series, Freddy served only as the introduction with the exception of the Tobe Hooper directed pilot episode that dives into Krueger’s backstory. And of course, that amazingly cheesy intro!

Now let’s dive into season one, episode four entitled “Freddy’s Tricks and Treats”, which actually plays out like a true Nightmare on Elm Street installment with Freddy as the main character; IN A HALLOWEEN EPISODE NO LESS. Worth noting, before we dunk our balls in the murky waters’ of the boiler room, is the numerous horror movie homages throughout this glorious episode. Some dip dons a Jason hockey mask for Halloween night. There’s a very familiar-looking pumpkin mask and a scene with said Halloween prop that screams out Season of the Witch with the main character clawing at her face while wearing it. And finally, while I admit I may be looking too deep into Easter Eggs here, Freddy carving BOO onto the forehead of a stiff at the morgue is completely reminiscent of Joey’s comatose state in Dream Warriors.

Premiering on October 29th, 1988, “Freddy’s Tricks and Treats” stars a pre-Law and Order Mariska Hargitay who plays a young medical student named Marsha. Little Miss Marsha is a bookworm who dismisses the spirit of Halloween by opting to study and dissect corpses rather than party-hardy. I mean, that does sound like a pretty awesome way to spend Halloween night, so if you’re asking me I would say she’s having all the fun here.

Anyway, Marsha is feeling distracted from her studies at a college house Halloween shin-dig, so she heads to her school to spruce up on some good old-fashioned human dissection. But not before she hears the story of Springwood’s ultimate nightmare, Freddy, from the school security guard. Which opens the red and green striped Pandora box and unleashing Freddy and hell on poor Marsha. Freddy torments the young med student with visions of the death of her kind-of-a-bitch Grandmother, for which she feels responsible, driving her into complete madness. Freddy is known to be pretty good at mind-fucking his targets into submission, so yeah she loses her shit, and it’s a good time to watch.

Oh yes, there is also a VCR that records nightmares. I feel like this kooky, yet fascinating premise needs a damn movie of its own. And yep, you guessed it, Freddy has a lot of fun with this little wrench thrown in.

Well, with that being said, let’s get to it! Happy Halloween Nostalgic Nuggets!