For years, Fred Heads have been shouting from the eternal depths of the boiler room for the cult fan-favorite series Freddy’s Nightmares to come to streaming platforms. Now, horror streaming service SCREAMBOX has acquired the rights to the Springwood Slasher series and all 44 episodes of the Nightmare On Elm Street spinoff show will be available for the first time ever starting February 15th, 2022!
FUCK YES.
For those unfamiliar, Freddy’s Nightmares ran for two seasons from 1988 to 1990, and with Freddy at the helm of each episode acting as your horror host with each episode centering on whacky nightmare scenarios for the residents of Springwood, Ohio. The exception, of course, is the pilot episode directed by horror legend, Tobe Hooper that gave us the only true prequel of the Nightmare series where it shows Freddy (Robert Englund) in court answering for his crimes against humanity. There were a few episodes in-between that actually did feature Freddy as a character in the episode, but more often than not, he had little to do with the storyline.
One of those episodes that did in fact center around Freddy, is my personal favorite beyond the obvious amazing pilot episode is the Halloween special, “Freddy’s Tricks or Treats” that starred a pre-Law and Order Mariska Hargitay who plays a young, stuffy medical student named Marsha. For the whole breakdown on that little series golden nugget, read more here.
Screambox is available to stream on iOS, Android, Prime Video, YouTube TV, Comcast, and Screambox.com.
Welp. I guess I know what I’ll be doing come Tuesday.
A few years back, I let you guys know about Terror Vision releasing a magnificent Vinyl LP set soundtrack for Unsolved Mysteries. I bought it. It’s amazing and everything for when I blast it on my record player drowning out my neighbor’s Celine Dion bullshit. Now, folks over at the online record specialty company are at again with a complete LP soundtrack for the classic Freddy’s Nightmares– which mind you has NEVER been done before!
This big release, according to the press release emails, has been in the making long before the company was even officially a thing. So it’s a sure passion project and by the looks of these vinyl bundles, I can easily tell a lot of love, blood, and slasher guts went into this thing. And bonus, there’s even a cassette version you can buy!
The triple LP version is extremely limited to only 1000 units and contains the following:
There’s no doubt about it. Horror TV shows have come a long way from “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” and over the last decade, have become more of the norm when it comes to a variety of series’ available while browsing for that next binge. Shows like Dexter and The Walking Dead opened a can of worms that had long been forgotten, and studios have been forging full steam ahead breaking out, what it seems anyway, a new horror series on the now multitude of platforms at our disposal every few weeks.
Sure, a lot of these shows are great and all, but nothing, and I mean NOTHING compares to that introductory trip into a desolate graveyard showered with lightening strikes that led into the Crypt keeper‘s lair and a new tale every week from the undead King of puns. And I sure do miss it. Now, while I’m not a huge fan of taking something as precious as that and reworking it for a new generation, I’m not entirely against it either with the right team on board. A genuinely perfect example of such being the newly remodeled Creepshow series that transferred the creativity from several horror masterminds to one in himself, Greg Nicotaro. And it worked beautifully as the anthology turned series remained true to the horror-comic style of storytelling that Creepshow made infamous visually on the big-screen. It can be done! We just need these titles we’re about to break down to get a shot at redemption and a proper send off.
Anyways, here’s at least five nostalgic horror shows I would like to see get a much-deserved reboot.
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Hammer House of Horror
Hammer, who built its reputation on the gothic likes of Dracula and Frankenstein, turned it’s wheels onto British TV back in 1980 with 13 glorious episodes starring witches, werewolves, and even cannibals! On the bridge of a decline in Hammer horror interest, the studios fired back with a vengeance proving the style was never dead by embracing it’s powerful gothic storytelling and showcasing it on Primetime. And it worked!
As far as a reboot is concerned, I feel like this is something gothic visionary Guillermo del Toro could tackle while respecting the legacy that is the Hammer films. The director handled Scary Stories wonderfully and would love to see this happen!
EERIE, INDIANA
Eerie, Indiana, population of 16,661. A beloved cult series about a young horror fan playing Nancy Drew in his strange hometown and uncovering some wild shit deserves a goddamn comeback already! It drives me crazy that this show only lasted one season, but that was enough to brand its legacy into young horror fans clamoring for more as we head into he show’s 30th anniversary!
So how would a reboot work? Well, I believe a continuation of sorts would work with grown versions of Marshall Teller and Simon Holmes to start. However, much like with the Are You Afraid of the Dark reboot airing on Paramount, I’d like to see it grow along with us and become darker to cater to it’s original fans back in 1991. Perhaps, Marshall is now that creepy introvert locked away in his house trying to solve old mysteries. Just throwing out some ideas here.
Friday the 13th: The Series
Once you get over the fact the Friday the 13th series has absolutely ZERO to do with Jason and the Camp Crystal Lake narrative, you come to realize it’s a pretty damn good show that got cut WAY too soon before we ever got a conclusion.
With the likes of David Cronenberg and Mick Garris behind the scenes, the series which debuted in 1987, consists of an antique dealer who made a deal with the devil to sell haunted antiques bound with misfortune. However, in exchange for power, came with greed and the devil took the dealer’s life as a consequence. Now, his niece and nephew who have inherited his store, have to deal with his bullshit curse along with it. To break it, the kids have to obtain these items back and of course all hell, literally, breaks loose in attempting to do so.
Much like with Eerie, Indiana, a continuation would work with the original cast, now older and wiser as the show ended quite abruptly. Give us a real ending please!
Tales From The Crypt
A few years back, the HBO horror series was slated to be revived by M. Night Shyamalan and all systems were a go… until they weren’t anymore and it was a massive bummer to all who were looking forward to a revival of the beloved tales of terror. And I’m here to say- MAKE IT HAPPEN ALREADY.
Much like the prior mentioned Creepshow series, a new slew of tales hosted by the Crypt Keeper would be ideal; however, this is what caused the project to be shelved in the first place concerning legal rights about the character. My thought would be how about HBO take out that protruding stick up their ass and just greenlight the damn thing already. The audience is here and waiting while you buy out horrible films that tank like Wonder Woman ’84. Ugh and GAG.
Freddy’s Nightmares
Syndicated to television hot off Freddy Mania and Dream Master, Freddy’s Nightmares was a horror anthology series set in Springwood with different tales of terror; hosted by none other than Freddy (Robert Englund) himself of course. While the show itself, with the exception of the first episode, left Freddy out of the picture as far as storytelling, it was a glorious piece of nostalgic 80s’ cheese that needs to be revived once more.
If Englund can host again, and I don’t see why not other than his own personal reasons, then this show can and would be dynamite in terms of rebooting. Let’s bring in names like Ari Aster, Rob Zombie (for a fun mix-up), and André Øvredal to write and direct and we got ourselves one killer hit. Shudder, I’m looking at you to get the ball rolling here.
So what do you guys think? What are some nostalgic nuggets of horror TV history you would like to see brought back to life? Let me know in the comments and let’s blow up Shudder’s Twitter to get this idea in their heads!
Nightmare Nostalgia 