Ahh, the days of VHS retailers’ promos. If you’re new here. you should know this stuff is my Kryptonite and you’ll see me rant and rave over this a lot- so buckle up. In case you’re not hip to what the hell a VHS screener may be, let me break it down for you:
It’s basically an early release of a VHS tape sent to video store owners that will ultimately either sway them to stock the shelves with said movie or give it a hard pass. In addition, some of these screeners would be sent to the media for review. Hard to imagine a time when critics would have to actually wait on the postman to deliver physical media as opposed to a screener email that can be obtained in under 60 seconds, eh?
In the horror genre of the 80s, there was no better salesman than that of Robert Englund pimping his Nightmare movies to Mom and Pop video shops. Freddy, or rather the TRUE Sandy Claws here, gets into the holiday spirit as a December release date approaches for the Nightmare franchise’s biggest hit yet, A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master. For Video Stores, this wasn’t really a hard sell as stated, the movie did monstrous at the box office for a Nightmare film, and was a big hit for Freddy fans alike.
However, that didn’t stop Englund from making the promotional rounds in and out of his Freddy makeup to advocate for The Dream Master! From late-night talk shows to his own MTV hour-long special, 1988 belonged to Freddy. Also, let’s not forget this was also the year Freddy’s Nightmares debuted on syndicated television!
Yes sir. Freddy was the KING of horror in ’88.
The promo begins with a few snippets of 1985’s The Santa Claus Movie but is quickly interrupted by the 1988 “Sandy Claws Movie” as Freddy dives right into pimping his product that made him a pop-culture phenomenon and why Video retailers should stock up on Dream Master.
I mean, if that 3D media lightbox insert wasn’t enough to get them to buy even if they hadn’t seen the movie, then nothing would have swayed them.
This thing is totally on my horror treasure hunt list.
Anyways, enjoy another rad VHS Retailers promo but with a horror holiday slice to the gut nuggets!
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. 35 years ago today, one of horror’s biggest icons was born from the mind of the late Wes Craven-Freddy Krueger. Robert Englund gave him a body, Craven the brain- see what I did there- and unleashed Freddy Fever unto Generation Y that shows no signs of slowing up all these years later.
Of course, there hasn’t been a relevant enough bootleg Freddy toy to catch my attention over the last 20 years. But, maybe that’s for the best, yeah?
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 of a hero of a generation of horror movie fans by being nothing more than the ethos of pure evil- well with later added slapstick comedy 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 Michal 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.
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 fanbase 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 and 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.
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”. You see, movies 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. Not to say one could never die in their sleep, or to take away the fact the movie really is 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 DreamLand. 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 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.
“Horror fans not only consume culture, they create it,” said co-founder of DieDieBooks Nick Toti, “so we wanted to create a series of books that feels very participatory.
No one’s perspective on horror movies’ is valued more than the fandom that keeps the genre alive, so a series of books diving into their own insight written by notorious boils and ghouls of the horror fan squad seems only fitting that this exists for not only us to consume, but the Horror Class as a whole.
Each book is illustrated in hauntingly perfect form by famed dark artist Andy Sciazko. The books include a deep dive on the Hooper vs. Spielberg debate surrounding Poltergeist written by author Jacob Trussell, and a primer on the nuclear apocalypse film Threads written by nuclear scholar and activist Bob Mielke. We also have a queer perspective on the controversial slasher Sleepaway Camp by BJ and Harmony Colangelo. For Universal fans, a portrait of Lon Chaney Jr.’s mental anguish during his performance in The Wolfman by Philip J Reed, and a love letter to The Love Witch written by filmmaker and editor Matt Latham.
The idea for DieDieBooks came from screenwriter Rachel Kempf, who previously worked at an erotic romance publisher. “I wasn’t a huge fan of romance, but I understand the appeal of genre writing because I love horror,” Kempf said. “It’s a genre with incredibly devoted fans, so we wanted to create our own press and connect with readers who share that love of horror.”
DIY filmmaker Nick Toti also adds, These books are not only fun to read since they draw so heavily from the authors’ own backgrounds and expertise, but will hopefully also inspire readers to chase their own horror movie obsessions and add their voices to the conversation.”
Toti and Kempf, who are married, recently relocated from Los Angeles to rural Missouri to build their horror empire DieDieMedia—a parent company that not only publishes books, but also produces horror movies/documentaries and will release its first feature in 2023.
Indie press DieDieBooks is currently raising funds on Kickstarter to publish the series. The first five books are available as perks on Kickstarter for donors to the campaign. The Kickstarter campaign will end on Oct. 31st, 2022. To make a contribution or learn moreabout the project, visit DieDieBooks on Kickstarter.
