In addition to the usual reviews and comments you would find on a horror movie blog, this is also a document of the wonderfully vast horror movie section of the video store I worked at in my youth.

Monday, November 16, 2009

25 Years of Nightmares!

Twenty five years ago today, Wes Craven’s A Nightmare On Elm Street was unleashed upon the world.


A Nightmare On Elm Street easily earns its place in my Fearsome Fifteen, by going to a place that no slasher had attempted before – your dreams. I mean, I didn’t grow up in Haddonfield and never went to summer camp, but I went to sleep EVERY NIGHT! What defense would I have against a depraved killer in my own head? The filmmakers also had limitless possibilities for unsettling set pieces as the rules of reality no longer applied. This theme had been explored earlier that year in Joseph Ruben’s Dreamscape, but Nightmare left out the heavy science-fiction elements and brought it home.



And then there was Freddy. Before his many sequels turned him into the slasher equivalent of Henny Youngman, he was a menacing figure. Fuelled by revenge, he took pleasure in making his victims suffer. So, a quarter-century on, I tip my fedora to Wes Craven and Robert Englund for all the nightmares. Here below is some schwag from the archives I dug up for the occasion. You know, I scare myself sometimes (sometimes?) with just how much shit I have stowed away because this is but a fraction.

My Halloween costume circa 1988.


That last pic is the title screen from the 1990 Nintendo game. I saw it in action at Serena’s place the other day. It’s kind of an incoherent mix of Ghosts & Goblins and Double Dragon that Freddy pops up in now and again. I could go on, but The Angry Video Game Nerd said it so much better than I.

Lastly, Robert Englund recently released a book that largely chronicles his experiences playing the knife-gloved killer. You can read my thoughts on it here.

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