1, 2, Freddy's coming for you...
3, 4, Lock Your Door...
5, 6, Grab a Crucifix...
7, 8, Better Stay Up Late...
9, 10, Never Sleep Again...
May 7th see's the return of one of the true horror icons. Freddy Krueger returns in the 'Re-Boot' of A Nightmare on Elm St. It was 1984 and a little known director who saw a story in the news around children dying in their sleep, coupled with a fright Wes Craven got when he was a young lad, when a drifter in a fedora peered through his window, which stuck with him especially in his nightmares until he created Freddy Kruger (reportedly named aftter a child who bullied him at school). It spawned 8 sequels and a rise in sales for Halloween for gloves with plastic claws and not for Wolverine enthusiasts either.
Freddy Krueger (Chillingly played by Robert Englund) was the stuff of nightmares, a child murderer who was burnt alive by local parents of the sleepy town of Springwood after he was acquitted on a technicality. The only problem was that Freddy may have died, but now comes back to haunt the children of his killers in their dreams. If Freddy killed them in their dreams then they also died in the real world. The only way to kill Freddy was to pull him into the real world and kill him there as he would die 'for good' if they managed it.
Freddy's first target was Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp) who he repeatedly went after throughout the first & third films. Then in the sequels that spawned after these he turned his attention to the 'Last of the Elm St. children' who managed to come out on top. There was also a unsuccesful TV series entitled Freddy's Nightmares and a spin off single entitled 'Are your eady for Freddy?' which was performed by Robert Englund and 90's rappers The Fat Boys and accompanied the release of Elm St. 4.
But for now we will now we will take a look back at the films that created the horror icon Freddy Krueger..
A Nightmare on Elm St. (1984)
The film that started it all and a truly scary horror epic. Nancy Thompson is having nightmares and she soon discovers that her friends are too, only one by one they are all starting to end up dead. Nancy discovers along the way that a group of parents killed Freddy who was a child murderer after he escapes prison, however the now undead Freddy has come back to claim his last victims. Featuring John Saxon (Enter the Dragon) as nancy's father and a first feature role for future Superstar Johnny Depp, who possibly gets the most bloody death of the entire series, this was a masterclass in how to scare the living daylights out of people and make a great film at the same time.
Elm St. 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985)
A year later and they went from the best of the series to the worst as the story spiralled off at a tangent and dabbled in possesion, which didn't work out too well. It's now 5 years after the events of the first film and a new kid on the block moves into Elm St. Jesse Walsh (Mark Patton) is haunted by visions of Freddy before he is ultimately possesed by Freddy who continues his murderous spree through him. Jesse finally confronts the spirit of Freddy with the help of his girlfriend (Kim Meyers) before he is once again banished. This is widely considered the worst of the Elm St. movies as it is completely out of step with the rest of the films. Unless your a completist this is one to avoid.
Elm St. 3: Dream Warriors (1987)
Dream Warriors sees the final return of Nancy to the Elm St. series in this outing. The last of the Elm St. children are now in Western Hills pyschiatric ward, all suffering with reoccuring nightmares of the dream stalker. Nancy comes to the hospital as an intern and soon discovers that Freddy is the one killing them. She helps all the children discover their dream powers and take on Freddy. With the help of Dr Craig Gordon, who unwittingly comes across the spirit of Amanda Krueger and is instructed to bury Freddy's remain on hallowed ground. Afeat he achieves, but not before nancy is killed by Freddy. Dream Warriors saw the brief return of John Saxon as well as featuring a dog urinating fire and the grisliest of deaths with the human puppet, where Freddy, uses his victims veins for strings was a return to form of sorts although the warrior powers was the start of the more comic book aspects of the series to appear. It was also the film where we discover that Freddy is the 'Bastard son of a 1000 maniacs'.
Elm St. 4 The Dream Master (1988)
At this point the series drifted away from 'scary horror' and into a more 'cool horror' as Freddy by this point was more of an anti hero as the series had become increasingly popular. By now Englund had hit his stride as Krueger and was now dropping in various humuorous barbs before despatching his latest victim. This time the latest survivors from the last film led in part by Kristen return to face Freddy once again as he is unwittingly ressurected beyond the grave. Kirsten ends up passing the powers of the other (Now dead) dream warriors to Alice before Kirsten herslef becomes one of Frddy's victims. Alice then faces off against Freddy where she releases the souls that Freddy has taken and become part of his body to the point where as the souls escape, Freddy explodes. The series started to tone down te real gore and became almost like a violent horror version of Police Acdemy at this point. The effects were top notch however Freddy was now out of the shadows and his face was less disfugured and more like a well cooked pizza.
Elm St. 5 The Dream Child (1989)
The next sequel followed on from the ending of the last one and carried on with Alice as Freddy's opponent. Freddy discovering that he can't beat the Dream Master decides on achange of tack and starts to inhabit the dreams of Alice's unborn child Jacob. He is hoping to use the Child to be reborn and start a new reign of terror, however the spirit of Kruegers mother Amanda once again returns to reveal how she was raped hundreds of times and convinces jacob to use the powers that Freddy has given him against him and eventually Alice and Jacob once agin in the dream world defeat Freddy one more time. This film tried to delve into the mythos of Freddy a bit more and also saw the return to the series the original make up artist David Millar to try and get Freddy looking meaner again, it didn't work too well, but it still made a ton of money which allowed...
Freddy's Dead - The Final Nightmare (1991)
The series was starting to wane by this point thus the ridiculous plot. Freddy is down to one last remaining Elm St. survivor and to continue his reign of terror he needs to leave Elm St. a feat he cannot do as he cannot cross the border. He uses the last of the Elm St. children John to find his daughter who he didn't previously know about to bring her back to Elm St. so he can posses her body and move on to new Elm St's. Standing in his way this time is Maggie who is treating John (Who lost his memory after being projected out of Elm St by Freddy) and his daughter Katherine. Using new dream techniques maggie discovers more of Freddy's past, Child Abuse, Creulty to animals, killing his wife and finally the point where the dream demons offered him eternal life. Once again Freddy is dragged out of the dream world to be laid to rest one more time (This time with a pipe bomb to the chest!). This was billed as the big blow off to the series and as such featured many cameos with stars such as Roseanne Barr, Tom Arnold, Alice Cooper and a returning Johnny Depp. If it had been the last of the series it would have been a great ending to a very profitable series however...
Wes Craven's A New Nightmare (1994)
This time the series took a slightly different tack and used a fictional reality to move the story on. Wes Craven and the returning Langenkamp, Saxon and Englund all play themselves as the spirit of the character of Freddy tries to escape into the real world. Spirit of Freddy kidnaps Heather's son as he sees her as 'Nancy' his first killer. Heather pursues SoF into the dream world where she and her son battle Freddy and put him into a furnace where the spirit is destroyed once and for all. This was a real departure and somewhat of an experiment on how Craven could twist the legend without returning to the same old and now very tired Freddy rehashes.
Freddy vs. Jason (2003)
It would be 9 more years before Robert Englund would be able to play 'ol' Pizza face' one last time. For this there had been a lot of rumours whether this would actually happen. Comic books had long been publishing 'mash ups' (Aliens Vs. Predator, Batman Vs. Superman) and many a internet forum had posed the question who would win Freddy or Jason in a battle of the horror icons. This time the story followed Freddy as he was unable to return to Springwood as the residents had now managed to supress their fear of Freddy the tool which Freddy used to return many times before. So to allow this to happen Freddy tricks Jason Vorhees into going to Springwood to create fear and panic that would allow Freddy once more to rise and take charge, however the plan backfires when after creating widespread panic, Jason refuses to stop killing the Springwood residents. Thus begins the battle between the two horror giants. By the end of the film we don't really get our answer as the last shot of the film is Jason holding Freddy'd servered head which looks to camera winks and smiles. So the debate rages on. This was a test for the studios to see if these charcters would endure over time to a new generation of movie goers. the answer was yes with a worthy $115,000,000 at the worldwide box office that a reboot of the Friday 13th franchise and now a retooling of the original Nightmare on Elm St. to be released on May 7th 2010.
The new version comes with a new Freddy this time played by Jackie Earle Haley. Fortunately the 'new' Freddy will reatain all of the originals staples such as the hat, the green and red striped jumper and of course the glove. It remains to be seen whether the film will be any good as the first critics see the film on the 29th April. Soon after that and Screen One included will unleash their thoughts on the hopefully decent reboot of what at least I think is the greatest horror icon of all time.
++EDIT++
The review is now live HERE
The review is now live HERE
Welcome back Freddy and remember people...
'DON'T FALL ASLEEP!'
