If there was a Mount Rushmore to horror movie slashers Freddy Krueger would be one of the four faces no questions asked. He is not only one of the most frightening and has one of the best back stories but unlike other killers who play the strong silent type he is a regular Deadpool. He spans over seven stand alone movies one crossover and one remake which makes him a grand total of nine all together spanning nearly 3 decades. The genius behind Krueger is that he is terrifying when you are young and he becomes cool when you get older. He has the most life span when it comes to watch ability. As the films go on he keeps people coming back to see what crazy ways he will kill and what he will say before he does it.
While most of the movies in the Nightmare on Elm Street series are packed with laughs throughout the one we are talking about today is not funny in the least. The first film which was written and directed by the master Wes Craven stars Robert Englund as Krueger and Heather Langenkamp as protagonist Nancy. The first installment of the film is a look into the creation of Freddy and how he went from child molester / murderer to killer and master of dreams. The film follows a group of kids who one by one are being killed in their dreams and if not are escaping just barely to tell the tale of a man in a dirty sweater with razor fingers slashing at them. We find out over the course of the film that this man was once a horrible child molester who was burned by the parents of Elm street who took justice into their own hands. Years later he has come back to exact revenge on them by attacking their children in the one place they aren't say their dreams.
England is going to leave this world being the definitive Krueger. It's not just because he was the first to play him its also because he made the character his own. He is a gifted actor who despite wearing all sorts of prosthetics and in some films is forced to ham it up manages to bring the terror and actually performance through the makeup to the audience. He has this way of presenting menace without really being that physically intimidating. What makes Krueger the worthy opponent is that he has imagination and in a dream that is the greatest weapon.
It seems hard to believe after all the success this film had and that New Line Cinema is called the house that Freddy built, that this film was passed over by nearly every studio in Hollywood. Craven who had commercial success with the controversial "Last House on the Left" and the wildly out there "The Hills Have Eyes" was shopping this around for the better part of three years with numerous rejections and reasons for rejecting it. Studios called it stupid, boring or just plain too gory. It is a hard sell especially when added up there is less then 7 minutes of Krueger on screen for the entire film. Its interesting to note that the film is some what based in reality. Not the dream killer aspect but more so the idea of kids attempting not to sleep for fear of dying before waking up. It is a powerful ideas to sell to someone. The film is remarkable and boasts some of the scariest moments for its time and set the standards for any killer who was going to open their mouth for the rest of time. Oh and did we mention this was Johnny Depp's first film.
Well its time to wake up and get on your trunks because we are headed to camp and we are going to go meet the next big heavy hitter on the Mount Rushmore of slashers.
For High Weirdness I'm Benjamin Kolton reminding you "It's Only a Movie" "It's Only a Movie"
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