"Let's watch it!" She said.
"NO! We'll get in trouble!" I said.
"Don't be such I wuss" She smiled.
That was all she needed to say. I was in. I wasn't a wuss, damnit! So we popped the video into the VCR.....yes, that's right kiddies, I said VCR......The old Wizards been around a few years.....and I've never been the same since. I was absolutely terrified, which of course I couldn't let me sister or cousin know....they'd never let me live it down. I lost my innocence that late autumn afternoon, when I witnessed Tina's demise at the hands (and glove) of an invisible Freddy. I couldn't sleep that night, every sound....every shadow had me convinced that Freddy was coming for me. Of course, I couldn't tell my parents, because we'd be busted for watching the movie. As I laid in bed, with the covers pulled up over me, I couldn't stop thinking of the carnage I had witnessed. It played over and over in my head in gory detail.
I'm sure I don't need to tell you the plot, but for those who may not be initiated, in A Nightmare on Elm Street, Freddy Krueger was a child killer who was freed from court on a technicality. The parents of the children he murdered hunted him down, trapping him and burning him alive. Well, that was just the beginning for the dream demon. He started to hunt down and slaughter the children in their dreams.
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It wasn't until years later, in my teens that I discovered (by that time) the multitude of sequels. In October, there was a station out of New York called WPIX, who would play a horror movie every weeknight at 8.
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This is where I discovered the rest of the Elm Street films over the course of a week. Of course there was quite a bit of material edited out for the basic cable station, but it was still enough to hook me for life. I was a full blown certified Freddy Fanatic. What was especially nice was that (through some cosmic luck) they played the entire series (Parts I - V) over the course of the week, in order. I remember quite vividly my mother and sisters would be downstairs watching sitcoms, while I hunkered down in my room, curtains closed, lights off, big old glass of soda and some pizza rolls waiting for my nightly Freddy Fix.
A Nightmare on Elm Street Part II: Freddy's Revenge is probably one of the oddest entries in the series. I actually really liked what they tried to accomplish with this film. Though it doesn't delve as deep into the twilight nightmare world of Freddy, it tries to take Krueger and put him more into reality. There was also quite a debate over whether this film had intentional homosexual undertones when it came out.
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A Nightmare on Elm Street Part III: The Dream Warriors was the end of the "Nancy Thompson" Trilogy and the begining of the "Kristin Parker/Alice Johnson" Trilogy. This was also another new direction for the series, placing a collection of sleep deprived misfits in a mental facility against Freddy. This film is where they really started to have fun with the nightmare sequences and special effects, including the awesome "Freddy Worm" scene in this film! What I thought was cool in this one was the premise that each of these misfits had special dream powers and through Kristen, they could all band together to fight Freddy. Plus there was a killer tune by Dokken!
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A Nightmare on Elm Street Part IV: The Dream Master continued where Part III left off, finding Kristen out of the mental asylum and back into high school with her new group of friends. Surprise, surprise Freddy rises from his dream grave to terrorize anew. In this film we are introduce to Alice Johnson, who inherits Kristen's powers after she falls to Freddy's blades. As each of her friends drops, Alice inherits their "power" as well and makes a transformation to shy little school girl to Dream-Demon-Ass-Kicker. A lot of people say that this is the weakest entry....and while it's certainly one of the silliest, it just oozes 80's goodness that I can't help but love. This is definitely one of those "check-your-brain-at-the-door" films.
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A Nightmare on Elm Street Part V: The Dream Child concludes the "Kristen Parker/Alice Johnson" Trilogy. After surviving the onslaught of Part IV, Alice and her boyfriend Dan graduate high school with their friends....new ones....who didn't die. Isn't it weird how these people just seem to accumulate new friends that quickly? Did they have a special at Walgreens or something? Anyway....everything seems to be going well, until Alice starts to have nightmares while she's awake. Freddy is slowly building his strength up. Dan shuffles off the mortal coil when Freddy "posseses" his motorcycle in his dream. "HEY DAN! DON'T DREAM AND DRIVE!!!!" Heh heh....love that part. Anywhoo, Alice discovers after Dan's death that she's pregnant. This is how Freddy is getting back into the world....through her baby's dreams. Alice must now convince her unborn son that the "man with the funny hand" is not a friend and that if he doesn't help her fight him, they will both die. I personally thought this was one of the weaker entries.....
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A Nightmare on Elm Street Part VI: Freddy's Dead. Well. There's not much you can say about this one, besides WTF. They tried to go 3D. In 1991. Now, I love me some 3D, but this was just pathetic! The story revolves around the "last of the elm street children" who while trying to escape is knocked out and develops amnesia. He's brought to a home for wayward kids and one of the councelors tries to help him. John Doe starts to remember little bits and starts to think that he's Freddy's kid. There's cameos by Tom and Rosanne Arnold, Alice Cooper and Yaphet Koto. All very cool. There's also a pretty cool sequence in Freddy's abandoned house where Freddy plays one of the kids like a Nintendo Game and even has his own special Power Glove!
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A Nightmare on Elm Street Part VII: Wes Craven's New Nightmare completely took the series and turned it on it's head. Taking the idea that an evil entity can actually find a home inside a story, character or script and bring it to life was a great idea! Heahter Langenkamp, Wes Craven and Robert England all play themselves (Englund also plays the demon who thinks that he's Freddy) caught up in the supernatural happenings as Craven writes a new Nightmare script. A definite departure from the norm, and a great flick!
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1994 was the last we saw of Freddy for almost a decade on the big screen, until at last, the long rumored crossover titan fight finally took place.
Freddy vs. Jason was released in 2003 and gave Freddy a new bad attitude as he tries to worm his way back into the nightmares of the children of Elm Street. He manipulates Jason Vorhees and sends him to Springwood to start a killin' to make everyone thing Freddy's back. Well things work out pretty well at first, but then Freddy loses control on the supernatural hulk. The smack down that ensues is out of this world. Blood spurting at 300 psi, limbs torn asunder. Blood, gore, boobs, and everything else that us horror nerds love. Fuck yeah!
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Freddy also had some stints on TV, in the short lived Freddy's Nightmares....which was sorta like a cross between Tales From The Darkside, Friday the 13th: The Series, The Hitchhiker and Alf. Okay, I made that last part about Alf up. Sue me. Most times, Freddy just functioned as a proverbial Crypt Keeper, or Rod Serling. Sometimes he appeared in the episode story itself. I liked it....I've seen worse shows......
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My man Krueger also got in on the merchandising by shoing his mug on lunchboxes, stickers, toys, pens, buttons, keychains, bobble-heads and pretty much anything else you can think of including board games and video games!
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And now, at long last, after 26 years, Fred Krueger will once again stalk the collective nightmares of Elm Street..............and it looks like it's going to be a wicked ride.
As far as the homosexual undertones to Nightmare II--I didn't see it when I first watched it. Having read some reviews since; once the thought is implanted, yeah, it's there, but I really think this is more wishful thinking on the part of a marginalized population than directorial intent. It's mighty fun to see it that way, but nah, I don't think that was what everyone had in mind.
ReplyDeleteI agree totally. I never noticed any undertones either. I rewatched it after hearing about the debate and I think that, much like anything else, once the seed is planted you can see it, but it's someone elses vision of it.
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