8. Freddy Krueger - A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)
One of the only truly memorable stalker/slasher villains of 1980s teen horror, Freddy Krueger is disturbing on many more levels than his mute, unstoppable giant rivals Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers. You know the drill: a murderer burned alive by an angry mob after getting off on a technicality, Krueger returns from the grave to butcher teenagers in their dreams in increasingly schlocky sequels with corresponding diminishing returns, until eventually hes a gurning, scratchy-voiced panto baddie. The unnecessary 2010 reboot of the original A Nightmare On Elm Street portrays Krueger as he was originally intended a paedophile, rather than a child killer, turned dream-haunting revenant. Its not the only film of the franchise to hint at it, though. Many of the kill-scenes from the Nightmare films have a sexual aspect to them, and Freddy is a child molester in all but name in Freddy Vs Jason, which actually adds the only real element of drama to that headless turkey of a film: after all, Jason Voorhees is essentially an emotionally arrested child himself. Whichever version of Freddy Krueger is your favourite (and many are more partial to the meta-narrative of the New Nightmare, with Freddy posited as an incarnation of an ages old demon, trapped in the Nightmare On Elm Street stories but gradually working his way free as the films get lamer and lamer), villains dont get much more squirm-inducingly horrible than the murderous, horribly mutilated, knife-fingered ghost of a kiddy-fiddler.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
