3. Freddy Krueger - A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)
Before he became a more comic creation in later entries of the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, Freddy Krueger was a very scary horror villain. Nowhere was he more frightening than the original A Nightmare On Elm Street in which he terrorises a bunch of teenagers by killing them in their dreams. The death of the teenagers is not confined to dream time though - they actually die horribly in real life. This leads to marathon efforts to not fall asleep. Freddy himself is terrifying. Horribly disfigured from being burnt, he sports a brown fedora, striped jumper and a glove of very sharp razors. In life, he was a child killer who got off from being prosecuted due to a legal technicality. The parents are not impressed with this development and they hunt Freddy down to the boiler room and set it on fire, killing Freddy. But Freddy's vengeful spirit lives on the the dreams of their children. It is up to Heather Langenkamp's character Nancy to try and repel Freddy's menace, although the end shows us that Freddy is going nowhere. Freddy is played straight in this first offering of A Nightmare on Elm Street, but he would become more comic as the franchise went on. Firmly entrenched in popular culture, sequels would elaborate on his background, but in the original film he is an effective and imaginative killer who could still scare the pants off you today.
Clare Simpson
Contributor
My first film watched was Carrie aged 2 on my dad's knee. Educated at The University of St Andrews and Trinity College Dublin. Fan of Arthouse, Exploitation, Horror, Euro Trash, Giallo, New French Extremism. Weaned at the bosom of a Russ Meyer starlet. The bleaker, artier or sleazier the better!
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Clare