Everything You Need To Know About Freddy Kruger

In my addiction to Netflix, I have "rediscovered" the classic horror franchises that are long time favorites from the 80s. These are when the budget was very low... no computer graphics... things jumped out to scare you, not because they make it as realistic or as gross as possible (which is evident by the Saw series). My latest victim were the 7 movies that took place on Elm Street.

Nightmare on Elm Street - The original by Wes Craven. Johnny Depp's first movie btw - prepared him for his role as Edward Scissorhands. Freddy appears as clumbsy (a common theme throughout) but takes the kids in their dreams as revenge for their parents burning him years before. Nevermind the fact that he killed kids while he was still alive, he's just pissed that they burned him alive. Turns out that Nancy is the last of the "kids" and she's the only one that can stop him. Too bad there are bars on the windows!! Daddy saves the day in the end.

Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge possibly the worst sequel ever made. Non-Wes Craven directed so it's gonna suck (another common theme). Freddy takes over Jesse who's new to town and not popular at school. Jesse kills some people while developing a relationship with poor little rich girl Lisa. She just doesn't understand what is going on (do they ever?) but wants to help her high school sweetheart. Freddy does some cool stuff at a pool party and in the end, not all is safe as the bus once again drives off into the desert with Freddy driving.... waste of 90 minutes.

Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors - Shocker!! Freddy's back (as is Wes Craven) and he is pissed at a bunch of kids as usual. Nancy (from #1) is back but now as a psychiatrist who works with kids. One of the girls (Kristin) can bring people into her dreams to fight Freddy so she gets all of her friends at the psycho ward to help her fight. The Doctor finally believes Nancy's story and convinces Nancy's father to help him find the bones of Freddy and bury them with holy water (nevermind the fact that the bones were in a trunk of a car the whole time nor the fact that the holy water comes out of a flask with alcohol in it). Freddy goes away after his bones are burried. Laurence Fishburne is the big name of this one as is Patricia Arquette.

Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master - The kids that "won" in the last movie are now Freddy's main target. After some stumbling around, he kills even Kristin who has the "special power".... BUT not before she wills her power to her friend Alice. Freddy finally gets smart and uses Alice to bring new people into her dreams for Freddy to kill. He's just pissed, no motive really. Besides - by Jason's 4th movie, he had killed twice as many kids! This is the one I remember as a kid with Joey dying by falling into a waterbed and ending up on the INSIDE of the waterbed. This can be hard for a kid such as myself who grew up sleeping on a waterbed every night!

Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child - now there's a baby involved... of an 18 year old (great message to be sending to the youth of the late 80s). Alice helped kill Freddy (with a mirror of all things) in the previous movie, but now she realizes that her unborn child is what Freddy is hoping to use to re-enter the real world (no, it wasn't a virgin birth). Turns out that Freddy's MOTHER was raped in an asylum which caused her to have Freddy! This didn't come out in the first 4 movies. Her unborn son "Jacob" comes as a 10 year old ghost and helps her in her dreams defeat Freddy. Freeing Freddy's mother is now the way to kill off Freddy!

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare - Probably my least favorite since the acting was so horrible by this time. Turns out that Freddy had a daughter before he did all the child killing while he was still alive. Now he uses her to get some more kids in a low budget film. It does have Tom Arnold and Roseanne in the movie (briefly) which was strange. Also shows Johnny Depp's "this is your brain on drugs" commercial from the late 80s. Turns out that you can kill Freddy by wearing 3D glasses and being part of the blood line to kill him off! (a similar way they FINALLY killed off Jason). Daughter kills him with his own glove.

New Nightmare - BUT - now it gets interesting. So now the actress who played Nancy, plus Robert Englund who played Freddy... are in a movie playing themselves. Freddy is pissed at the cast and even at Wes Craven himself for having killed them all off. Freddy haunts Heather Langenkamp (real life name) and kills her husband. Of course nobody believes the actress who was in the Freddy Kruger movies till her nanny is killed at the hospital. Heather and her son kill Freddy in a furnace as they read the script from Craven.... yeah, it's a little different but a great movie to end with (in comparison to the shitty 3 movies before it).

Of course there's still Freddy vs. Jason but that's a different movie for a different time.

There, that's my weekend in a nutshell!

Song of the Day - Some old school DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince today... Why? Because one of their songs was Nightmare on My Street. Same album as Parents Just Don't Understand for anyone that's following me. Will Smith (FP for short) has battles in his dreams with Freddy so calls to warn Jeff.... too late! One of the lines that Freddy says in the song is "You've got the body, I've got the brain" which interestingly enough is the tagline and quote from the 2nd movie in the series...

Video of the Day - In a totally unrelated video.... learn how to read body language. Very helpful when working with Corporate America!

Webpage of the Day - and the best video you will watch all day.... no Freddy.... but it's based on an old childhood saying that most of us will remember!