I was too young to appreciate the first wave of Slashers, those early Halloween clones where very human psychos stalked campers and sorority girls with sharp objects until the inevitable whodunnit twist. Sure I fancy myself a fan of the genre now, but at the time I was a fledgeling monster kid with a love of alien fiends, ghosts and zombies. Guys with knives didn’t grab me. Yet.
But by ‘84 the genre was taking on more wildly imaginative fantasy elements with the likes of Elm Street and the Terminator, so I was perfectly groomed for that shift. I loved this new wave of higher-concept twelve-little-Indian sprees with hard supernatural elements, and Wes Craven’s seminal slasher was my gateway boogeyman. Freddy freaked me the hell out, nice and proper. Soon, Zombie Jason, Chucky, Pumpkinhead, Hoax, Sammi Curr, Mary Lou and Horace Pinker followed in his wake.
Now that, was a party. -Pop
A Nightmare on Elm Street woke up on Home Video this week in 1985, after a November 9th, 1984 theatrical beauty sleep.