Of course we have Wes Craven to thank for the series, but only the first and last editions. One of the things I remember was when Robert Englund met met Wes, he was expecting the master of darkness and instead got Wes, which was a college professor turned screen writer. Wes Craven just has a dark imagination and knows how to tell a story.
A Nightmare on Elm Street is about a neighborhood child killer who come back in your dreams and if he kills you in your dream, you die for real. Anyway, he begins stalking Tina and her friends, eventually he kills them all except Nancy who, defeats him, kinda.
It is amazing it has been 32 years since the first film came out and I think it is tragic there are only 9 films with Freddy. Five have the title of A Nightmare on Elm Street, Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare, Wes Craven’s New Nightmare(one of the most clever titles ever), Freddy vs Jason and of course the terrible remake from 2010. Freddy’s Nightmares was a horrible TV show and not to mention and wonderfully difficult NES game.
I wanted to say a few things about the video game. The game is a classic side-scrolling platformer and you play as a teenager who fights his way through different parts of Elm Street (houses, junk yard, etc.). But there are times in the game that you “fall alseep” and go to dream land and this is where Freddy can show up. Otherwise you fight snakes and bats outside of houses and ghosts and other creatures inside, but when it changes to dream land it is an entirely different group of enemies. I actually loved the game regardless, I was never able to find a copy to own. That would be a great find, I already have the Friday the 13th game.
It is a shame because there is so much more we could have seen over the years and of the big 3 Freddy has the most depth. The big 3 are Jason, Michael Myers and Freddy. It also feels you have the most freedom with any of his stories. The real shame is Robert Englund will never put the make up on again. After watching the remake, Robert Englund’s shoes are hard to fill. To me he is irreplaceable and I would be fine with no remakes, well maybe.
