Freddy Krueger, the man of my dreams

I started watching horror movies at a relatively young age in the early 1980′s. I can even remember the first few that I saw, Creepshow, Oasis of Zombies, The Toolbox Murders, The Hills Have Eyes, An American Werewolf in London, Alien/Aliens and A Nightmare on Elm Street. Back then horror movies were always without fail classified as 18 certificate films, so the only way I got to see them was by the the latest home entertainment invention, the video recorder.

At the time of the introduction of domestic video recorders in the United Kingdom in the 1970s, there was no legislation specifically designed to regulate video content, apart from the Obscene Publications Act 1959 which had been amended in 1977 to cover erotic films. Major film distributors were initially reluctant to embrace the new medium of video for fear of piracy and the video market became flooded with low-budget horror films produced by small independent film companies. Whilst some of these films had been passed by the British Board of Film Censors (BBFC) for cinema release some had been refused certification.

Wes Craven's Last House on the Left was banned in the UK

“Video nasty” was a term coined in the United Kingdom in the 1980s that originally applied to a number of films distributed on video that were criticised for their violent content by various religious organisations, in the press and by commentators such as the moral crusader Mary Whitehouse. While violence in cinema had been subject of censorship for many years, the lack of a regulatory system for video sales combined with the claim that any film could fall into children’s hands led to new levels of concern. Many of these “video nasties” were low-budget horror films produced in Italy and the United States. The furore created by the moral crusade against video nasties led to the introduction of the UK’s Video Recordings Act 1984 which imposed a stricter code of censorship on videos than was required for cinema release. Several major studio productions ended up being banned on video, falling afoul of legislation that was designed to control the distribution of video nasties.

Wes Craven’s The Last House on the Left was one of the many video nasties banned (it was passed uncut on the 17th March, 2008) alongside cult favourites such as The Evil Dead (re-released uncut in 2001), I Spit on Your Grave (released with 7m 2s cut in 2001), The Toolbox Murders (released with 1m 46s cut in 2000) and Zombie Flesh Eaters (re-released uncut in 2005).

Despite the moral crusaders who fought against these types of films falling into the hands of innocents, I started to develop an appreciation of having the heebie jeebies scared out of me. I wasn’t interested in music or following bands back then, movies were my thing of choice, both horror and sci-fi. I distinctly remember the biggest horror icons/villains of that time; A Texas Chainsaw Massacre‘s Leatherface; Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th; the Captain Kirk mask wearing Michael Myers from Halloween; and of course, that bastard son of a thousand maniacs from A Nightmare on Elm Street, Freddy Krueger.

I clearly remember the first time I watched Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street. I was staying with my cousins over the summer holidays and one night when their parents were out, the four of us decided to watch the film. Despite the fact that I had a few horror films under my belt already, they were able to terrify the hell out of me. To be fair, I was only about the age of eleven. Still, we settled down in the dark to watch, as a terribly burnt man invaded the dreams for four teenagers, with his wickedly bladed right hand. As we watched Freddy Krueger penetrate the dreams and the flesh of Tina, Rod, Glen and Nancy I realised that here was a character more terrifying than any of the ones I had seen before. This bogeyman didn’t kidnap people off deserted highways around Texas or stalk after sex starved teens around summer camps or white picket fenced neighbourhoods. Freddy Krueger invaded dreams, attacking his victims at their most vulnerable, warping the environment around them as they dreamed a horrifying death which killed them in the waking world.

In my waking world, as I watched Wes Craven’s killer stalking the dream world, my cousins and I heard a cry from outside the house, seemingly from their garden… “WHERE’S MY HOUSE? WHERE’S MY WIFE?”. Over and over did this man’s voice bellow those questions. Four scared teens were suddenly frightened even more than by the celluloid character and his finger knives. After a minute or so, the man stopped his crying and all went quiet outside. We sat there too terrified to leave the house, but strangely still drawn to the story that was playing on the TV. We were close to the end of the film and Nancy was in the middle of her show down with Freddy. Having seemingly rendered the child killer powerless, we thought she had defeated him until the last scenes played.

My uncle and aunt returned just as the credits started rolling and we told them of the strange events outside. It turned out that the next door neighbour had recently lost his wife. This and his old age had left him confused and easily bewildered. My uncle went to help him as we were told to get ready for bed.

That night I couldn’t sleep. My uncle’s home was a very large terraced house which creaked a lot during the night. My cousin also happened to collect movie posters from his local video store (well before the days of Blockbusters). His pride of joy was the A0 sized poster for House, featuring a decomposing detached hand pressing a door bell. I couldn’t keep my eyes off of it all night and I couldn’t sleep without scenes from A Nightmare on Elm Street playing in my imagination. Such was the powerful effect of this evil character, my remaining nights in my cousin’s bedroom lacked in any kind of sleep.

Despite the above, I become and fan of this dream demon and I’ve seen all of the Nightmare on Elm Street series. I collected posters, magazine articles, books and comics as well as the videos/DVDs. I laughed at Freddy’s one liners; marveled at the ever more extravagant dream sequences; saw Johnny Depp and Patricia Arquette in their first movie roles; and I was deeply upset when Nancy Thompson died at the end of Dream Warriors.

Everyone had their favourite horror villain; Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers and Leatherface. Mine was Freddy Krueger, the man of my dreams.

The new A Nightmare On Elm Street staring Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy Krueger was released 7th May 2010. Read our review here. A Nightmare on Elm Street is also out now on DVD and Blu-ray. Read our review of the Blu-ray edition here.