My favorite slasher flick

Rating: 10/10 (28 July 2004)

If someone were to ask me who my favorite movie slasher was, I'd have to say Fred Krueger (Robert Englund) from "A Nightmare On Elm Street."
Krueger, the brainchild of horror movie veteran Wes Craven, has a distinct personality, which separates him from his contemporaries (i.e. Michael Meyers of "Halloween" or Jason Voorhees of "Friday the 13th.")
He's given a sickly humorous and sadistic personality by Robert Englund, who first dawned the dirty, red and green sweatshirt, raggedy hat, and razor fingers in 1984 when he began his reign of terror by stalking Heather Langenkamp and numerous others in their dreams.
He was unique amongst them because of the fact that he even had a personality. He didn't hide his face behind a mask; if he were killing you, he wanted you to know that it was him doing it. Krueger was also unique because you couldn't be really sure that he was even a living entity, since he stalked you in your dreams.
Craven has stated that the character of Fred Krueger was inspired in part by an article he read about perfectly healthy people dying mysteriously in their sleep. To further add to that, the name of "Fred Krueger" was inspired by a bully and a disfigured hobo who scared him when he was a child.
With "Nightmare," Craven had crafted himself an icon horror film, one that was sure to inspire many knock-offs in the coming years. The sequels turned down the terror and upped the dark comedy. The series only seemed to return to its roots when Craven became involved with the project again and created "New Nightmare" 10 years later in 1994.
Even to this day, "A Nightmare On Elm Street" still terrorizes its viewers, prompting them to not fall asleep as that razor-fingered sleep-stalker Fred Krueger could come looking for you in your dreams.
10/10