Welcome To A Nightmare On Elm Street Week

Today begins A Nightmare on Elm Street Week where I take a trip down memory lane and watch the Nightmare on Elm Street series for the first time in over twenty years.

I’m going to write a short piece about each film before I watch them then I'll return afterwards to explain what it was like seeing the films with older eyes.

Tomorrow’s post will start with the first A Nightmare on Elm Street, the following day – I will look at its sequel and so on.

I purposely aimed for the third instalment of the movies to be written about on Halloween for a number of reasons.

Firstly, I have dedicated a Halloween post to reviewing horror films I watched as a child for the past few years and wanted Dream Warriors to be this year's subject.

Secondly, it’s the film I have the fondest memories of watching. You’ll find out why as the week progresses.

Finally, it’s my favourite film of the lot.

With that said, by the end of this marathon – I may end up with a new favourite. Keep reading to find out!

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It was 1987 when I first became aware of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise.



Robert Englund sent this to me

I was visiting my American relatives who were living around a US Air Force base in Germany in the summer of that year.  As none of them could speak any German, their only way of televised entertainment was through video cassettes.

My uncle would loan films from the video store on the base and then record them onto his own tapes and keep them on a large book case in the house. Seeing the row-upon-row of movies yet to make it to UK cinemas amazed this eight-year old.

A Nightmare on Elm Street had been released in the United Kingdom by 1987. It was just that I hadn't seen it. My cousins were big fans of Freddy Krueger.

By the end of my three week stay, I too had become hooked on the phenomenon.

Hooked.

I ended getting t-shirts, spitballs, novels, comic books , horror magazines with Freddy posters, and even ended up writing a letter to Robert Englund, who played Freddy, and asked if he could send me an autograph.

Mr. Englund obliged and I still have the autograph to this day.

By the early 1990s, my obsession with A Nightmare on Elm Street had cooled off and there are a few movies I did not even bother watching.

Last year, I came up with the idea of watching all the films again to celebrate the twenty-five years since I first began watching them. However, I forgot all about doing it until I was reminded when I saw the Blu-ray boxset on offer.  

I purchased the discs with the plan of doing it this year.

And here we are.

My return to Elm Street begins tomorrow. Check back at 12am.