Remy’s Picks
Roach Motel from Part 4: The Dream Master
Some people condemn Freddy for his overly comical kills, but that is where his charm lays. So many slashers have no personality at all, and just sort of stroll around, silently killing kids – but not Krueger. Freddy plays off their fears, and in the process, the audience’s as well.
I, for example, hate bugs. I hate them. I find their tiny armored bodies to be repulsive, and even though I know I am bigger and more powerful then them, they scare me, and this scene took that to hilarious new heights. The real kicker in the scene is the first thing Freddy does, walking up to Debbie while she is lifting weights (an oddly overused trope for 80’s horror heroines) and pushing the weight down until her arms break. Then, from the broken arms sprout giant roach legs. Debbie continues to turn into a roach, until finally she is a helpless little roach inside a roach motel that Freddy crushes in his hands. It is silly, and over the top, and everything we love about old school Freddy.
Freddy Worm/Snake Swallows The Medium From Stigmata in Part 3: The Dream Warriors
This is, without a doubt, one of the best horror movie kills ever, even though it is not actually a kill. Everything about it, from the badass effects, to the idea of being swallowed alive by something while you are looking in its eyes and screaming, sticks with you.
In this kill, Freddy turns into a giant worm/snake creature (that still has Freddy’s face on it) and he begins to swallow Kristen, played by Patricia Arquette, whole, from the feet on up. To some the moment is comical, and it should be to an extent, but the fact that this was a time before CG ruined horror, and they actually had to build a giant Freddy beast that was actually swallowing Patricia Arquette is mind blowing to me, still to this day. This scene is so iconic in horror there is an action figure for it, designed by Todd McFarlane.
This kind of fun and fantastic scope is missing from today’s horror. Few can argue that.
Tie Between Wizard Freddy and Nintendo Freddy in Part 3: The Dream Warriors and The Final Nightmare, Respectively.
Okay, I was going to go with the time that paralyzed kid turned into a wizard, Dungeons and Dragons style, and was fucking Freddy up with nerd magic, but I realized that is from Part 3, and I already gave Part 3 some love on the list, so I decided to go with the scene in The Final Nightmare when Freddy jumped into a Nintendo game and royally destroyed a kid (Breckin Meyer) using the Power Glove.
Yes, you heard that correctly. The motherf*#(%!g Power Glove.
You see, growing up I was a nerd. You might not have known it by looking at me, but Dungeons and Dragons references and Nintendo references were the ultimate to me, so to have those things mashed up in a horror film, which was my other ultimate love, equaled pure magic – like the first time you ate a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup. Yes, it was kinda like that.
Though we watch a scene like this now and laugh at how dated it is, to see a slasher from a horror movie jump into a video game (the only place us nerd kids were truly safe from bullies) and mess us up in there still is inexplicably awesome to me.
Sadly, Freddy has lost all that charm now that he is played by Rorschach.
