10. Ron Grady-A Nightmare on Elmstreet 2: Freddy's Revenge
In the second installment of the series we have our main hero Jesse who is being possessed by Freddy to kill so he can come back to real world. Jesse is getting freaked out by all the recent strange happenings in his life. Like waking up standing over your little sisters bed with Freddy's glove on.......maybe? He asks his best friend Grady (Robert Rusler) to watch over him while he sleeps to make sure nothing bad happens. Of course Grady passes out on watch and Jesse wakes up screaming in pain. Freddy finally makes it to the other side and 'comes out' of Jesse's body. Grady ends up on the bad end of this scenario and gets impaled through his bedroom door by Freddy's glove. While the kill isn't inventive or particularly gruesome, I still see it as the best kill of this movie and an interesting one in the series overall. I say interesting because of the homoerotic undertones that play out in the movie between Jesse and Grady. According to Robert Englund, "....Freddy was part of the manifestation of Jesse's desires towards his friend". Alrighty then.
I guess Grady didn't share the same feelings as Jesse.
09. Greta-A Nightmare on Elmstreet 5: The Dream Child
Here we have Greta (Erika Anderson). A girl with dreams of having the perfect body and becoming a supermodel. Like a lot of models from the 80's she had an eating disorder. Well just her luck, because Freddy is here to help. In a bizarre dream sequence with Greta's mother and friends around a dinner table, Freddy's shows up dressed as a chef with some sort of voodoo doll of Greta on a platter. He cuts it open and starts feeding it's insides to her. I know.... awesome right! Her mouth get's laughably full and she basically eats herself to death. The stuff she was getting fed just looked nasty as well. The makeup effects on her face are extremely well done, and the scene has an almost Tales From The Crypt type vibe of comedy / horror. Usually anything with food and horror usually gives me the creeps so this kill really sickens me! I like it. You can see an uncut and more graphic version on the VHS and Laserdisc version in which there is shown to be a large wound in Greta's stomach and Freddy feeds her from it. Nice.
Now be a good little girl and eat up!
08. Mark-A Nightmare on Elmstreet 5: The Dream Child
Another alum from the fifth installment makes the list. Mark (Joe Seely) is an avid comic book reader and is one of the few that actually listens to Alice regarding Freddy. Unfortunately listening is not a skill that will save you from a gruesome death. While Alice and Mark are back at his dads factory he falls asleep. Are we seeing a pattern here? He gets sucked into one of his comic books "Nightmares from Hell" and is now on Freddy's turf. In a "Dream Warrior" like turn of events, he turns himself into his superhero persona "The Phantom Prowler"! Freddy then decides to show his alter ego as well. "Super Freddy"! They battle back and forth but Freddy is just too powerful. He turns wimpy Mark into paper and slices him to ribbons. Literally. The scene is pretty comical and par for the course at this junction in the franchise. As a avid comic book fan it was cool to see Freddy as an evil comic book character, although his movie persona isn't far off. CGI is pretty well done for the time, but not really and blood and guts here for you gore hounds.
Things aren't looking good for this superhero.
07. Joey-A Nightmare on Elmstreet 3: Dream Warriors
Joey played by Rodney Eastman is back in this 4th installment. In the previous movie he played a shy mute teen that survives the onslaught along with Kristen and Kincaid. Most horror fans know that just because you survived the first one doesn't mean you'll get a pass in the following stanza and this is a prime example. Just when he was getting his life together and actually talking, Freddy comes in to ruin his day. Joey passes out on his water bed watching MTV. Freddy incites him with a hot naked chick swimming inside the water bed. Sounds like a nice dream so far. Just then, Freddy cuts through the water bed and pulls Joey inside to drown him. His mother finds him the next morning dead inside his water bed. I'm not sure how that worked because the water bed still perfectly in tact. This kill freaked me out even more about water beds than I already was. Well done Freddy, well done.
Joey had a bad wet dream.
06. Debbie-A Nightmare on Elmstreet 5: The Dream Child
One of Alice's new friends Debbie (Brooke Theiss) is the resident tough girl. Note to self, don't be friends with Alice. After working out she falls asleep. Now in the dream world, Freddy is primed and ready to use her fear of bugs as her undoing. He turns the room into a roach motel with quite the sticky bottom. As she gets stuck, her body parts are pulled off and replaced by bug appendages. Debbie is slowly and horrifically turned into her worst fear, a cockroach. Freddy then crushes her like the bug she's become. The kill is slow and gruesome. Just the way I like it. The effect of her face getting pulled of to reveal a nasty little roach face is a must see for any horror fan. I give it two antenna up!
There has to be a porn following for this right?
05. Jennifer-A Nightmare on Elmstreet 3: Dream Warrior
She dreamed of being a movie star someday but Freddy had other plans for her career. Namely by killing her and not allowing one, but hey. Jennifer (Penelope Sudrow) is sent to the local metal institution after having dreams of Kruger and burning herself with cigarettes to keep herself awake. You would think there are better ways to stay awake but alright. She passes out in the rec room while watching TV. Once in the dream world she see's the Dick Cavett show on TV with Zsa Zsa Gabor as the guest. In a funny little moment Cavett turns into Freddy and cuts Zsa Zsa's head off right before the boob tube turns to static. Apparently brutal murder on a talk show doesn't seem strange to her because she walks up to the TV and starts banging on it in an effort to get it to work again. Freddy's arms come out from the sides of the TV, while his head pops out the top of it. He grabs her an utters the now infamous line..."It's prime time bitch!" before slamming her head into the TV killing her. To my parents chagrin, I spent many a day saying that line to anyone who would listen.
Take a closer look. Wait. Wrong movie.
04. Phillip-A Nightmare on Elmstreet 3: Dream Warrior
Sleepwalking by itself can be a dangerous habit, but it gets substantially more so when Freddy Kruger has you on his shit list. Phillip (Bradley Gregg) makes these pretty cool and creepy looking marionette dolls. Hey, that doesn't make him gay! Once in the dream world, Kruger appears as one of Phillips dolls and gets under way with some cutting action. In a pretty gruesome scene, Phillips arms and legs are sliced open and his tendons are pulled out to be controlled by Freddy like a puppeteer. Freddy leads Phillip to the roof like while he's bleeding like a stuck pig and cut's the 'strings' so to speak. Phillip falls to his bloody death all while his friends helplessly watch. It's a bird. it's a plane, oh wait.....it's our friend Phillip falling to his death. This scene always makes me squirm. Anything with dolls automatically gives me the willies, and tendon manipulation to top it off is almost too much to bear. The effects are awesome again (par for the course in part 3) and a bloody kill for us gore hounds soak up.
This wont end well.
03. Nancy-A Nightmare on Elmstreet 3: Dream Warrior
The heroine from the first movie returns here for the third installment. Nancy gets a job as an intern at Westin Hills Metal Institution. She tries to help the last remaining children from Freddy's wrath throughout the movie but only a couple are left by the final showdown. Great help she was! In a quasi touching moment near the end of the film, Freddy pretends to be her father Don (who Freddy killed shortly before) and gives her a big hug before he passes to the 'other side' for good. Freddy then stabs her in the stomach with his claw and rips it up. She's screwed. Anyways, before she dies, Nancy grabs Freddy and stabs him with his own claw. Now the death isn't gruesome or special but it does stick out in two ways. First, Nancy dies (She takes Freddy with her). She was Freddy's main arch enemy in part 1 and 3 and it was a bit unexpected at the time. It was ironic how she passed the torch to Kirsten, only to have her die in the beginning of part 4 and pass the reigns to Alice. Whatever. Second, the scene works because it tricked you into thinking that her father really did come back for a second. It lulls you into a false sense of security. It's a trick Freddy uses quite frequently though so maybe I shouldn't be surprised. Either way, when you kill off the main character of not just one movie, but two, it's going to stick out.
You like it when I stab you dontcha!
02. Tina-A Nightmare on Elmstreet
Nancy's best friend and Rod's girlfriend in the first film of the franchise is Tina (Amanda Wyss). She has the same dreams as Nancy about Freddy Kruger and is sliced on the arm by his claw. That's childs play compared to what happens to her next. She has her boyfriend Rod stay over because she is scared of what might happen. With good reason. That night Freddy attacks her brutally while they sleep. Her stomach is sliced open and she is dragged across the ceiling spraying blood everywhere. Rod is powerless to stop her from the invisible attacker. She eventually dies and drops to the floor. This kill is awesome in many ways. It was the first kill of the franchise and it sets the tone for kills in the next few movies (although they don't always live up). Next, it was a gory, slow, and painful way to go. So that makes it fun for us horror freaks. Lastly, Freddy's persona wasn't as comical as it is now so he's able to get to the point much more quickly and viciously, although he still has some good lines in this one as well such as, "This, is God!" referring to his glove.The effect of her being dragged around the room was done by using a rotating room with the camera fixed in place. It worked maybe to well because Amanda got vertigo right before shooting the scenes.
Tina doesn't look like she's having a good time here.
01. Glen-A Nightmare on Elmstreet
And we are at number one. We all knew it would be Glen. One of the coolest and most inventive deaths in horror movie history. Glen, played by first time actor Johnny Depp is Nancy's boyfriend in the film. Glen ends up trying to help Nancy destroy Freddy but it's too late for him now. His father disproves of Nancy's and his relationship, so his disconnects Glen's phone so she can't call him. He ends up falling asleep of course. He is then sucked into his bed by Freddy, and his remains are then jettisoned out of the hole in his bed. We get to witness the torrent of blood flow in all it's gory glory. This kill is the highlight of the franchise and made kids around the world scared to go to sleep. It sure worked on me. To this day I don't like beds that you sink into. I need it firm dammit! This special effect was accomplished using the same rotating room that was used in the Tina death scene. The room was built upside down and the blood shot out downward. Amusingly it didn't work properly first, shooting out the door and onto electrical equipment. Strange......
I'm sinking!!! Nooooo!
Remains of Johnny flowing like wine on a poets payday.
I hope you enjoyed my list. Feel free to list your favorite kills as well. I'll leave you now with one of the coolest songs ever to hit a horror movie soundtrack. Enjoy.
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