T w e n t y S i d e d

I’m about halfway through the Freddy Krueger/A Nightmare on Elm Street article, but got overwhelmed by circumstances. As an example, we were gonna have a birthday dinner last night with my father. Since making Thanksgiving (United States) plans last week went so well, my Mother agreed to let my Dad’s surviving siblings have a get-together at their house earlier in the day. There’s a whole history here that makes this challenging and problematic, mostly centered around all of them being in their 80’s and dealing with a variety of physical needs and debilitation. THEN there’s the mental and emotional side, which has a lot more to do with my Dad’s family being extremely opinionated and sharing some kind of religio-social-family-centered narcissism. Basically as long as you can keep the air out of their tires (don’t let them all get together at once, keep the circumstances tightly controlled, distract them constantly, etc.) it can be managed. But right after my Mother decided to let this happen, people started coming out of the woodwork wanting to come as well. My Mom had to explain several times this was a limited, short gathering because THEY HAD TO LEAVE THE HOUSE only a few hours later.

So I ended up driving over and spending several hours distracting people. Once everyone made it past “let’s all go eat lunch together at a restaurant (they can’t because of naps, dietary needs)” and someone brought up that one of the family members had to be back at her assisted living facility pretty quick I took my leave and came home. I was still running behind chores at home because of sudden changes in work schedules, but I didn’t really get to catch up at that point. I had a handful of remnants of a work-related pot-luck Thanksgiving Meal to clean up, but the large portable roaster was involved and that takes multiple steps to clean properly before it can be put away. We also had turkey broth to finish off and put away, so the stock pot was out, etc. You get tired of washing every cooking pot in the house every day, sometimes.

AND I just now remembered that laundry is ready to switch over to the dryer and start another load. So I’m working on a backlog of chores from the last several days and will finish the Freddy Krueger piece ASAP. Central theme: What *IS* Freddy Krueger? Considering Freddy starts out the closest to supernatural (or paranormal, befitting the overall theme), I think you could argue he changes the most of the big three slashers within the series.

Paige Francis He/him

No matter how much one likes any given Friday the 13th film, no matter how creative or how well it performed in theaters, you can always make an argument for some other slasher film doing the same thing but better. The original movie can be excused from this somewhat, as the intention from the beginning was to use the emerging “slasher” formula but crank up the violence and sex. Of course, you still have to ask “Does ‘do the same, but more so!’ count as ‘doing something new?'” Conversely, even if you can find a movie that does the theme better, the Friday the 13th series can legitimately be considered the most “pure” slasher series. Or at least, the first four films certainly fit that description (there are caveats, of course.) And speaking of caveats, Friday the 13th introduced the concept of the “paranormal” slasher. IN THE TERMS that we consider a slasher to be “paranormal” today, to be clear. Both Michael Myers and Freddy Krueger, in their original portrayals, bring paranormal features to the table. However, as I discussed last time, Michael in the first movie, or “The Shape” as he was more commonly known then, was an abstract; a representation of an idea. Freddy was originally written as some form of psychic force…or any number of other ways you want to explain his “dream infection” ability, who could be defeated simply by NOT LETTING him bother you. Or at least until the last scene of the movie was added, which required explanation in the future. I personally view Freddy in his early incarnation as “an unexplained supernatural phenomenon.” I say he is supernatural rather than paranormal because we’re still operating on a basis of “you have to believe in him for him to have power.” And this largely holds throughout the franchise. You don’t “have” to believe in Michael or…the killer…in Friday the 13th; they are functionally physical. As I pointed out, Michael was “made real-real” in the second movie. But the killer in Friday the 13th; they were just a serial killer. At least at first.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Slasher Movie Evolution: From Grandma to Zombie”

Paige Francis He/him