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Michael? Give me a break. Jason? Yeah, right. It’s all about Freddy. Freddy Krueger, the horrifically burned, razor-gloved maniac of A Nightmare on Elm Street, is by far the most terrifying slasher to ever grace the silver screen. My fear of Freddy goes back to 1994, as I was 7 years old and made a terrifying discovery while prowling the confines of my neighborhood Blockbuster. I came across the box for Wes Craven’s New Nightmare, and decided to look at the back. What I saw next, I will always remember — an image of Freddy, opening his mouth huge and wide, swallowing a small child whole. After seeing the image, I threw the box down and started crying. I had to sleep in my parents’ bed for two weeks, and had to sleep with a nightlight for about three years afterward.

Finally, at age 12, I mustered the strength to watch A Nightmare on Elm Street, even though I was scared to the point of nearly becoming physically ill. I rented the dreaded film, and forced my grandmother to watch it with me. The tape was playing in my family’s living room, yet I watched from the kitchen, as I was too scared to even be in the same room as Wes Craven’s horror masterpiece. I should also mention that grandma and I watched the movie at three in the afternoon.

I made it, though, and although I had never been so scared in my life, I loved the movie. I actually developed a newfound admiration for Freddy, as I was no longer a prisoner of fear anymore and could finally admire a great movie villain for being so wonderfully evil. The Freddy of the first Nightmare film is by far the scariest portrayal of Freddy in the series, since he gets hokier as the films progress. In the original Nightmare, he isn’t a jokester; rather, he is a nearly mute maniac who slices and dices his way through a bunch of attractive teens. A remake is scheduled to be released in April 2010, and I have high hopes, as the astoundingly creepy Jackie Earle Haley (Rorschach in Watchmen) has been cast in the role of Freddy. Here’s to hoping that Mr. Haley can breathe life into a once brilliant franchise. Oh, and my grandma still complains about how she was “forced to watch that crap” in regard to Nightmare. It’s not crap, grandma — it’s brilliance.