What’s Aged the Worst?
Freddy's arm stretch; crucifixes over beds; not being able to Google Fred Krueger; 15-year-old characters; the fight over the ending; Glenn's room; 20 murdered kids with no reaction; the police's lack of alarm; kids sassing their parents; briefs
In the discussion (11)
Approx. transcript time · 01:12:28Read transcript
- Freddy's arm stretch is the one special effect that could have been done better, though it is defended as dream logic with Tina running but not fast; it took two guys with fishing poles.
- Sleeping with crucifixes over the bed, not being able to Google Fred Kruger in 1984, and looking up old news stories on microfiche at a college library.
- Tina was 15 in the script, which does not make sense for Dream Warriors, where Nancy is a graduate student six years later.
- The four endings and the animosity between Robert Shea, the head of New Line, and Craven: Shea saw dollar signs, and Craven let him direct the stair scene as a peace offering.
- The movie learned the lessons of earlier slashers and kills immediately, and because the financing gave away royalties and merch, the way to make money was to get another one out as soon as possible.
- Glenn's room has bugged one participant since 1984: no girls on the walls, no swimsuit issue, Cheryl Teague's (as transcribed), Heather Thomas or Heather Locklear poster, just one music poster for U2.
- Freddy killing 20 kids in the same neighborhood would make him the most famous murderer ever, and nobody would raise a child there; federal intervention and Reagan are invoked.
- Asked for the right number of kids for everybody in town to know, five is probably the number, given the 70s and 80s heyday of the serial killer.
- A scene of Glenn's body coming out of the bed is on the DVD cut but not the movie, and the police department shows a lack of alarm over multiple killings.
- Kids sassing their parents is compared with Mr. Belvedere and the Disney show Jesse, which one family stopped letting their kids watch, while one participant recalls being told to sit on the ground after smacking their mouth.
- Briefs in the 80s prompt a question about when one participant switched to boxers, recalling Banana Hammocks, Bugle Boy and sperm count.
