I finally finished my cross-stitching project,

and I found the perfect kitty to model it for you.

My evil kitty, Morgan is sporting the cross-stitched

Cookie Monster that I made for my new Nephew, Seth.

You have absolutely no idea how hard it was to get this one picture of her. She was hissing and growling at me the entire time. After I got this one half decent picture, she laid down and would not get back up. She sprouted horns and a pitch fork and told me to go to hell. Don’t let that innocent looking face fool you. She’s the freaking devil.

But I love my little furry devil, anyway. And she still loves me even though I made her wear Cookie Monster around her neck so that I could write something for my blog. I know because she told me so.

I speak fluent Cat, if you didn’t know. 🙂

Horrah! I haven’t been this happy since I found out I had a job.

According to Yahoo! Movies, one of my favorite horror movie franchises is coming back to the silver screen. I know, I know, horror movies haven’t been up to par lately, but this could be the one that gets the ball rolling in the right direction. Well, I can at least dream, right? And even if isn’t Oscar worthy, you better believe that I’ll still be the first in line the day that it is released – whenever that may be. The stupid writer’s strike has to stop first. If it doesn’t come to an end soon, Freddy may have to jump into reality again, and do something about it. That would actually be an interesting story line. I’d watch it. Heh. Closing my eyes, I can see a room full of poor writer’s penning masterpieces as Freddy sharpens his blades, threatening to cut them if their pens aren’t moving productively.

Hopefully, they’ll use my all time favorite song in the new film. I intend to have a Freddy Krueger mobile made for my children(ha ha, what children) that plays it. In case you don’t know what I am talking about, it goes like this . . .

One, two, Freddy’s coming for you.

Three, four, better lock your door.

Five, six, grab your crucifix.

Seven, eight, gonna stay up late.

Nine, ten, never sleep again.

And because I’ll never have another reason to post it, I am going to include a paper I wrote in one of my favorite university classes. You don’t have to read it, but you may enjoy reading about Wes Craven and his wonderful creation, Freddy Krueger. I’ve got a much longer, in depth, essay that covers many of Craven’s films, but I’ll save it for later. It’s something like 11 pages long. This one came from a film journal I had to keep during the semester and is only 3 pages.

Gabrielle Cook
FILM Z566H
Professor Cooke
January 22, 2003

Every City Has an Elm Street

As a child, my two older brothers found great pleasure in terrorizing me. Against my will, they would place me in front of our dilapidated television as the newest horror film flickered on the screen. They bound my hands and pried my frightened eyes open as I cried in fear of the scenes developing on the screen. They were very mean brothers. I am uncertain of how many movies they forced me to watch but one stands out in my memory like no other. It was “A Nightmare on Elm Street” that gave birth to my fascination of the horror genre. As scared as I was – a part of me fell in love with fear.

Overall, the basic idea behind “A Nightmare on Elm Street” is not completely extraordinary. Wes Craven, the writer and director of the film, took the common fear of nightmares and made a visual version to enthrall his audience. It is the simple nature that the film originates from that produces its frightening aspect. It is easy to relate to the film’s idea because we all have or have had nightmares at some point in our lives. To make the character seem more real and scary, Craven gave his villain a name, a reason to kill, and a weapon that would forever be linked with his creation. The memory of the Freddy Krueger wearing his tattered red and green sweater, his dingy brown hat, and of course his famous bladed gloves still resonate through my mind.

The opening of “A Nightmare on Elm Street” has always been fascinating and interesting for me to watch. The majority of the screen is black except for a small square in the middle of the screen. The small rectangular box is like a window. The audience is being given a chance to peak through for a few short moments and view Freddy Krueger building his razor sharp blades of death. Krueger does not speak but he can be heard laughing evilly and breathing heavily. He takes his time making his blades for his gloves. They have to be just right in order to slice and dice his victims. As he tries the glove on for size, it becomes another extension of his being. Freddy Krueger would not be the feared villain that he is without them.

Throughout the course of the movie the ingenious children’s song is repeated. “One, two, Freddy’s coming for you. Three, four, better lock the door. Five, six, grab your crucifix. Seven, eight, better stay up late. Nine, ten, never sleep again,” Krueger’s previous child victims sing. It is such a creepy ditty and tends to linger in your mind as if it comes from your own childhood. The song is not played more often than it should though. It is found in the scenes where it is most fitting. I like how Craven incorporated the original child victims of Krueger. They seem to bring a different dimension to the film. The children are the main reason for the song. It was a song created by the children to keep Freddy away. Obviously, like most other childhood songs, it did not work very well. Krueger’s first victims appear in Krueger’s next potential victims’ dreams and pass on the song. The song runs in circles and almost seems that it will not die until Krueger is permanently dead himself.

The scene that stands out most in my mind is the first death in the film. Two young teenage lovers, Tina and Rod, have just finished making up after a small quarrel they had earlier in the day. All seems well in their world, now that they have forgiven one another, but they have no idea what is about to come lurking into their dreams and rudely sabotage their reality. Shortly after falling asleep next to Rod in her mother’s bed – Tina awakens to what she thinks is real life. There is an unusual tapping sound at her window. She investigates thinking there is someone outside her window, but only finds Freddy Krueger haunting her backyard. Tina fights with all her might, but falls dead on Krueger’s bladed gloves. In reality, she never left the room. Rod awakens to Tina screaming for help under the sheets. Within moments Tina is being slung around the room and up against the walls as blood gushes from her chest. She spins on the ceiling for a few moments and then falls dead into a pool of blood on the bed. It is a marvelous scene made by the use of cameras, the angles they can produce and of course, the art of rotating rooms.

“A Nightmare on Elm Street” has many key moments that make it such a great film. I believe that Craven did not spend too much time on any given aspect. Each segment was tended to long enough. It is difficult to find a movie that seems to flow so well and evenly throughout the entire film. Craven somehow even managed to stray from over kill. In the film, only four souls perished. All of them died in interesting, horrific ways but were not completely unbelievable. To the coroner, they were all just terrible accidents. Freddy Krueger would not have wanted it to be perceived any other way.