'A Nightmare on Elm Street'

Of all the horror flicks from the the 1980s, A Nightmare on Elm Street was the always the scariest.

In fact, a lot of these films were scary because the killers (Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhies, Michael Myers, et al.) always had a purpose: murder and revenge. Earlier films involved aliens (just looking for new real estate), zombies (they just didn't know any better) and vampires (they vanted to suck your blood). The new breed in the 1980s were just mean. Later, horror creatures would get all psychological and just plain spooky.

A Nightmare on Elm Street took things to a new level. With Jason and Michael, I always felt I could just keep on running. Avoid going up stairs or cornering yourself in and you'll be able to survive.

With Freddy, shit, you couldn't go to sleep. Luckily, the girl in the movie realized that he existed in the dreams and could be killed should he be dragged into real life. How the hell were you really supposed to find all of this out? How terrifying it'd be to absolutely have to go to sleep, but you realize that you can't? Freddy hunted and murdered on a plain that nobody knew anything about and you were helpless in Freddy's world. Because you were asleep. That creeped me out to no end as a kid.