"Whatever you do, don't fall asleep."

A few years ago, I had a pretty gnarly DVD collection. It filled six rooms. It was the kind of thing some nerd would trade his soul for. In fact, some nerd did trade his soul for it. He wanted every horror movie on DVD, which seemed an odd request considering the emergence of Blu-ray and online streaming, but who am I to turn away a soul, especially since I needed the space for a new yoga studio? I couldn't do downward dog without knocking over the complete Masters of Horror collection with my horns. Besides, in these times of ever-evolving technology, would I get such an offer again?

I gripe sometimes when this title or that aren't streaming anywhere, but I have to admit, having hundreds of movies available at the click of a remote control is dag-gone nifty. Still, I'm a collector by nature, so I use this blog as a way of collecting them. If I've reviewed it, it's the same as having it. That's why when an old classic pops up on one of my channels, I feel the need to pounce on it, even if I've seen it a dozen times already.

This week's Thursday Thriller is A Nightmare on Elm Street.

This 1984 film was written and directed by Wes Craven, acclaimed auteur of The Hills Have Eyes and A Vampire in Brooklyn. It's about a burn victim named Freddy (Robert Englund) who torments teenagers in their dreams. If he kills them in their dreams, they die in real life. A girl named Nancy (Heather Langenkamp) is determined to solve the mystery of why Freddy's killing off her friends and how she can stop him, so she resolves to not sleep, which can be hard on a young person's mind and body.

To this day, Elm Street stands out among slasher films, typically populated by silent, masked brutes who butcher kids in the woods. Not camping is easy. Not sleeping is a little tougher. Freddy's ability to kill in the realm of dreams lends itself to more imaginative deaths, like when Johnny Depp gets sucked into his bed and turned into a geyser of blood. In his ugly sweater, razor-glove and crumpled hat, Freddy is an icon of horror, in part because he can talk, you can see his scarred, blistered face and greasy smile, and you can hear his maniacal laugh. Freddy has something else the other movie killers don't have -- a sense of humor..

This is one of those movies where I have to say, if you haven't seen it, it's time and if you have, it's time to see it again. A Nightmare on Elm Street streams on Netflix.

I'm gonna go catch up on some Z's.