April 7, 2016

Looking back, I still find the entire concept of Freddy-mania absolutely bonkers. How the hell did a wicked, terrifying, burnt up child murderer turn into an 80’s icon adored by audiences and (in particular) kids everywhere?! Sure, there was the expected merchandise like posters, T-Shirts and comic books. But then came the talking Freddy doll (marketed toward young kids that creepily said “Let’s be friends!”), lunch boxes, key chains, an impossible-to-decipher board game, a Nintendo video game, hell – I even had a Freddy Krueger watch shaped like his head.

So skimming through old issues of FANGORIA magazine, I was reminded of the good ol’ “official” Freddy Krueger Fan Club! How many of you out there joined this thing? I know I did!

Membership was $14.95 (in ’80s dollars, which would be roughly be about $30 bucks now) and that got you a membership card, a wallet sized photo, a subscription to “The Freddy Times” magazine (which I believe I only got one issue of), a button, a “freaky” Freddy folder and access to spend more money on the good stuff like shirts and posters.

So basically, it’d be the equivalent of spending $30 bucks today for a pair of buttons, a few sheets of photocopied paper that were dubbed a “magazine” and a wallet-size photo and membership card which probably cost them about .2 cents to make. But you know what? You have to admit, the full ad is pretty darned cool. Heck, it made me join!

Ah and then there were the hotlines. You remember those, don’t you? No? Let’s refresh your memory!

$2 dollars for the first minute! 35 cents each additional! I had no idea the value of money back in ’89 at 13 years old, so of course I called it! You know you did too!

My vague memory is that it was all automated nonsense that didn’t mean anything, but boy, did they mange to stretch it out to insure you stayed on the phone for a long period of time. I stupidly did the same thing for the HALLOWEEN hotline when Michael Myers took his “REVENGE” in PART 5. I’ll never forget my dad arguing with the phone company, screaming, “I’m telling you, no one in this household would call 1-900-909-FRED! I’m not paying this!”

Oops!

Well, a few years later it evolved into a telephone “game,” just in time for the arrival of FREDDY’S DEAD in theaters.

So this time, the first minute was only $1.95, but each additional was the whopping price of $1.45 per minute! And since it was now an interactive game, I’m sure they made a lot of parents angry when that phone bill arrived at the end of the month.

But bless it. Can you think of any other horror icon, especially a modern one that completely dominated, and monopolized, and profited off of the fanbase in the way Freddy Krueger did? Hell, if there was a new Freddy Fan Club announced today, I’d probably be one of the first to join!