Everything Action Theater: Freddy’s Nightmares “No More Mr. Nice Guy”

For the most part, Freddy’s Nightmares was a schlocky, low-budget excuse to milk more money out of the Nightmare on Elm Street series while also letting Robert Englund go nuts with wacky antics like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4-TfXxFvso

If there’s one essential episode from the series though, it’s the first episode, “No More Mr. Nice Guy”.  Directed by the legendary Tobe Hooper, the episode shows the backstory for Freddy that is hinted at in the films, where he’s put on trial for murdering children but gets set free because of a technicality.  Enraged, the parents of the Elm Street neighborhood track him down and burn him alive, but in doing so they make him an even more evil and powerful monster.  The episode gives you a rare glimpse at unburned Freddy and the events of the episode are referenced and used in later movies in the franchise, like Freddy’s Dead and Freddy vs Jason.  You can check out the entire episode below.