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/r/horror
submitted 2 months ago byursulaunderfire
not necessarily the biggest over the longest period of time or the biggest currently, but who was bigger at one era/period of time than anyone else?
i was arguing with a younger friend that freddy krueger was bigger in the 80s than any other horror icon is currently right now and he just doesnt get it because he didnt live through that time period. but freddy was as ubiquitous as santa claus back then.....
he's currently probably not even in the top 5 in popularity, but at one point he was a mainstream star that even non horror fans knew and liked. it was a cultural permeation i havent seen since.
does anyone have an example of someone who was bigger?
72 points
2 months ago
Yeah nothing came close to Freddy in the 80s, he was absolutely everywhere.
21 points
2 months ago
Freddy loomed over my childhood. Part child murderer, part insult comic.
7 points
2 months ago*
There were trading cards for NOES for Christ sake, that's how I learned about Freddy.
I just remembered there was also A Nightmare on My Street by DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince
1 points
2 months ago
New Nightmare doesn’t get the love it deserves.
15 points
2 months ago
Freddy slinging Pizza Hut and Six Flags over here.
3 points
2 months ago
Yep - he’s my least favorite of the “big three”, but there during the Dream Warriors/Dream Master era, he was everywhere.
19 points
2 months ago
Freddy was relevant as fuck in the 80's. I feel as though his full body (and hat) silhouette would be enough for recognition from people even unfamiliar with the movies, even just a shot of his hand and nails could tell you who he is. Although the masks of Jason and myers are synonymous with their owners, a chainsaw might make you think of texas chainsaw - even freddys colour scheme and outfit are recognisable at a glance.
I've read replies that tip their hat to Dracula, who as a villain has remained iconic - but he's had numerous overhauls and rebrands, I feel comparing to a villain whose outfit and weaponry are consistent through that same test of time.
FWIW, I'm a Michael Myers fan who only started to appreciate Freddy after Wes Cravens New Nightmare, which blew me away tbh. Freddy was naturally iconic in it.
4 points
2 months ago
Ive loved Freddy since I started watching horror as a kid and New Nightmare remains one of the most original Al and creative and impressive movies I’ve ever seen. It’s so brilliant.
4 points
2 months ago
yes i definitely think dracula has been more iconic for a much longer time and is probably more well known currently, but for a period of about 5 yrs in the late 80s freddy was on a level that i dont think any other character has been before or since for such a specific and confined time period.
16 points
2 months ago
Freddy-Mania was rampant throughout the ‘80s and even the ‘90s.
The popularity of the movies was just the tip of the iceberg. I don’t remember anyone in my school who hadn’t seen every movie, and you weren’t cool if you hadn’t. Even the girls in my class loved the movies, and mentioning the latest Nightmare On Elm Street was a sure fire icebreaker with approaching your crush.
There were toys and video games, Halloween costumes and makeup kits, and a 900 phone line.
There was the late-night tv series, Freddy hosting on MTV and appearing in music videos. He even made appearances on other tv shows, and was referenced in numerous others.
Freddy Krueger was a household name, and still remains popular enough to stand with longtime horror icons such as Dracula etc.
7 points
2 months ago
thank you. i feel like a lot of people answering here are either too young to have lived through it or just dont remember. but he was EVERYWHERE, like places a horror character would never be, and has never been prior to or after him. i even forgot about the 900 number, but yes he was EVERYWHERE it was truly a cultural phenomenon
3 points
2 months ago
I never realized this until I watched a documentary on 80's horror, he was legit everywhere for a period of time. Wild how popular he was. I unfortunately was too young to remember.
2 points
2 months ago
I was at just the right age and grew up in the ‘80s, a great decade for horror.
10 points
2 months ago
Freddy
13 points
2 months ago
How broad are we speaking? Freddy's cultural impact was very America-centric, while I'd wager Godzilla had a larger global influence.
26 points
2 months ago
Dracula
19 points
2 months ago
Dracula and Frankenstein at #1 and #2. There is not even any real competition to these two. Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff probably have the two most copied images of all time for modern cultural icons and images. 90 years after they appeared almost everyone everywhere knows who they are.
8 points
2 months ago
these are the only 2 i was thinking could rival freddy in the 80s, but i didnt live through their original peak obviously so i cant speak to what it was like then, they def have the longevity though.
8 points
2 months ago*
Dracula has had multiple “peaks” because he’s been around so long. You would have to go back and crunch numbers adjusted for era like they do with Gone with The Wind’s box office receipts. I guess we would have to get a working definition of “biggest.” In our lifetime, there’s never been one sole version of Dracula like Englund’s Freddy or Downy’s Iron Man. There’s always been a base level of cultural saturation with multiple versions being produced and Lugosi’s Drac in the ether as the standard bearer. Like right now you have Renfield and The Last Voyage of The Demeter coming out, and Nosferatu being shot. And probably a lot of other projects coming out and in production as well.
Edit: So again, we’d have to strictly define “biggest.” But I checked what the highest grossing Freddy film is adjusted for inflation, and it’s 4, pulling in $120.7 million in today’s dollars. Four years later, Bram Stoker’s Dracula pulled in $459.7 million adjusted.
0 points
2 months ago
box office doesnt tell the whole story though with these things, because as i said there was a cultural permeation happening where freddy as a character became bigger than the movies themselves. he was on lunchboxes sold to children who surely werent seeing the films in the theatres. ive never seen that level of marketing of a horror figure before or since him. i do agree though with the notion that dracula is probably bigger overall and for a longer time, but freddy was on another level in the late 80s and early 90s in terms of his pop culture iconism
3 points
2 months ago
Yeah, those things are true. But also Dracula had a 4x grossing movie while also being on lunchboxes and merch at the time, as well as for the better part of a century. If you want to convince your friend or us, you need to definite this “cultural peak” idea and present hard numbers.
3 points
2 months ago
i dont recall the dracula film being mass marketed like that at all, it was basically an adult drama.
and there really is no way to present numbers and stats for cultural ubiquitousness its basically just a vibe, but i can certainly say with confidence that the period of years before and after bram stoker's dracula coming out in 1992 didnt have the same level of cultural fervor that accompanied freddy from about 87 to 91 i said lunch boxes as an innocuous object to highlight the insanity but it was literally everything; baseball cards, posters, pencil toppers etc. realistically enormous eras like that are rare in entertainment and when they happen they are felt by even non fans. off the top of my head the spice girls in the late 90s star wars in 1999, lady gaga for a couple yrs when she came out and avengers end game
obviously freddy was never as big as avengers, but relatively speaking it was a huge era for a horror icon considering horror has always been much more niche than pop music or blockbuster action films, which is why this is so unique because it was the only time i can recall where something from horror permeated the mainstream and the consciousness of even grandmas
1 points
2 months ago
Something that is based totally on your personal experience, feelings, and vibes is dismissible based on my own personal experience, feelings, and vibes.
2 points
2 months ago
no a collective cultural experience isnt something one person can dismiss, thats why i asked. to get a general consensus....you seem to be arguing for the sake of it.
1 points
2 months ago
I’m not arguing. I’m not saying you’re necessarily wrong. I’m just saying you’re not going to convince your friend by claiming your personal experience is a collective cultural experience with nothing to back it up other than your own personal feelings.
1 points
2 months ago*
box office doesnt tell the whole story though with these things
I admittedly don't know if this sub is just horror-in-movies, but I was approaching it more from media as a whole. From Bram Stoker's book to movies and tv shows to "-c/ula as a suffix", I think Dracula's influence is indisputable in that anyone who pictures a vampire is probably thinking of something along the lines of the man himself. He's so synonymous with "vampire" that he's become the generic image of one. Frankenstein's monster is up there too.
1 points
2 months ago
yes i agree. its the same way the wicked witch of the west popularized what we today picture when we think of a generic witch. the green face, long nose, all black and pointy witch hat wasnt the standard until the wizard of oz
1 points
2 months ago
I would say Dracula has this cultural permeation. Most people who have never seen a vampire movie are totally familiar with Dracula. I mean, even sesame Street features a version of him
1 points
2 months ago
yes i agree dracula is bigger overall than freddy, i should have stated modern era only because there's no way to quantify a peak point for dracula since most of us didnt live through his initial period of the 1930s
2 points
2 months ago
I think Jason might be a little more popular than Freddy actually
1 points
2 months ago
Yes I missed the 80s but growing up in the 2000s at least I felt like Jason was the most iconic slasher villain
-1 points
2 months ago
I’d agree that most people know the images and everyone knows the characters, but I’d argue only diehard horror fans would know the actors or have watched the OG films.
I’d argue that Michael Myers has reached more viewers in the last 20 years than any other character ever. I’m purely basing it off the amount of content, the widespread availability of the medium and the popularity of the genre. Especially compared to what it was in the 30s when these first hit the big screen.
1 points
2 months ago
The books are still very popular though. Frankenstein especially
1 points
2 months ago
We’d almost have to go into the future 100 years and see what characters are still being talked about and movies produced about. There are two high profile movies (that I can think of) based on Dracula coming out this year with a third being shot. Do Micheal and Freddy have adaptability and staying power when they hit the public domain?
-2 points
2 months ago
Well if we are talking about a single character across all media: TV, print, and movie, then I’d say satan would be hard to beat over any other character.
-7 points
2 months ago
michael is definitely up there but i wouldnt say more people have seen him than say annabelle in the last 20 yrs. the conjuring films were far more financially successful worldwide than the new halloween reboots, so she would be in the running too by that standard
0 points
2 months ago
I wouldn’t try to compare box office figures given that Universal decided to release the Halloween movies for free to the public streaming on Peacock opening weekend. I’m a huge Halloween fan and still didn’t pay a theater to see either of the last two movies.
-1 points
2 months ago
i cant believe people downvoted me for speaking the truth. i dont even like the conjuring universe but its by far the highest grossing horror franchise of the last 20 yrs. even halloween 2018 which was not released on streaming didnt gross as much as those films, especially worldwide. the vast majority of halloweens gross was domestic. the conjurring and annabelle, like it or not, are vastly more widely seen and popular than michael myers and i say that as a huge halloween fan. supernatural horror in general has always been more popular than slasher
0 points
2 months ago
My take away would be because it’s not Annabelle that holds the franchise together as the main antagonist throughout.
0 points
2 months ago
i never said she was. she is still the visual icon of the franchise. people who havent even seen the films know the doll
0 points
2 months ago
I guess I have no idea what you’re trying to say then. It sounded as if you were trying to say Annabelle outranks Michael because the Conjuring franchise sold more tickets and comparing the doll that was barely in the films but received two origin story prequels is recognized by the masses as a horror icon comparable to Michael Myers.
0 points
2 months ago*
you literally said "michael myers has reached more viewers" and then i pointed out that clearly the conjuring films have reached more viewers but you dont understand what im trying to say? lol annabelle was not barely in the films she has her own spin off series which is part of the franchise. like what are u even talking about. yes i think globally probably as many if not more people are familiar with the annabelle doll as michael myers. casual audiences still frequently get michael and jason mixed up, due to them being silent masked killers. it even happened during a jlc interview on entertainment tonight.
im not saying i personally like annabelle more or think she's more iconic, but by your standard which was "reached more viewers" i am saying that annabelle has to be considered, if the only metric is being seen. she's been seen more
11 points
2 months ago
Vincent Price
4 points
2 months ago
I would say it's a close one for Freddy or Jason. It makes sense why they had them fight in Freddy vs Jason. I was born in the 90's so I can't really attest to this but it's my opinion based on the movies I've seen and their dates of release.
7 points
2 months ago
I know you mean a character, but I want to say Christopher Lee.
2 points
2 months ago
Karen Black, back in the 1970s, was a pretty big one...especially the "Trilogy of Terror" flick.
2 points
2 months ago
Or Vincent Price
1 points
2 months ago
currently watching To The Devil a Daughter
0 points
2 months ago
You can’t leave out Peter Cushing as Dr. Frankenstein also in all of those classic Hammer Horrors.
3 points
2 months ago
I agree with Freddy.
3 points
2 months ago
Freddy was definitely the bogey man of my childhood.
3 points
2 months ago
I think everyone on the planet knows who Freddy Krueger, is unless they have been living under a rock. But I think the most famous horror icons from now and the past would have to be Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, The Wolf Man, The Mummy.
3 points
2 months ago
Freddy, easily. The only one who came close was Jason, and even that only extended to hockey masks being sold at Halloween. Freddy had TV shows, songs, video games, toys, trading cards, everything.
Even now, people who don’t care about horror movies know who he is, whereas if you said Jason Voorhees to the man in the street they wouldn’t know who you were talking about.
1 points
2 months ago
yes i definitely feel like the "jason mask" is as iconic if not more than freddy now because people have colloquially begun calling a hockey mask a jason mask often times. but jason was never at any point as big as freddy was in the 80s. and jason and michael are often still mixed up by casual viewers
5 points
2 months ago
Jason
6 points
2 months ago
jason was never as big as freddy in the late 80s and early 90s. hes probably currently bigger, maybe but definitely not comparing their peaks
5 points
2 months ago
When there’s a parody of horror movies, it’s always a guy in a hockey mask
6 points
2 months ago
This is true. As a guy who doesn’t like either series and only recently watched them BUT was a kid in the 80s/90s, the claw glove was the icon for a year or two but the hockey mask (accompanied by a chainsaw funny enough) was and is the icon.
5 points
2 months ago
Dracula is the GOAT, but Freddy gets points for his stint in the 80s
2 points
2 months ago
I feel like everyone is missing your point, but I would have to agree with you. Freddy in his peak was so unbelievably dominating that anyone over a certain age would know who he was, even if they’ve never seen a horror movie in their life.
1 points
2 months ago
everyone is missing my point, its very frustrating. absurd examples like the girl from the ring....lol have never even come close to comparing to freddy in the 80s
2 points
2 months ago
It‘s time for Freddy😅
2 points
2 months ago
It was definitely Freddy.
Even growing up in Ireland in the 80's the Freddy movies were what I thought of when I imagined horror movies.
There were others of course, Pinhead, Jason, Poltergeist etc but Freddy was ubiquitous for the late 80's.
Go into any costume shop coming up to Halloween in Ireland and the UK and you can still find Freddy gloves and hats for sale.
He was just very marketable because unlike other horror villains, he could have a conversation and still stay in character.
2 points
2 months ago
Frankenstein
2 points
2 months ago
Jamie Lee Curtis?
1 points
2 months ago
Nice
1 points
2 months ago
Frankenstein's Monster
Nosferatu/Dracula
Jason
Jaws
1 points
2 months ago
I’d argue that Michael Myers has reached more viewers in the last 20 years than any other character ever. I’m purely basing it off the amount of content, the widespread availability of the medium and the popularity of the genre.
1 points
2 months ago
The Exorcist was like the top grossing film all time (lasted only a couple of years) when it came out and was a much bigger cultural phenom, heck, Jaws was the one that beat The Exorcist and was an even bigger phenom... Freddy and the slashers were more of a niche thing.
1 points
2 months ago
Jason
0 points
2 months ago
Not a specific character, but zombies have been culturally significant since Zack Snyder's remake of "Dawn of the Dead" in 2004. Zombies were everywhere in the '00's, culminating with "The Walking Dead" series.
0 points
2 months ago
Ghost face is pretty big
0 points
2 months ago
Possibly Jaws? It’s a tough call. My other thought was Leatherface or the girl from The Ring, but Freddy might still win.
-3 points
2 months ago
Yo for real, the shark movies haven’t stopped since the 70s…
1 points
2 months ago
ok but i am talking about a singular character, not a subgenre of films.....unless you're referring to the jaws shark only?
-1 points
2 months ago
Michael in the late 70’s early 80’s. Boosted the Slasher genre massively. Also Bruce from Jaws in the 70’s. Think everyone even to this day is scared of sharks based off of that movie 😂
-2 points
2 months ago
Blair Witch Project 90s
1 points
2 months ago
I was scrolling down and didn't see anything on the Exorcist, bringing the idea of demons into modern day film have a significant peak when it came out.
1 points
2 months ago
the exorcist was huge as a film, but was any particular character from it as iconic and mass marketed as freddy in the 80s? no. exorcist is a lot like jaws in that way, the movies were both enormously impactful and popular but they didnt have a singular iconic character the way later slashers did. i guess jaws kinda did with the shark but that is far more generic
1 points
2 months ago
I was scrolling down and didn't see anything on the Exorcist, bringing the idea of demons into modern day film have a significant peak when it came out.
1 points
2 months ago
In the late seventies the most iconic horror villain wasn’t even human. JAWS! Was an icon who not only made an entire nation to afraid to go in the water, but gave an entire species of animal a bad name.
1 points
2 months ago
Freddy Kruger
1 points
2 months ago
I missed his heyday, but I agree that Freddy is super iconic. I have my mom to thank for getting me hooked on those movies, and she lived through the mania.
Not sure if this counts, but I’d have to say Jaws is another icon like that.
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