For the better part of a decade, Freddy Krueger was a pop culture icon; he wasn’t just a boogeyman, he appeared in pop songs and on TV commercials. In 1988, he even had his own 1-900 number where you could call and chat with the mass murderer. And, looking back on the “Nightmare on Elm Street” franchise, it was a work of unparalleled creativity and bloodshed. It basically created New Line Cinema, at the time a struggling distributor and indie that would go on to become a mini major (before being folded into Warner Bros.) and its legacy remains. As far as modern monsters go, it is hard to beat Freddy.