In 1988 Topps released Fright Flicks, a cards set featuring gory images from popular horror films. It’s pretty clear Topps saw Freddy Krueger as the star of the set when one looks at a Fright Flicks box. On top a grinning Freddy is flashing his claw hand with each blade piercing a card. 5 of the 11 stickers show Freddy and many of the cards in the regular set contain images from the first three Nightmare on Elm St. films. Other images come from Fright Night, An American Werewolf in London, the first two Alien films, Predator, Cronenburg’s The Fly, Pumpkinhead, Day of the Dead, Ghostbusters, and Poltergeist. The set consists of 90 picture cards with a short scary story on the back. The backs of the 11 sticker cards form a giant horror poster when placed in the proper order.
The biggest problem with Fright Flicks is it’s damn near impossible to make a set when you buy a whole box. The packs are notorious for containing multiple copies of the same card. I know one poor guy who bought three boxes and still couldn’t build a complete set. Fans were stuck with hundreds of duplicates unless they could find someone to trade with. (I’ll trade you Bub for the one with Evil Ed getting stabbed with a table leg by Roddy McDowall.) The good news for horror collectors is there are still plenty of Fright Flicks boxes and packs floating around. Take a trip to a flea market, card shop, or comic book store and you’ll likely find a dust covered box in a forgotten showcase.
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