I can still remember the first time I saw Nightmare on Elm Street as a child.

Those tense moments in the dark, the thumping of my heart in my chest, the screams, the

decades have reduced much of those memories down to simple impressions and flashes of

key images.

And the most important of those, of course, was the glove.

Ready Kruger's glove was iconic, all leather and metal and fish knives, just a glimpse

of it was enough to send shivers down the spines of millions.

And it was one of a handful of weapons that became foundational to a new wave of horror

movies that started 30 years ago.

There were others, of course, the chainsaw, with its screaming motor and biting teeth,

build many nightmares.

The machete always takes me back to the hockey mask wearing Jason Voorhees from Friday

the 13th.

There are many stories of a killer who uses a hook, from I know what you did last summer

to an early episode of Supernatural.

And who could forget the wooden stake that makes an appearance in almost every vampire

movie.

But no tool of destruction has been more prolific, more horrific than the axe.

It's the stuff of nightmares, equal parts, passion and skill.

It's a near mythic weapon that instantly inspires fear.

But a little over a century ago, those nightmares became reality.

I'm Aaron Manky, and this is lore.

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