Happy 65th birthday today to Robert Englund, the character actor best known for his portrayal of the iconic horror-meister Freddy Krueger, who terrorized, slashed, and serial-killed his way through characters’ bad dreams in Wes Craven’s A Nightmare On Elm Street film series.

Englund, born in Glendale, CA, in 1947, began acting at the age of 12 in a local children’s theater program in his hometown. He stayed with acting, and by the 1970s, he was fresh out of drama school, looking for leading man parts. Englund was one of the many struggling actors at the time who tried out for the role of Luke Skywalker in George Lucas’ epic sci-fi classic Star Wars. After bouncing around Hollywood for a few more years, being typecast in smaller roles as either a nerd or a redneck character, he finally landed a role in 1983 on the original version of the aliens-attack-Earth TV series V. Portraying the character of Willie, a kinder, gentler, almost lovable alien so to speak, it was a stark contrast to the typical bloodthirsty devoid of scruples stereotypes of how alien characters were usually portrayed in various mediums. A year later, after V ran its course and was cancelled, Englund landed the role which brought him fame and iconic status, that of Freddy Krueger.

The $10 t-shirt deal of the day over at RIPT Apparel is the horror-themed shirt called “Madmen” by artist Nik Holmes, which takes the TV show Mad Men and places three iconic horror killers in it — Freddy, Jason, and Michael Myers.

The sale at RIPT began today, Wednesday, October 5, 2011, at midnight CST, and will continue for 24 hours from then, and once it’s over, it will not be sold on the site anymore.

The digital video deal of the day over at Amazon today is A Nightmare On Elm Street, the 2010 remake starring Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy Krueger, which is available for rental for only $.99.

This deal is valid only for today, Thursday, January 13, 2011, until midnight PST. Once you activate the rental through Amazon’s Video On Demand service, you’ll have access to the movie for 48 hours. If you’re interested in purchasing the digital version, the cost is $14.99.

Also, if you’d like to own a physical copy of the movie, the Blu-ray Combo Pack is on sale for $25.99 while the DVD is priced at $19.99.

Both the DVD and Blu-ray editions of A Nightmare On Elm Street are part of Amazon’s “Buy This DVD and Watch it Instantly” program. That means with the purchase of either version, you will be able to watch the movie instantly through Amazon’s Video On Demand (see more details about this below). Basically, it’s like getting a free digital rental while you wait for your physical copy to arrive.

This week, the podcast Social Blend, which I co-host with Jay Fowler aka SilentJay74, was invaded by the Geeks of Doom! Empress Eve and Tched were considerate enough to join us in a discussion focusing on what we believe to be The Ultimate Geek Movies of All Time.

Quite frequently, you will find some blogs try to come up with some attempt at a “Top 10” list of best movies within any given subject area, but for this special edition of Social Blend, we decided to simply discuss, debate, and squabble about (and in some cases, ridicule) the movies we collectively believe should be on every geek’s DVD shelf.

Aside from the obvious selections from the dominions of Star Wars and Star Trek, we had a look at all kinds of movies from a wide range of genres and categories — from movies based on comics, to science fiction, to music-based films, to horror and beyond.

Intro by The Movie God.

A title that certainly needs no introduction, the remake/reboot/re-imagining/re-envisioning of the horror classic A Nightmare on Elm Street is now here.

Just like with Friday the 13th back in February of 2009, Michael Bay and his Platinum Dunes production company is bringing the dark lord of your very worst dreams, Freddy Krueger, back to cinemas to try and terrify a whole new generation of young fans.

Despite the obvious visual updates to the character and world, horror purists are still having trouble warming up to this new Nightmare on Elm Street. But what did YOU think? Was it superior to the older movies? Was is a terrible remake? Is it fun, despite its lacking qualities?

This time around, the idea is to try and add a level of realism to the story, first with the appearance of Freddy Krueger, which is a gruesomely accurate depiction of a burn victim. Instead of bringing back fan-favorite Robert Englund (I’m still waiting for Freddy vs. Jason 2!), producers cast another current fan-favorite in Jackie Earle Haley, who dusts off his best Rorschach voice for the part.

Also, in the beginning, Freddy doesn’t start as a pure killer. He begins as a simple, nobody of a man who’s accused of unthinkable acts against the children of Elm Street and finds himself running from an angry mob of parents. But the parents’ final act of vengeance actually unleashes an unspeakable evil as the dream demon emerges years later, ready to have his revenge within the subconscious of many unsuspecting victims.

Wake up as soon as possible and run to the other side to read our spoiler-filled thoughts on the movie, and then vent and praise your own views! It’s time for SPOILER-TALK!