When it comes to horror fans, there are two types of people: people who hear the name Freddy and immediately think of a large brown animatronic bear who may or may not be housing children’s bodies and/or souls inside them and people who hear it and instinctively check whether they’re dreaming. EllyMarD is very clearly in the second category.
“FREDDY” by EllyMarD, released on July 3, 2026, is a punk rock love song to A Nightmare on Elm Street, which understands something fundamental about horror: sometimes the best way to honor something scary is to utterly have fun with it.
The track itself is an extravagant, neon-dipped homage to 80s horror, full of punk rock force that is married to a goth vibe and a gleeful sense of campy theatricality. It feels like a soundtrack accompaniment from finding an old horror video tape in the back of a video store and deciding for reasons that will likely feel incredibly regrettable around 2am, to have that be the centerpiece for the night on account of the titular serial killer.
EllyMarD’s vocals are what sell the song the most. There’s a ferocity and slight out-of-control energy present in her vocal delivery that carries the same spirit of early Gwen Stefani without feeling like a cheap No Doubt imposter. EllyMarD sounds like a band who is acutely aware of how silly horror can be and who has a blast fully embracing that silliness and channeling it into their power.
The production to the track is also nothing short of fantastic. The backing chorus to the track, while a chant-style singalong, doesn’t simply pile the same track on top of each other in some sterile fashion; EllyMarD and her producer, Darragh Tibbs, made sure to gather chants from different places around a room, while being certain to vary intonation and timing. The effect doesn’t necessarily sound like a meticulously rehearsed choir (or at least that’s the idea) but rather like individuals that collectively have made a slew of terrible decisions like a bunch of characters in a classic horror film.
The result leaves the listener with much more than just an ode to a beloved horror classic. It captures the spirit and feeling of horror as a shared experience. The feeling of friends gathering together to put on something frightening, screams at the monitor and then arguing about who will or will not survive.
Listeners who are unfamiliar with the films that inspired the song could certainly find “FREDDY” an introductory energetic blast. For horror heads who have seen it all, it is an absolutely joyous reminder that the genre isn’t merely creepy, grotesque and stylistically imposing; it’s also fun.
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About the Author
A tenured media critic known working as a ghost writer, freelance critic for various publications around the world, the former lead writer of review blogspace Atop The Treehouse and content creator for Manila Bulletin.
