In Grade 5, Jon Knautz wore his Mom's gardening gloves -- with popsicle sticks taped to each finger -- to school so he could look like his horror movie hero Freddy Krueger.

"I was die-hard. I was ridiculous," the 28-year-old Ottawa movie director/writer said last night.

That's part of the reason he found it so "surreal" when Robert Englund, the actor who played Krueger in the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, agreed to play a role in his first feature-length film.

After sending the Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer script -- a horror-comedy about, as Englund says, "a slacker with anger management problems who finds himself killing monsters" to Englund's agent -- Knautz waited.

Then he got the call that changed everything.

"He called my cell phone and said 'Hey, it's Robert Englund, let's do this -- Monster Slayer.' I was like 'shit, this is really happening.' "

Jack Brooks is an angry young plumber who repressed the memory of witnessing his family's brutal murder. He unknowingly awakens an ancient evil, when he finds a black heart buried in Prof. Crowley's (Englund) backyard.

After screening at film festivals around the world, the film, which some critics claim is destined for cult-classic status, premiered in Kanata last night.

The brainchild of Knautz, Trevor Matthews and Patrick White, Monster Slayer is a hit with B-Movie junkies.

"It's a retro horror with an element of nostalgia," Englund said.

You'd think after playing Krueger, the fedora-wearing villain who crept into the nightmares of generations of kids with his melted-wax face and razor sharp fingers, there wouldn't be much that could scare Englund.

But there is -- snakes and pigtails.

Both fears stem from movies that made an impression on him as a boy. One war movie in which a soldier dies a horrible death after a snake bite. Another called Bad Seed about a pigtailed girl who goes on a killing rampage.

"So there you go, Freddy Krueger was afraid of pigtails. If they look like Princess Leia or Pippi Longstocking I ran the other way."

Englund and his wife live in Laguna Beach, Calif., (which he says has been overrun with teenage tourists since the "silly" MTV reality show made it more famous) with their two dogs.

His family roots in the area are deep, his parents and grandparents had property there.

"The ghosts of my parents are there. It's nice to remember Mom and Dad young and beautiful instead of old and sick," he explained.

Kanata-native Matthews, who produced the movie and plays title character Jack Brooks, said the trio plans to make more, bigger budget films through their local production company, Brook Street Pictures.

Matthews, who is the son of tech guru Terrance Matthews, says he's thrilled to see the film strike a chord with screening audiences.

He and his friends were trying to make a bad movie. And that's what made it so good.

"People that get it, get it," he said.

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