"Rants & Ravings About Horror" - Week 29: “A Look at A Nightmare on Elm Street Franchise”

Week 29: “A Look at A Nightmare on Elm Street Franchise”

Freddy Krueger is one of the most iconic horror film icons ever created.  In addition to having been featured in nine films he’s also graced a television series, comic books, novels, and CDs, not to mention the fact that his image is one of the biggest selling items during Halloween.  Freddy has become an icon of pop culture that doesn’t seem to wane even when there isn’t a new film on the horizon.  I’ve decided to take a few moments to give my thoughts on each of the films as these films played a tremendous part in my love of the horror genre growing up.

I don’t know when I first saw the original film A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) but I do know it was after the second film as I saw them both at the same time.  Despite being a Michael Myers fan growing up, Freddy Krueger was the more dynamic character.  For one, his sound and dialogue played a huge part in terrifying me as a kid.  Director Wes Craven’s original film was atmospheric, dark, filled with suspense and had a great cast of “normal” teenagers.  Craven’s talented cast led by the charming Heather Langenkamp created a group of characters that could easily represent your own best friends and neighbors. This would play a key point in future sequels which all featured young high school or college aged students haunted by the un-killable Fred Krueger.  Whenever I was in the mood for Freddy Krueger this would be the first film I’d take in.

Despite the infamy of A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985), it holds a special place as a favorite of mine because it was the film that prompted me to watch the first film.  Actually, it was the trailer for this film that put the bug in me to see these films.  I remember seeing the trailer for this film and was in awe at the moment where Freddy stood over all the children at the pool party and exclaimed, “You are all my children.”  Freddy had this ambiance and menace that was undeniable.  When I finally saw this film on video I ended up watching both the first and second one.  I can’t remember which one I saw first but this is the one that was calling out to me.

The film itself is dark and moody and atmospheric like the original.  In fact, it comes the closest of any sequel to that dark mood of the original as it wouldn’t be until the third film that the deaths and carnage would become more “light hearted” and “comedic”.  This film also happens to be the only one with a male protagonist which sets it apart from the others.  Even though I was unaware of the homoerotic motifs and imagery in the film when I was young, there is no denying their presence or impact on the film overall.  It didn’t matter to me then about this (when I didn’t know any better) and it doesn’t matter to me now (since I am very aware of it).  For me this is more entertaining and raw than the subsequent sequels which all focused on the comedy and more imaginative death sequences.

Now I’ll be the first to say how glad I was that Heather Langenkamp returned for A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987).  By then I was well aware of the impact of the series.  By this time I wanted to actually go see this film at the theater (but sadly that would not happen until Wes Craven’s return to the director’s chair).  For a long time I considered this my favorite of the franchise.  It was the “coolest” of them all with some of the best visual SFX in addition to the best dream sequences and death sequences in the entire franchise.  Also, the tragic death of Langenkamp’s character Nancy who had once been a victim but now a savior and hero to a new generation of kids made this film poignant.   Something future sequels would lack.  This would be the film most often paired with the first film in my Freddy double feature nights.

I’ve never really been a fan of A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988).  I was a little thrown by the fact that Kristen (played so eloquently in the previous film by a young Patricia Arquette) was now played by Tuesday Knight and that she was killed off within the first fifteen minutes of the film.  I didn’t really take to any of the other characters because of this despite the fact that Lisa Wilcox did a fine job of taking over the franchise as Alice.  The most memorable death scene was Elaine turning into a cockroach (which will stay with me forever) but everyone else’s death was pretty forgettable.  The only reason I ever continue to revisit this film is to pair it up with its direct sequel Part 5, which I enjoy so much more.

It should be noted that even Robert England continued to do a fine job as Freddy Krueger throughout the subsequent films never missing a beat despite the films becoming less scary and more comedic.  He was able to take the punches and keep getting back up after being knocked down.

A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 5: The Dream Child (1989) would be my next favorite in the series and it would create my triple feature night partnered with the original and Part 3.  This film returned the franchise to its darker mood and atmosphere especially considering that it partially takes place in an asylum and features Freddy’s mother.  With the theme of motherhood and children at its core it was also one of the few sequels to really touch on a taboo subject in horror films especially one geared towards teens and young adults.  Everyone was at top form and I loved that the film featured Kelly Jo Minter, one of my favorite actors at the time from Summer School (1987) and The Principal (1987) but would soon become more famous for her horror roles in Popcorn (1991) and The People Under the Stairs (1991).  With just these few roles she became one of my favorite actors of the late ‘80s/early ‘90s.  

I really hate Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991).  From the trailer I thought this would be a cool movie.  It was supposed to be the last, it had the Power Glove and part of it would be in 3-D!  The reasons why I hate it is because it wasn’t the last, it had the Power Glove, and only the ending was in 3-D (which I never even got to experience), among many other reasons why this film is bad.  None of the dreams sequences were interesting and them showing the truth about Fred Krueger and that he has a child all seemed ludicrous.  The film was poorly directed but that’s not nearly as bad as the script or the celebrity cameos in the film all of which contribute to the infamy of this bad film.  I don’t watch this film unless I get the urge to watch the entire franchise (which isn’t often any more).  In hindsight I do love Lisa Zane and it does have Yaphet Kotto but these are minor great things from a major disappointment of a film.

My faith in the franchise would be restored with Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994) which allowed Craven to return to the franchise he started and make everything right again.  This is my favorite of the sequels after the first film.  Craven was able to make a stale franchise fresh and invigorated it with smart characters, an intelligent script and amazing special FX and makeup FX not to mention the amazing score by J. Peter Robinson.  Unfortunately, the lack of love for this film at the Box Office spelled the end.  The film was way ahead of its time by bringing back actors from previous films to play themselves and being a film that focused on film myth in Hollywood as well as fairytale myth in a dark world of Freddy’s making.  This was as striking and original as the original film had been in ’84.  This also happened to be the first film in the franchise that I got to view on the big screen on opening weekend.  I remember the day very well as it was either this film or The Next Karate Kid (1984) and there was no way in hell I was going to be talked into seeing that film.  Other than the original film, this is the only film in the entire franchise I can watch on its own without adding in one of the sequels.  For me, this film stands on its own and doesn’t need to be paired with any of the others.

In 2003 Freddy would meet his match with Freddy Vs. Jason.  Having seen this film on opening night as well, I loved this film.  It was exciting and it invigorated the Friday the 13^th franchise, which I’ve never been a fan of.  It featured the Freddy I wanted to see in the later sequels and the Jason Voorhees that should’ve been in all those sequels.  Unfortunately, time has not been very kind to this film.  It’s neither scary nor moody and plays like a pop horror-action-teen movie rather than a scary matchup of two of the horror genre’s most iconic images.  It was following the trend of horror films at that time like Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000), Cherry Falls (2000), Dracula 2000 (2000), The Forsaken (2001), Jeepers Creepers (2001), Thirteen Ghosts (2001), Dog Soldiers (2002), and Darkness Falls (2003), to name a few.  Even now, people who loved the film when it first came out despise it.  I hardly ever watch it.

This would be the last film in the franchise to star Robert England.  He had a great run that was longer than most others who played iconic fiends of horror.  England was Freddy and it would be hard for someone else to fill his shoes but Jackie Earle Haley was up to the task for the remake A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010).  This film was darker and more atmospheric than previous films but it was also less interesting, lacked suspense, and wasn’t any fun.  It tried so hard to be gritty and realistic that it forgot to be entertaining.  It also lacked originality and was generally a downer of a film despite Haley actually being the best part of the film.  This is the only film in the franchise I’ve never bothered watching a second time.  Why bother when all the previous films are superior and at least have England to entertain?  I’m sure there are fans of this film out there…I’ve just never met any of them.

I could saw some more about the films themselves but I know most anyone reading this has already seen the films several times over and had their own double and triple features.  Despite being a Michael Myers and Halloween fan there has always been enough room for love of this franchise with me.  I love horror films and I love franchises because they allow us fans to continue seeing the progression of some of our favorite characters in more stories.  They don’t all have to be great films but they do need to entertain and generally respect the franchise as a whole in order to satisfy us die-hard fans.    Freddy Krueger is by far the most interesting and dynamic of all the horror film icons and that was made possible not only from his creator Wes Craven but the man who brought him to life Robert England and all the adventures and characters he interacted with in each film crafted by a huge and talented group of actors and film-makers.

"Rants & Ravings About Horror" - Week 28: “A Tribute to Wes Craven”

Week 28: “A Tribute to Wes Craven”

As you may already know we last a great director on August 30^th this year.  He wasn’t just a great director but an influential name in the pantheon of horror film directors who created nightmares that haunted the last fifty years of our dreams.  His name was Wes Craven and I’d like to take a few moments to appreciate some of my favorite films of his that had a major impact on me.

The first film I’d like to mention is The People Under the Stairs (1991).  Why do you ask do I start off with this film?  It just happened to be the first film of his that I ever got the chance see on the big screen.  It also happened to feature an African American Brandon Quinton Adams as the main star and starred A.J. Langer, whom I ended up having a crush on due to this film and her starring in the TV show Drexel’s Class.  I actually saw the film several times at the theater and then it became one of my regular Halloween fixtures once it hit video.  Craven has always featured intelligent characters in his films and this film is no exception.  Even now this film holds up extremely well considering its age.

Brandon Quinton Adams would again appear in another Craven project which was the short lived Nightmare Café (1992) which I also found compelling and different and of course it starred Robert England in another great role as Blackie.  This was an interesting anthology style series in which not only starred England but Lindsay Frost, another great actress most familiar to fans of Dead Heat (1988) and Monolith (1993).  The real shame is that no one was tuning into this series and it was cancelled after a single season. 

Next up is Swamp Thing (1982).  This is the Craven film I didn’t know was a Craven film for the longest time growing up.  This would be on constant replay on HBO and other cable stations and I must have seen the film a million times.  It also spawned the USA TV series from ’90-’93 and Return of Swamp Thing (1989), but the less said about the sequel the better.  The movie was a great introduction for me to the comic book which I’m still a fan of to this day.  Despite the infamy of the film now, this was one of my favorite films growing up because it didn’t just have a cool monster as a hero of the film but it starred Andrienne Barbeau, whom has been in some of the best horror and sci-fi films ever made including The Fog (1980), Creepshow (1982), Escape from New York (1981), Two Evil Eyes (1990), and The Convent (2000), to name a few.  This film got a lot of replay value with me.

Another guilty pleasure film that lies in infamy with fans of Craven’s work is Deadly Friend (1986).  If you see a pattern that Craven’s lesser known films were what I watched a lot of as a kid growing up then you’ll see why this film is on the list.  Many consider this one of his worst films because the gore was edited out and the story barely makes much sense and it’s all edited poorly but I say a film that starred Kristy Swanson can’t be all that bad.  This was the first film I remember seeing her in but it wouldn’t be the last.  I would follow her career from the psychological horrors of Flowers in the Attic (1987) to the ridiculous Mannequin: On the Move (1991) to the even more infamous Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992), The Chase (1994), The Program (1993). Higher Learning (1995), and The Phantom (1996), to name a few.  By the late ‘90s her career was dying a slow death and even though she would continue to be in many films her starring roles would continue to dwindle.  For me, the magic would survive through this first film in which her performance is raw and unrefined but she was relatable as a teenager.

Now I head into Craven’s most famous film A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) which would be higher on my list but unfortunately I was a Michael Myers fan growing up and therefore I really didn’t watch and love this film as much as I should have.  What this film does have the benefit of being is the most suspenseful of the major horror franchises which includes Texas Chainsaw Massacre (TCM), Halloween, Hellraiser, and Friday the 13^th.  Craven is the best of the horror masters at suspense and keeping the audience on the edge of their seats without relying on the “jump scare”.  TCM has its off-screen visceral horror; Halloween was a moody horror film all about what hides in the shadow; Friday the 13^th was all about the “jump scare”; Hellraiser was about the gore and style and makeup FX.    Craven used all these elements to create a whole atmosphere that left audiences in suspense from beginning to end and had intelligent heroines to boot.  Craven would have a hand in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors (1987) but it would be New Nightmare (1994) in which he would bring new life to Freddy Krueger in a film that commented on the Elm Street franchise and Hollywood while also bringing a fairytale quality to a horror film.  Unfortunately, this film would also not do as well at the Box Office (but it still got my money).

The Serpent & the Rainbow (1988) would be another one of my favorites because it was the very first zombie film I ever saw that was based upon the voodoo zombie and not the undead zombie.  As a kid I was expecting the undead zombie but I was completely surprised when I first saw this film.  I had never been exposed to the voodoo zombie before this film.  George A. Romero’s zombies were zombies to me up until this film but this film opened up my entire mind to the endless possibilities out there.  By this time I was well aware of who “Wes Craven” was and I had seen most all his major films up until then.

So when Shocker (1989) was released it was one of the few films of ’89 that were on the top of my “Must Watch” list.  Unfortunately, I missed this one at the Box Office (as it would be another couple years until the release of The People Under the Stairs) but I must have seen the film a hundred times when it found its way on video.  This film is the rare Craven film on this list that was not suspenseful but more on the level of being an exciting and vibrant action-horror hybrid with all kinds of supernatural events going on.  I’m also a huge fan of the soundtrack for this film and I must have played it a thousand times growing up (I still have my copy on cassette if you can believe that).

Before I go any further I’d like to backtrack to the film that usually gets glossed over which is The Hills Have Eyes (1977).  I actually saw its sequel The Hills Have Eyes Part II (1984) first but I enjoyed that one so much I searched out the first one.  After watching the first one, which I did love more, the sequel continued to be a guilty pleasure that had introduced me to another of one of my favorite Craven films.  Now The Hills Have Eyes may not be one of Craven’s best films; it’s certainly one of the most dated but it has a raw charm to it that I just love and whenever I’m in the mood to watch this film I watch its sequel as well (and now I’ve added the remake for a triple feature).  These films are usually at the bottom of any Craven fan’s “Best of” list but I would take both of these films over much of Craven’s output post late ‘90s.

The last two major films on my “Best of” Craven’s list will include Scream (1996) and Scream 2 (1997) because they re-kicked started Craven’s commercial career in Hollywood.  After a string of underperforming and mediocre films the original Scream became one of Craven’s biggest successes spawning three additional sequels and now an MTV television series.  The original Scream is just what Craven needed to put himself back on the map and prove to Hollywood that he still had what it takes to appeal to young audiences.  It was also a shot in the arm for the horror genre as the film was smart and the characters were smart and the film was suspenseful and kept audiences on the edge of their seats from beginning to end while also providing plenty of laughs when and where needed.  Scream 2 heightened these aspects from the first film and made them even better.  With a higher budget, more celebrities and better production values this was a horror film with the look, feel, and budget of a major Hollywood film.  

I didn’t really care for either of the other sequels Scream 3 (2000) or Scream 4 (2011), which is unfortunately Craven’s final film.  Both were technically fine but neither was as shocking or interesting as the first two but that’s the nature of diminishing returns for sequels.  The same can be said of the Elm Street sequels as well.  Cursed (2005) is one of Craven’s worst films for many different reasons (I could dedicate a whole article on this) while Red Eye (2005) is the odd duckling of the bunch.  It’s technically a great film and the performances are also great but it doesn’t feel like a Craven film.  It feels like a film that any other horror director could have handled.  Craven’s style is absent from this film.  Vampire in Brooklyn (1995) is its own mishap and has never been on my list of Craven films to watch despite looking and feeling like a Craven film.  The comedy falls flat and most of the actors seem bored to be in this comedy-horror hybrid.

I can appreciate the ground breaking The Last House on the Left (1972) and what it did for Craven’s career but this is a film I’ve always hated.  I’ve given it several watches over the years and I still hate it.  I prefer the remake over this film and in fact have watched the remake more times.  I’ll not mention Craven’s TV movies as none of them are on the same level as his theatrical films and I skipped over Music of the Heart (1999), which is actually a pretty decent film, and the highly forgettable and uninteresting My Soul to Take (2010), which lacks the “pop” and excitement of Craven’s best films.

The only films of Craven’s I’ve yet to see are Deadly Blessing (1981) and Night Visions (1990) so I won’t comment on those.

All in all Wes Craven has had a long career of crafting some of our most unforgettable nightmares.  His career had its ups and downs but he continued to be successful and produce quality films till the end.  He also managed to produce a lot of films and continued to influence the next generation of horror film-makers including his own son Jonathan Craven.  The horror genre has lost one of its greatest contributors and we should all take a few moments to reflect on that.

I wish Mr. Craven safe travels in wherever his spirit finds a home and we will all continue to marvel the dreams and nightmares that he gave us all.