Archive
Review: “The Cabin in the Woods”
Directed by: Drew Goddard
Produced by: Joss Whedon,
Written by: Drew Goddard, Joss Whedon
Cinematography by: Peter Deming
Music by: David Julyan
Starring: Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams, Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford, Brian White, Amy Acker
Year: 2012
I don’t claim to be an expert on horror films. Last year, when I did my first Scary Movie Month, I ended up getting schooled by a group of Nightmare on Elm Street fans, who took me to task for not getting the point of the first film. Throughout that month, I struggled to gain a greater appreciation for the horror genre, particularly through the classic slasher films — Halloween, Friday the 13th, The Last House on the Left and its remake… Aside from just providing me with an opportunity to list all those films and link to my reviews, my point is that I’m not particularly fond of these types of films, aside from Halloween, which surprised me with its elegance, and the two Nightmare sequels I reviewed, Dream Warriors and New Nightmare, which ended up being more fun than I anticipated.
I do, however, like Scream and even its three sequels, which were fun, self-aware tributes to the slasher sub-genre while also being fairly well constructed horror thrillers in their own right, to varying degrees. But after this? It’s kind of hard to really think of that many subversive horror films that manage to capture that same sense of fun, creativity, and terror without reiterating everything that’s been said before. Lucky for me, then, that Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard knew exactly how take that formula and turn it on its head, yet again, and with The Cabin in the Woods, they not only send up the horror genre in a loving manner, but also lament the lack of creativity that has pervaded the genre in the past few years and all the factors that led to the genre’s stagnation. Read more…
Review: “A Nightmare on Elm Street” (2010)
Directed by: Samuel Bayer
Produced by: Michael Bay, Andrew Form, Brad Fuller
Written by: Wesley Strick & Eric Heisserer (screenplay), Wesley Strick (story)
Starring: Jackie Earle Haley, Kyle Gallner, Rooney Mara, Katie Cassidy, Thomas Dekker, Kellan Lutz
Music by: Steve Jablonsky
Year: 2010
I will refrain from mentioning Michael Bay… I will refrain from mentioning Michael Bay… I will refrain from… Oh! Hi! Welcome, my friends, to my final Nightmare on Elm Street review for this Halloween season. We end this streak with something more terrifying than a chainsaw-wielding maniac… more chilling than a ghost who doesn’t know he’s been dead the whole time… more evil than [EXAMPLE]. Today, we examine… A HORROR MOVIE REMAKE. *lightning and thunder*
Today’s feature is the 2010 remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street, a modern day revival of that cult classic story that, as we all know by now, I wasn’t the biggest fan of, but always held a certain level of reverence for, in the same way I do for the Final Fantasy series, and yet I do not play. Read more…
Review: “Wes Craven’s New Nightmare”
Director: Wes Craven
Produced by: Robert Shaye, Wes Craven
Written by: Wes Craven
Starring: Heather Langenkamp, Robert Englund, Miko Hughes, John Saxon
Music by: J. Peter Robinson
Year: 1994
Now explain to me why more horror movies can’t be this much fun and be scary? As a prelude to his Scream series, Wes Craven goes all meta on us with the seventh Nightmare film by folding his universe into the real world with this re-imagining of the formula and the penultimate appearance of Robert Englund as Freddy.
However, I think you’d be hard pressed to figure this in with the rest of the films, even if you include the crossover with the Friday the 13th series (which I haven’t seen and really don’t plan on seeing for a while), as it’s really almost like a spin-off, sidestory, or, if you’re knowledgeable about comic books, an Elsworlds tale! New Nightmare brings back some of the most famous and beloved of the Nightmare actors, including Heather Langenkamp herself, only, this time… she’s playing herself! Read more…
Review: “A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors”
Director: Chuck Russell
Produced by: Wes Craven, Robert Shaye
Written by: Wes Craven & Bruce Wagner (also story), Frank Darabont, Chuck Russell (screenplay)
Starring: Heather Langenkamp, Patricia Arquette, Robert Englund, Laurence Fishbrune, Priscilla Pointer, Craig Wasson
Music by: Angelo Badalamenti, “Into the Fire” by Dokken
Year: 1987
If the first film in the Nightmare on Elm Street series was a metaphor for the perceived innocence of childhood and American suburbia, then the third film kind of represents the opposite side of the same coin, as it centers on the inability of adults to understand the problems their kids are facing and address them accordingly.
Subtitled Dream Warriors, you’d be forgiven for thinking this would be some campy Aliens knock off, with people being jacked into a dream network to take out Freddy Krueger once and for all…. Actually, that kind of sounds awesome. Anyway, no this isn’t that kind of film. Dream Warriors doesn’t repeat the scares and themes of the first film, but rather expands upon them and delves deeper into the mythology. If you were among the people who scolded me for my ignorance of the series and suggested this to me, then, congratulations. You’ve got me. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 is not only a pretty good movie, I actually like it better than the first! Read more…
Review: “Halloween” (1978)
Director: John Carpenter
Produced by: Debra Hill, John Carpenter, Kool Lusby, Irwin Yablans, Moustapha Akkad
Written by: John Carpenter, Debra Hill
Starring: Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, P.J. Soles, Nancy Loomis
Music by: John Carpenter
Year: 1978
The original Halloween was a low budget affair. Extras were barely paid and culled from those who were already living on site in South Pasadena, California. The actors themselves were receiving significantly lower paychecks compared to what they could have made in some other production.
Despite being a fairly well-known actress today, Jamie Lee Curtis was a young, relatively unknown TV actress when this movie was made, best known possibly for being the daughter of Psycho scream queen Janet Leigh and Some Like it Hot icon Tony Curtis. Naturally, this meant a significantly smaller paycheck than what she’d get in just a few years’ time. The prolific Donald Pleasence, a name I had known but needed to look up, was the best known actor in the film at the time, known for his roles on TV and his role as the first Ernst Blofeld in You Only Live Twice, but even he had to take on a significant pay cut compared to his usual for his role as Dr. Loomis in this film. Read more…
Review: “A Nightmare on Elm Street” (1984)
Directed by: Wes Craven
Produced by: Robert Shaye
Written by: Wes Craven
Starring: John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Heather Langenkamp, Amanda Wyss, Nick Corri, Johnny Depp, Robert Englund
Music by: Charles Bernstein
Year: 1984
Take a look at those credits. Notice anyone familiar? Well, aside from horror master Wes Craven, who we’ve already met through his directorial debut, the infamous The Last House on the Left! No, it’s the second to last cast member. … Yup. There he is! Johnny Depp was young enough to play a teenager at the time this movie, his film debut, was made, playing the lead character’s boyfriend.
Seems like a strange way for such a prolific, well respected modern actor to make his debut, but, then again, Kevin Bacon showed up in a similar role in the earlier Friday the 13th, so, maybe not. It’s possibly a shame, then, that they never stuck Depp and Bacon together to fight the two monsters in their inevitable but long delayed Freddy vs. Jason crossover.
Instead, fans of the two rival series were treated to one of the members of Destiny’s Child trying to act and late comedian John Ritter’s son, Jason. What a waste.
Oh no! Now who will Tim Burton cast in his movies!?
Review: “Friday the 13th” (1980)
Directed and Produced by: Sean S. Cunningham
Written by: Victor Miller
Starring: Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Harry Crosby, Laurie Bartram, Mark Nelson, Jeannine Taylor, Robbi Morgan, Kevin Bacon, Ari Lehman
Music by: Harry Manfredini
Year: 1980
Friday the 13th.
A Nightmare on Elm St.
Halloween.
Child’s Play.
These are the films that influenced my opinion of horror as a child. Tacky, cheap-looking thrillers (that were often just cheap in general) that focused more on pop-up scares and implausible concepts that really instilled no sense of fear in me. Growing up, more than a few of my friends tried to get me to watch these movies. I refused. Not because I was scared (though I was possibly scared of finding out in front of all my friends that these movies scared me), but because I deemed them unworthy of my time. … Perhaps I was a bit of a pretentious snob at that age. Read more…
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