The Nightmare On Elm Street Series - Page 4

Really? I think following DREAM WARRIORS, it's a major let down in the production design department. What it doesn't directly lift from 3, it executes poorly. Look at that cheesy paint-dripped elevator. And the over-reliance on colored light to hide the cheapness. Meh.

Harlin's pales in comparison to Chuck Russell's IMO.

But I do find it oddly comforting that I drifted off watching the same flick as another Chewer last night. You pulled me into your nightmare, AF!

Weird bit of trivia about New Nightmare: as most of you know, Wes Craven based the story on Heather Langenkamp's real experience with a stalker. Originally, there wasn't supposed to be a supernatural angle, and Julie the babysitter turned out to be the stalker/killer. Weird.

The first half of Freddy vs. Jason is a NOES movie (specifically 1, 2 & 4), with a serious lack of Freddy. He's saddled with a lot of unnecessary exposition about his master plan that, I swear, is reiterated five times by several different characters. The second half of the movie however, once they arrive at Westin Hills and onward, is perfect.

Dream Master was my favorite when I was a kid. I believe Joey and Kincaid mention to Kristen that her messing around in Freddy's house, and her fear of him, brings him back. The dog piss was just...fuck if I know. Also, even with evidence to the contrary, I got a real gay couple vibe from Joey and Kincaid.

Used to hate 5 but over time I've come to respect the gothic visuals and atmosphere. It picks up nicely, as well, from part 3 by introducing the whole Amanda Krueger suicide plot. I believe in 3 they only said she died, but not how. Also interesting how Freddy has to use Amanda to be symbolically reborn. Splatter punk authors Skipp & Spector actually did the first draft of the movie, and because of them I think it comes across smarter than it should.

This is probably the horror series with the best promise for a remake. The most you can hope for with F13 or Halloween is a retelling of the same story with better production values, but Nightmare, as others have pointed out, could be fertile ground for the sorts of creative kills, psychosexual nightmare imagery and body horror that the series has provided in only small doses.

I mean, I'm sure they'll blow it and just make Jokey Freddy 2.0, but relaunching NOES as a scary franchise, with dirty, creepy Freddy tormenting and torturing kids with their secret fears could be really great.

Haha that's funny. I did have a nightmare last night, but it was about my ex, who is much scarier than Freddy Krueger.

I'm definitely with you on the cheap colored lights. There's always some blue or red light coming from somewhere. Ooooooh spoooky. It's more that the film stock used in part 4 is cleaner or something than part 3. Not that it's better, it just looks like they spent more money on part 4.

In case anyone is interested (and it may very well be the case that no one is), here's an older thread discussing the Nightmare series, specifically Freddy's resurrective properties: Declaring Shenanigans on Elm Street.

Forgot to mention, but the dog with the napalm urine is named "Jason". No wonder Freddy drags Voorhees to hell and they fight in FVJ. Mistaken identity! It was all a misunderstanding.

"Sorry, dude. Heard you pissed on my grave. No hard feelings?"

Wow, I made an epic nerd post in that thread.

Dude, look where we are.

And, if you're going to discuss a horror flick, that was a pretty damn good post.

Perfect? Hardly. It does vastly improve but it's still saddled by the first half's poor characters and weak story. And why the fuck did Freddy kill Lori's mom? That whole idiotic backstory involving Will supposedly seeing the dad kill her is really where the story falls apart. It really makes no damn sense and is so painfully contrived.

Well, perfect's too strong a word. It accomplishes everything, imho, that a FvJ movie should at that point. Having read, or gotten the gist, of most of the early drafts, I'm glad they streamlined everything down to a serviceable plot.

There seems to be a whole movie that takes place between Freddy's Dead and FvJ. Apparently the entire town repopulated and Freddy returned, so they destroyed all records of his existence and quarantined kids that had been exposed to him. But how did he return? Jason the dog must have been on-call.

The Freddy Vs Jason script isn't actually a bad read. It's like the final movie but quite a bit more is fleshed out, particularly the characters. There's a few different deaths in there too.

It's certainly a better read than a lot of the previous scripts.

I was gonna comment on DM8's earlier post abput the potential for more psychological horror in this franchise, and lament the fact that it doesn't seem they exploited it as well as they should have (there are notbale instances where they did, of course, the handicapped kid's wheelchair, and the heroin junky girl's screaming track marks being good examples). So even though I hadn't previously thought about it, I agree with Brian that this could actually be a good candidate for a remake if they ramp this aspect up, as he suggests.

I never thought I'd say something like that, given how pointless I generally think remakes are, but now you've got me thinkin'.

I have no problem with remakes of bad (or, if it softens the blow, "flawed") movies if there are solid ideas or concepts on which a remake can build, and for the most part that's what the Nightmare movies are.

What makes Freddy vs. Jason work for me is both Robert Englund back as a scarier Freddy (sure, not as scary as the first film but about the same as the third) and Ronny Yu's visuals. Say what you want about the guy but he made that film look more expensive than it probably was. In my opinion, it's the best looking Nightmare or Friday film.

Despite my opinion here ^, there are some things I like about DREAM MASTER: I dig Alice's character (especially compared to the new Kristen), her daydreams, the hinted deja vu trap, her action preparatory montage, and the finale in the cathedral. I don't quite understand why that gizmo did anything, but seeing all the trapped souls reach out and pull Freddy apart was a great moment of body horror.

Now why Alice loses her nerve, powers, and red hair (bastards!) in DREAM CHILD, I'll never know. My favorite part of that flick was Fetus Freddy, KNB's face de-merge, and the birth canal imagery. WTF was up with the rap song over the credits? Jarring, considering what came before. Yeah, I got a chuckle outta the Super Freddy showdown.

Last night I took in a sober, critical viewing of Freddy's Revenge, trying to not focus on the homoeroticism (which is nigh impossible) and really judge the film on it's own merits. I found myself really enjoying it. It's not the sequel anyone wanted at the time (that was Dream Warriors) but it at least attempts to take the story into a really dark place. Freddy isn't funny at all and is in fact more cruel and menacing than even the original film. Technically it's well shot and constructed, almost workmanlike to a fault. It doesn't have the flair of the original and this can be blamed on the story; by bringing Freddy into the real world, we loose most of the great surreal dreamscape stuff -- a problem they remedied in the sequel. I see it as an interesting misstep and I wonder what direction the franchise would have gone if this was better received. Judged on it's own as an 80's slasher film, it's really not so bad.

And then you add the homoeroticism, and it becomes awesome.

Freddy's Revenge is the best film to watch with friends drunk. A buddy and I actually did a commentary track over it and in the beginning we're all gung ho, but by the end the movie just gets so hard to get through. Jesse is too awesome in it.

It really plays fast and loose with the "rules". Or creates amendments to the rules... Freddy can crank call (effect technology) AND possess people? He has an effect on Jesse even before he reads the diary (correct me if I'm wrong) with the 1st bus nightmare? Or was Freddy not involved with that? Because I thought someone had to know of Freddy in order for their dreams to be invaded. And I'll re-iterate in regards to the exploding parrot. WTF???

My honest ranking based solely on my personal enjoyment:

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET

DREAM WARRIORS

FREDDY'S REVENGE/FREDDY VS. JASON

THE DREAM MASTER

NEW NIGHTMARE

THE DREAM CHILD

FREDDY'S DEAD

I fucking love the exploding parakeet more with every viewing, possibly because I had a parakeet as a pet. And they give you parakeet POV shots!

That is a pretty great scene if only because it makes no fucking sense.

I love that Jesse's dad blames him for the exploding parakeet. Jesse's reply? "You can't talk to me that way!"

The movie is so much better to talk about than watch.

I was just about to type that. My friends and I went through a phase where we quoted that film to death, and then I was the one with the bright idea to watch it. Needless to say the phase has ended. For now.

Yeah Clu Gulager insists Jesse shoved a firecracker up its ass, or some such nonsense.

What does Jesse's girlfriend see in him anyway? He's always distracted (and overly feminine) and extremely troubled. You can build a drinking game around how many times she begs him to "talk to her" b/c "she's here for him". Is she trying to convert him?

EDIT: Confession... I was sorta crushing on Alice by the end of DREAM MASTER. DREAM CHILD (the stuff following the shower scene anyway) killed it. It must have been all those pregnancy hormones. And unnecessary hair bleaching.

Apparently, you missed his amazing dance moves. Step Up 2 the (Elm) Street.

Maturity certainly didn't make Jacob look less creepy:

Holy ventriloquist dummy!

Seriously. The last thing I remember seeing him in was JP, where Sam Neill threatened him with a raptor talon.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0381035/

I always hated that kid just like I've always hated the little kid from New Nightmare.

Fred Gwynne and his achilles tendon hates that kid too.

Well somebody likes him:

Scarier than any Nightmare On Elm Street movie.

No Fair, Quarant! No Fair, No Fair!

For me, it really started with his being mean to Michelle on "Full House". That's just unforgivable.

The most terrifying thing about that Miko Hughes fanpage is that it was probably put up by a 50 year old man.

I saw the kid from The Dream Child in some commercial not too long ago, and was A) Sad to admit that I recognized him instantly despite not seeing him on screen since the late '80s, and B) Terrified of how he looks now that he's older.

Freddy must have had a huge influence in-utero. Fetal Nightmare Syndrome. I'm not a supporter of abortion, but jeez, Alice... a peek into Jacob's bug-eyed creepy future years wasn't enough of a deterrent? Atleast let the pushy grandparents have him.

According to IMDB, Whit Hertford (even his name is terrible) is only 30 years old. So why the hell does he look like he's 45 and about to murder me? I wish Sam Neill had finished the job with that raptor claw.

It looks like he's the killer in this new flick alongside a white-haired (!) Lance Henriksen.

An unfortunate looking human being. They should cast him as Krueger in the remake.

NOES Props: NEATO!...COOL!

I imagine that some of you may have seen the fan-film: Freddy vs Ghostbusters



Freddy looks so wide-eyed, pudgy, and adorable in this poster!



Headlines in the folder of clippings that Mark gives Alice in DREAM CHILD distinctly label Freddy as a "child molester", and not just a killer BTW.

That costume job is really impressive, but Freddy is looking a little dumpy. Too many screaming face meatballs, I guess.

I wonder how often people come up to this guy and ask him to say, "School's out, Krueger!"

And what sucks for him is there's no way he can try and get away from it, because no other human on the planet looks like that.

Personally, I'd say "The point is, you're still alive when they start to eat you."

"That doesn't look very scary... more like a 6 foot turkey."

I watched Part 2 they other day. I love that a horror sequel can be that gay. If any of the Saw sequels reached that level of gayness, I would actually watch them.

Watching FREDDY'S DEAD right now and had to stop and post. Whatta shitty flick. The intro felt like NAKED GUN ON ELM STREET and it was all down hill from there. The cartoony (almost Zucker Bros parody) dreams (Freddy mocking the deaf kid, etc) and Depp are the only redeeming part of this one so far, everything else (including the tone, characters, and Roseanne & Tom cameos) suuuuucks. I got some enjoyment out of each of its predecessors 1-5 so far, but this one is gonna have to jump through hoops to redeem itself before it's over.

No wonder this is the "FINAL NIGHTMARE". It killed the franchise (yeah, I know there's 2 following and a remake on the way).

EDIT: WTF. This movie doesn't make any damn sense.