What do you do when you see a film series succeed? Applaud it? Or try to outright ape it and make your own version? Well, the ten folks on this list did the latter. Would you really want to enrage Freddy Krueger?
1. Bad Dreams: Let’s get it straight: I love this movie. But I am also willing to admit that a film about a burned maniac haunting the dreams of a mental ward full of teenagers seems like the Dream Warriors all over again. The producers of this film doubled down by putting Jennifer Rubin, Taryn from its inspiration, into the main role.
2. Night Killer: Imagine this: Claudio Fragasso wasn’t content with writing an Aliens/Terminator ripoff like Shocking Dark or blowing minds with Troll 2. Nope, he created this film, which takes the Italian title of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Non Aprite Quella Porta 3 or Don’t Open the Door 3) while giving us a killer with a bargain-basement Freddy mask and claws. Pure Italian scum movie-making magic.
3. Satan’s Bed: Have you just wanted Freddy to dress up, throwing on a white button up and stonewashed jeans while he throws up fireballs? Good news. This movie has you covered.
4. Mahakaal: A killer becomes a demon that torments the family and friends of Anita in revenge for his death, which was caused by her police-officer father. In other words, A Nightmare on Elm Street, India – The Mix Tape, with bits and pieces of all of your favorite series moments, plus, you know, dance numbers and a Michael Jackson impersonator.
5. The Fear: No, not Fear with Marky Mark. No, this movie, about a professor gathering kids with major phobias along with a wooden doll named Morty, who kills them with those fears. Sound like Freddy? Well, at least they gave Wes Craven a cameo, possibly as a way to apologize or ensure that he wouldn’t sue them.
6. Shocker: Speaking of Wes Craven, he was expressly trying to make a new Freddy when he created Horace Pinker, an electrocuted convict who comes back from the dead for revenge and one-liners. No, this movie isn’t House 3 or Prison. But I get how you could be confused. Freddy uses dreams. Horace uses TV. The fact that I didn’t just spend three days discussing all the sequels to this movie should tell you how well it all worked out.
7. Sleepstalker: Another death in the electric chair, another killer that comes back. Except this one is made of sand. Like a sandman. Who brings sleep. Really.
8. Khooni Murdaa: India really loves A Nightmare on Elm Street. This is the third entry on the list and the only one where Freddy stops killing kids to take a dump. Also, it totally rips off the bathtub scene and the ending of Dream Warriors. Also, Freddy’s name in India is Ranjit and he spends the first 40 minutes of this film as a stalker who gets caught, tried and convicted before escaping jail and interrupting our heroes’ Bollywood dance number at a campfire before they shove him into it. You can guess what happens next.
9. Brainscan: Ed Furlong, the former John Connor, is obsessed with horror movies and video games, including Brainscan, a game that takes over his life and brings murders into the real world thanks to The Trickster, the first Freddy ripoff who lives on a CD-Rom.
10. Slumber Party Massacre II: The killer from the original gets reincarnated as a 1950’s rockabilly dude with a drillbit guitar weapon. Dream warnings. Dreams that warn about sex. Dreams within dreams. Complete insanity and a movie that’s better than every Elm Street movie after 4.
That’s our list! Do you have some that we missed? Let us know!
UPDATE: Since writing this list, I’ve discovered this movie.
Don’t Panic: A truly out there mashup of A Nightmare on Elm Street and Saved by the Bell, complete with Ouija boards, demons named Virgil and a hero who wears pajamas covered with dinosaurs for the entire movie.
Update #2: Then, as our October 2021 “Slasher Month” arrived, we discovered:
Stones of Death: An aborigine-styled Freddy is disturbed when a new housing development is built on an outback ancient burial ground. As derivative and boring as it sounds.
You can pish posh this movie by its title or the fact that it rips off A Nightmare on Elm Street or that it’s ridiculous that it has a slasher who has a Warlock guitar with a giant drill at the end. Or you can just do what I did: utterly enjoy every single minute of it. Also, of note, this is the only slasher series to be completely directed by women.
I never saw the original film and I’m here to tell you that I don’t think that matters at all. All you need to know is that Courtney Bates (Crystal Bernard from Wings) survived, teaming with her sister to kill the dreaded Driller Killer (and no, not the one from the Abel Ferrara film.
Now that she’s in high school, Courtney is dealing with nightmares from the ordeal from the first film. She’s also made friends with Amy (Kimberly McArthur, Playboy Playmate January 1982), Sheila (Juliette Cummins from Friday the 13th: A New Beginning, the scummiest of the entire series) and Sally (Heidi Kozak, Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood, who noticed during filming that her jean shorts got shorter every day, due to a costumer literally doing that each night, continuity be damned), who have all started an unnamed band (although the songs are performed by the very Go-Go’s-sounding group Wednesday Week).The girls decide to go away for the weekend so they can work on songs, but they end up watching Rock ‘n Roll High School (director Deborah Brock would go on to direct the sequel to that movie) which leads to a pillow fight and Sheila ripping off her bra, because women can make exploitation movies too.
Surprise! Bros Jeff and T.J. sneak up and spy on the girls before busting in and frightening them. The house is a mess as a result. This image sums up everything there is to know about this movie:
If it seems strange that this movie often focuses on name brand sodas. Mostly Pepsi, but also New York Seltzer. Yet I know that there’s also no way that any of those brands want to be associated with this film.
Later that night, Courtney and Valerie fall asleep in the same bed and our heroine has a dream that the killer murders her friend, then she wakes up in the kitchen floor. Her visions get more and more intense, but the arrival of potential boyfriend Matt makes her happy.
I say that and then within moments, she sees Sally’s zits burst her entire head open. No one can find Sally, so the cops get called. Officers Krueger and Vorhees show up — this is also a film that refers to the last movie’s house as the Cravens and Courtney’s last name is Bates — but assume the teens are all on drugs when Sally shows up alive. Oh yeah — Sally has the last name Burns to pay homage to Sally Hardesty in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, who was played by Marilyn Burns.
Everyone else goes to town for dinner, leaving Courtney alone with Matt. He surprises her with a cake, like he’s the Jake Ryan to her Samantha Baker, and they start to have sex. Keep in mind that she never blows out the candles and we keep cutting to the cake, blazing away. The killer appears and impales Matt, throwing one of his bloody appendages onto the burning candles. He chases Courtney downstairs right into her friends, who call 911. Of course, the cops blow them off, so they’re on their own against a 1950’s rockabilly greaser with a total 1980’s guitar, trapped in a neon-hued house with Patrick Nagel prints on the walls.
Just as Sally argues with the cops, we see the drill come through the backside of the wall, covered in her blood. Sheila and T.J. get injured and almost get away, but the killer catches them after an angry neighbor (producer Don Daniel as Mr. Damnkids) tells them to get off his driveway and T.J. bites the big drill.
Meanwhile, Courtney, Amy and Jeff try to leave in a car, but the killer drills right through Jeff. The girls run into the house and barricade themselves inside, which means that they don’t come to the aid of Sheila, who gets killed after the killer breaks the fourth wall, saying “Now it’s time for the fun part,” and sings a song called “Let’s Buzz.”
Should every slasher have musical numbers? Nope. But at this point of the movie, I was inclined to follow this wherever it led.
Amy falls to her death as the girls run away through a construction site, while Courtney uses a propane tank to light the killer up. In the morning, the police come and we think it’s all over. No, this movie has more endings than a Tolkien film. First, Amy comes back to life and laughs in the killer’s voice. Then, Courtney wakes up in Matt’s arms, who ends up being the killer. Finally, she is in a mental asylum and the killer’s drill appears near her bed.
Originally called Don’t Let Go, this is probably one of the strangest slashers I’ve seen that doesn’t have Bigfoot kill someone with an oven (Night of the Demon, please stand up). There’s also a scene where a dead and frozen chicken leaps from a refrigerator ala the zombie head in probably Fulci’s only contribution to Zombi 3, then proceeds to leak chocolate sauce/blood all over our protagonist.
Slumber Party Massacre2 is 77 minutes of your life that you’ll be glad you wasted. From catchy 80’s singalongs to softcore dreams that descend into graphic violence and a killer who owns every scene of the film — and has nothing to do with the first or third movies in this trilogy — this is why I stay up all night and watch movies.
You can get the Shout Factory release at Diabolik DVD or watch it for free with your Amazon Prime membership.
PS – Don’t steal anything from this movie. The notice at the end reads: Any unauthorized exhibition, distribution or copying of this film or any part thereof [including soundtrack] is an infringement of the relevant copyright and will subject the infringer to severe civil and criminal prosecution as well as a midnight call from the Driller-Killer.
Where could a Nightmare on Elm Street go after five movies, a TV series and numerous appearances in pop culture? Freddy had gone from a horrifying villain to somehow, the hero of the series. Sure, this had happened to Godzilla and Gamera, but those monsters were always friends of children, not murderers of them.
Wes Craven’s New Nightmare – 1994
Originally, this film was going to be A Nightmare on Elm Street 7: The Ascension, but Wes Craven had the goal of creating a more intelligent meditation on the effects of horror on those who created it. He also wanted to bring Freddy closer to what he envisioned him as being in the original film, both in look and how he behaves.
Heather Langenkamp, yes played by Heather Langenkamp, played Nancy Thompson in the first and third movies in the Elm Street movies, but now she keeps dreaming that Freddy is coming for her, her husband Chase and her son Dylan (Miko Hughes, Gage from Pet Semetary). She awakens to an earthquake tearing through her house and a prank caller who continually keeps phoning in Freddy’s nursery rhyme.
After a talk show appearance with an in-costume Robert Englund, Heather learns that New Line Cinema wants her to work on a new Elm Street film that her husband has already been doing effects for. And when she arrives home, her son is watching the first film, screaming at her when she tries to turn it off. She calls her husband to help and as he rushes home, he falls asleep at the wheel and is killed by Freddy.
At the funeral, she has another vision of Freddy and John Saxon — you better believe I stood on my couch and cheered — tells her that she needs help. Dylan refuses to sleep and becomes obsessed with Krueger, which leads to her visiting series creator Wes Craven, played by, you knew it, Wes Craven.
Craven explains that Freddy has always been alive, a supernatural creature that attached itself to the films and was freed when Freddy died for the last time in the fifth film (perhaps it was just that he was upset that that one is so bad). Englund knows even more, but soon disappears from all contact.
After an aftershock to the earthquake, Heather takes Dylan to the hospital, where the doctor on call believes that he’s being abused. While police have her under custody, Freddy appears and kills the babysitter much like the first kill in the first film.
Dylan sleepwalks across a crowded freeway with Nancy in pursuit as the film grows more nightmarish — yes, I know that was super literal. After being injured saving him, Heather returns home, only to learn that John Saxon has now become her/Nancy’s father Don Thompson. She decides to embrace her old role and Freddy emerges into reality, taking her son into her world.
Working together, Dylan and Heather/Nancy shove Freddy into an oven — echoing how the parents of Elm Street stopped him in the original story — murdering him. They awake in bed, with a copy of the film’s script close behind. There’s a note from Craven, thanking her for defeating Freddy and playing Nancy one last time. Now, she has jailed the demon into the film’s world all over again. Dylan asks if it’s just a story and Heather says that yes, it has all just been a story. Yet that’s up to debate, as In the ending credits, Freddy Krueger is listed as playing himself.
If the end result is similar to Fulci’s A Cat in the Brain, this was not lost on the Italian godfather of gore (and emperor of eviscerated eyeballs). In his lone U.S. convention appearance (at the January 1996 Fangoria Horror Convention in New York City), Fulci would claim that New Nightmare rips off his film.
This movie was well-received by critics, but where can you go with Freddy Krueger? Simple. You make him battle someone else. 2003’s Freddy vs. Jason would pit the two horror icons against each other and the results were that each would have to reboot afterward. You can read our thoughts on this film from last year’s Friday the 13th Watch the Series post right here.
A Nightmare on Elm Street – 2010
Samuel Bayer directed the Nirvana video for “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” amongst literally hundreds of other videos and commercials. For his first movie, he was selected to remake the first Elm Street, a task that had to feel herculean.
Produced by Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes team, the goal was to do what they had done for their Friday the 13th remake: take the best parts of each film and make one new story. However, they soon learned that going back to the first film was really the only way to go. They also made Krueger an actual child molester and not a killer, as well as making him meaner, with a look more like an actual burn victim.
Robert Englund endorsed the film (and Jackie Earle Haley playing Freddy), but Craven was not as kind, perhaps because he wasn’t consulted before the movie was made.
Kris Fowles (Katie Cassidy, Black Canary on TV’s Arrow) meets her friend Dean (Kellan Lutz, Twilight) at the Springwood Diner, but soon, Dean is asleep and dreaming of Freddy Krueger, who slices his throat. In our reality, Dean cuts his own throat as waitress Nancy (Rooney Mara, the American version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, who hated being in this movie so much that she nearly stopped acting) watches.
The children of Elm Street soon learn that they all went to pre-school together, where they were abused by — you guessed it — Freddy Krueger. Now, they’re all dreaming of the burned killing machine. Kris is soon killed by him, with her murder blamed on her ex-boyfriend Jesse (Thomas Dekker, John Connor from the Fox Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles TV show, who called this film a horrible mess). Of course, he’s soon dead in his jail cell.
Quentin (Kyle Gallner, American Sniper) and Nancy begin investigating and soon learn that once the parents of Elm Street learned that Krueger was molesting their children, they hunted him down and burned him alive. What follows is pretty much the same tale as the original, with Freddy being pulled into our world and a similar shock twist ending.
I really have no idea who this movie is for. You can just go watch the original to see a much better, more imaginative film. Bayer has a great visual style — he came up in directing with Bay and David Fincher — but between the CGI makeup for Freddy, the portrayal of him and the general been there, done that nature of this film, I was bored throughout. Then again, I realize that millennials don’t have as many DVDs as me or any interest in watching a movie from the early 80’s.
Platinum Dunes producer Brad Fuller has been quoted as saying that while the film was a financial success, the backlash didn’t stop for two years. The company wouldn’t make another movie until 2013’s The Purge and hasn’t remade a horror movie since.
While a talented actor, I just don’t like Haley in the Freddy role. Maybe its because he has referred to the original as, “The worst movie ever.” Or perhaps that’s just sour grape, as there’s a rumor that Johnny Depp tagged along when Haley auditioned for the original and got the part while his friend didn’t.
Want more Elm Street?
2011’s I Am Nancy explores Heather Langenkamp’s feelings about starring in the films and her role in the series.
Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street will be out later this year and is all about Mark Patton’s journey in Hollywood after making the second Elm Street. It looks really interesting and you can find the official site here.
Nightmares in the Makeup Chair is another upcoming film that is all about the process that it took to transform Robert Englund into Freddy every single day of filming. You can learn more here.
Beyond the Marvel comics we covered, Freddy has also appeared in comics from Innovation Comics, Trident Comics, Avatar Press and WildStorm Comics. There was also a crossover comic with Dynamite Entertainment that was all about Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash, which puts a dream movie into the hands of eager readers.
If you love Mortal Kombat, good news. You can play as Freddy in the 2011 edition of the game and its Mortal Kombat X mobile game. While he looks like the 2010 version of the character, that’s really Robert Englund providing his voice.
Freddy is also available for the slashertastic game Dead by Daylight (you can also play as Michael Myers, Leatherface and the Pig from Saw), which also came with a playable version of Quentin Smith from the 2010 film.
I almost forgot…Freddy also chased politicians on DC Follies…
He also was on The Goldbergs last week!
Thanks for joining us on our voyage through Elm Street! Do you have a favorite? Did we miss something? Let us know in the comments!
How did I go eleven years without watching this? I should hang my head in shame. I love portmanteau movies and stuff that gets really weird, so I have no real reason why I skipped this. Here’s hoping everyone can find it in their heart to forgive me.
Inspired by Season’s Greetings, an animated short created by Trick ‘r Treat writer and director Michael Dougherty, this film tells the story of the night of Halloween in Warren Valley, Ohio. It’s nonlinear the way it all plays out (think Pulp Fiction) and several of the stories cross over. They all have one thing in common — Sam, a little trick or treater dressed in pajamas and a burlap sack for a mask. If anyone goes against the rules of the holiday, he’s there to ensure they pay for it.
I love the look of Sam. For the first part of the movie, I was sure he was just a little trick or treater who was left behind by his friends and was witnessing everything going on. Once you realize what he’s doing, you start rooting for the little guy.
From a couple who take down their decorations too soon to an obese boy who can’t stop smashing pumpkins, everyone gets their reward. There’s also the school principal and potential serial killer Steven Wilkins, the elderly recluse Mr. Kreeg (the always great Brian Cox), a gang of kids trying to frighten Rhonda with the Halloween School Bus Massacre urban legend and a group of four girls out to party (including Anna Paquin as a shy virgin). Each of their tales will all be intertwined, complete with murder, gore, werewolves, zombies and finally, Sam’s secret face.
This feels like the great lost 1980’s horror movie and I loved every single minute of it. They’ve been teasing a sequel for a few years and now I can’t wait for everyone to get their act together. Writer/director Michael Dougherty was also behind the film Krampus, which I could not enjoy no matter how hard I tried, and is the writer/director behind next year’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Hopefully, his next project is the follow up for Sam!
Shout! Factory has just released an anniversary version of this, complete with a new cover, a 2K scan of the film, new interviews with Michael Dougherty, deleted and alternate scenes and Season’s Greetings and a story from the Trick ‘r Treat comic book!
We did it! Today’s the final day of the Scarecrow Psychotronic Challenge! Check out our final films. And while you’re at it, check out Scarecrow Video and donate some money to their fine efforts!
1. The Lady Auteur: Pioneering women directors in psychotronic cinema. Now see who’s wearing the pants in Hellywood. A Day to Dismember
2. She Bites. Scientists should not fool with mother nature but they do and bad things happen. Phase IV
3. Math and Numerology. The plot must revolve around numbers in some way. Count on this theme to be a tough one. Banshee Chapter
4. Franchise Day. Pick something from any franchise that has four or more entries. Bonus points if it has a fast food eating scene in it – have it your way. A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master
1 2 3 4 CLIVE. Clive Barker was born on October 5th. Celebrate any of his gruesome cinematic deeds. Nightbreed
666. El Dia De La Bestia: The more Satanic, the better. Legacy of Satan
7. Hell on Earth. Watch a post-apocalypse movie. Bonus if it has punks (see the Destroy All Movies definition of punk) in it. Jubilee
8. The Eyes Have It. This pick must have an eye specific scene. Eyeball
9. Unseen Terror. You barely see it but it still terrifies you. Fiend Without a Face
10. Unhead Until… It’s too late! Your last second will be your loudest. We’re looking for the quietest non-silent movie or one where the enemy hunts by sound. The Sound of Horror
15. Easterns. The Asian continent has produced so many exotic cinema treasures. Watch one. Female Prisoner #701 Scorpion
16. Petey Wheatstraw presents. Watch a movie featuring African-Americans in the starring roles. Bonus if it’s written and/or directed by an African-American. Tales from the Hood 2
17. Die Laughing. “Hello?” “I don’t think comedy belongs in horror.” “You got the wrong number, pal.” Jennifer’s Body
18. Psychotronic Documentaries. The real authority on the occult, ufos, ghost hunters, conspiracy theories etc. They’re all real, accurate and true, right? The Aldebaran Mystery
19. VHS Day. Watch something on the greatest physical format known to psychotronica. If you don’t have access to a VCR watch something originally shot on video. Night Train to Terror
20. Video Store Day. The most important day of this challenge. Watch something physically purchased from an actual video store. If you live in a place that is unfortunate enough not to have one of these archival treasures then watch a movie with a video store in it at least. #vivaphysicalmedia! The Lost Boys
22. Separation. Alienation. Aloneness. If you scream alone in the woods and no one is around to hear it, are you really screaming? The Witch
23. Creepy Phone Calls. Reach out and touch someone before they reach out and touch you. 976-EVIL
24. Puppets or Dolls: Sometimes they play back. Dead Silence
25. Institutionalized. An antagonist from the funny farm. Nightmare
26. Military Involvement. When the men in green take on the little green men. Starship Troopers
27. Modum Onerariis: A movie about transportation methods. A car, rollerblades, a broom, flying saucer…whatever gets you there. The Wraith
28. Home Invasions. Unwanted visitors can really make a mess out of things. Hardware
29. Gangs. Specifically, one where a group of ne’er-do-wells do some serious menacing. La Venganza de los Punks
30.Slash Your Face. A solo maniac is out to get ya. You can run but you can’t hide! Absurd
31. In the Graveyard. The graveyard seems a fitting place to end a journey. But for some it might just be the beginning…ZOMBIES!!! Return of the Living Dead
Day 31 of the Scarecrow Psychotronic Challenge is 31. In the Graveyard. The graveyard seems a fitting place to end a journey. But for some it might just be the beginning…ZOMBIES!!! How did it take so long for this, one of my favorite movies of all time, to make it to the site? This is quite literally the ultimate drive-in movie to me — it moves fast, it’s ridiculously quotable and it’s packed with laughs and gore.
If you ever wondered where the fact that zombies like brains come from, look no further. This is the film that did it.
July 3, 1984. Louisville, Kentucky. The Uneeda Medical Supply company. Frank (James Karen, Poltergeist) is showing off all of the strangeness within the warehouse to new employee Freddy (Thom Mathews, Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI). There are all manner of body parts, skeletons from an Indian skeleton farm, half dogs and drums containing the leftovers of a military experiment gone wrong, the kind of horrifying thing that they would make a movie about. A movie like, say, Night of the Living Dead. The problem is, Frank accidentally releases the gas in one of the tanks and reanimates corpses and bodies and half dogs throughout the warehouse.
A quick call to the owner, Burt (Clu Gulager, The Initiation) provides only minor help. Trying to figure out how to control the situation and keep his business out of trouble, the three men hack a walking corpse to bits. But it just won’t die — the movies lie! Even a shot to the brain can’t stop the living dead. They turn to Ernie (Don Calfa, Weekend at Bernie’s), a mortician friend, to burn the bodies — which releases the reanimation process into the open air and the graveyard next door.
I never realized in all the times I’ve watched his that Ernie is supposed to be a Nazi in hiding. Now that I see the clues (he listens to the German Afrika Corps march song “Panzer rollen in Afrika vor” on his Walkman while embalming bodies, he carries a German Walther P38, has a photo of Eva Braun and refers to the rain coming down like “Ein Betrunken Soldat” (German for “a drunken soldier”), it makes a lot of sense. Director and screenwriter Dan O’Bannon confirms this theory on the DVD commentary.
Meanwhile, Freddy’s friends learn about his new job from Tina, his girlfriend. There’s Spider, Scuz, Suicide (Mark Venturini, Friday the 13th: A New Beginning), Casey (Jewel Shepard, Raw Force), Chuck and, most importantly, Trash (Linnea Quigley in the role of her career). The scene where she announces that the worst way to die would be for “a bunch of old men to get around me and start biting and eating me alive. First, they would tear off my clothes…” is one of the silliest and goofiest excuses to have nudity in a movie, but it works.
As her friends blast 45 Grave and watch Tina disrobe on top of the grave of Archibald Leach (Cary Grant’s real name), Tina looks for Freddy. However, she’s been found by Tarman, the half-melted corpse in the barrel that started this whole mess. And it doesn’t get any better, with zombies calling in paramedics to die (“Send more brains!”) and even the police getting destroyed by the undead. And if you think the military is going to do anything other than nuke the town to hide the truth, then you’ve never seen a zombie film before.
This is a movie unafraid to feature shocks and laughs in the same frame. It comes from the writing team of John Russo and Russell Streiner, two of the names behind the original Night of the Living Dead. When Russo and George Romero went their separate ways, Russo got the rights to the name “Living Dead” while Romero would be allowed to make sequels. The original plan was for Tobe Hooper to direct this movie, but he would go on to make Lifeforce. Screenwriter Dan O’Bannon (Dark Star, Alien, Lifeforce, Total Recall and the Alejandro Jodorowsky chose to supervise special effects when he tried to make Dune) agreed to direct, but only if he could rewrite the movie so that it wasn’t seen as a ripoff of Romero’s film.
This is a film packed with in-jokes, like how Freddy’s jacket says FUCK YOU on the back of it and has a totally different jacket for the edited version that says TELEVISION VERSION on it. And there are even more little MAD Magazine-style bits throughout, like the hidden message on the eye test poster in Burt’s office.
I can’t hide how much I love this movie. From the production designs to William Stout to the special effects work (including puppeteer Allan Trautman as Tarman), this movie moves fast, takes no prisoners and continues to surprise me. I always find something new with every viewing.
Want to see it for yourself? Grab the 30th Anniversary blu ray from Shout! Factory or watch it for free with your Amazon Prime membership.
Sometimes, I’m a glutton for punishment. Other times, my acid reflux wakes me up at 3:30 AM and I stay awake watching 1990’s direct-to-video horror. This would be both of those things at once. Imagine a movie that rips off both Shocker and A Nightmare on Elm Street at the same time, but also has voodoo and a bad guy made out of sand.
Seventeen years after slaughtering all but one member of Griffin’s (Jay Underwood, Bug from Uncle Buck) family, The Sandman is finally set to be executed. But just like Horace Pinker, he has an escape plan. The minister who delivers his last rites is really a voodoo priest who transforms him into a man made of sand. Now, the Sandman must find Griffin, who he has a connection to, and kill him.
Look, here’s the spoiler, because no one should have to suffer through this film like I have. They’re brothers. Are there any other reasons to watch this? Ken Foree from Night of the Living Dead is in it. He’s also in Death Spa and Phantom of the Mall: Eric’s Revenge, if you want to further go down the rabbit hole that is 1990’s video store horror.
Come for the Sandman, stay for the Mexican gang subplot, stick around for the voodoo, fall asleep before the end. I guess the Sandman lives up to his name!
You can watch this on Amazon Prime, if you have also have an upset stomach and can’t sleep.
This version of The Haunting of Hill House went through several ideations and creative hands, starting with Wes Craven, who ultimately decided to make Scream instead. Steven Spielberg, this film’s executive producer, had talked to Stephen King that 1963’s The Haunting was a great starting point and that the Winchester Mystery House would be a great setting. However, the two had creative differences, with King ultimately leaving and creating Rose Red, his take on the story.
Jan de Bont, who was the cinematographer on the Tippi Hedren project Roar (which we absolutely must get into soon), Cujo and Die Hard, as well as the director of Speed and Twister, is the director of the final product, which was a troubled shoot that had cinematographer Caleb Deschanel (father of Emily and Zooey) leave one week into filming.
Exterior shots and the billiard room scenes use Harlaxton Manor — the house from The Ruling Class — as Hill House, while the interiors were filmed in a dome-shaped hangar in Long Beach, California that once housed Howard Hughes’ gigantic Spruce Goose.
Eleanor “Nell” Vance (Lili Taylor, The Conjuring) has just lost her home after caring for her invalid mother for more than a decade. She gets a call from Dr. David Marrow (Liam Neeson), who is conducting a study of insomniacs at Hill House, which will include Luke Sanderson (Owen Wilson), Theodora (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and two of Marrow’s research assistants.
When they arrive at the foreboding house, they meet its caretakers, the Dudleys (Bruce Dern and theater actress Marian Seldes), who lock everyone into the mansion. Unknown to everyone involved, Dr. Marrow’s doesn’t intend to study insomnia, but instead how the body reacts to fear. He plans on slowly exposing everyone to increasing amounts of terror.
That’s when Dr. Marrow tells the story of Hill House, a place built by Hugh Crain, who built it for his wife and children, who all died at birth. Crain’s wife killed herself before the house was finished and the tycoon became a recluse. One of the assistants doesn’t believe this story and she’s instantly injured, taking Marrow’s two helpers out of the equation as they leave for the hospital.
Before you know it, statues are coming to life, words are being written in blood and statues are trying to drown people. Turns out that Crain used orphans for child labor and would torture and kill them in his home before burning their bodies. He also had a second wife and Eleanor is a relative of the family who feels that she has to stay in the house to keep the children safe forever.
Keep in mind — this isn’t a remake of the Robert Wise film, as the production company didn’t get the rights and weren’t allowed to replicate any of the shots from the original. Instead, they had to start from scratch.
My biggest issue with this film is that has no real idea of what kind of movie it wants to be. Is it a Disney style movie like The Haunted Mansion? Or is a gory shocker? Because if you want to see Owen Wilson get beheaded, well, good news. This is the movie for you. This is a CGI dependent affair and what was cutting edge in 1999 looks dated today, unlike the 1963 film which is timeless.
Long before Netflix was even a small stream, Shirley Jackson wrote The Haunting of HillHouse. Jackson decided to write about a haunted house after studying nineteenth-century ghost researchers from the Society for Psychic Research, who she believed had not found a true haunted house, but instead, she said they were “several earnest, I believe misguided, certainly determined people, with their differing motivations and background.”
Directed by Robert Wise (The Sound of Music, West Side Story and the editor of Citizen Kane), the real star of the movie is the house itself. Elliot Scott (who also art directed Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Labyrinth) designed the brightly lit set, which had no dark corners or places to hide, yet were made to be claustrophobic with ceilings in each set (traditionally, film sets have no ceilings). Wise further added to the effect by using an untested 30mm anamorphic wide-angle Panavision lens that created distortions that were further pushed with low angle shots and strange tracking shots. Upon release, the film was seen as messy and incoherent, yet in the years that followed, it’s been celebrated as one of cinema’s best horror films.
Hill House’s exteriors are actually Ettington Park, a hotel that was once called “the most important and impressive High Victorian house in the county.” Supposedly, Wise met a society of British haunted house devotees, who pointed him to the house.
Starring five-time Tony winner Julie Harris as Eleanor, Claire Bloom CBE as Theodora, Russ Tamblyn (Twin Peaks and Dr. Montague in the new version of The Haunting of Hill House) as Luke Sanderson and Richard Johnson (Dr. Menard from Zombi 2!) as Doctor Markaway, the film begins with Markaway explaining the history of Hill House. It was made by Hugh Crain for his wife, but she died in a carriage crash as she approached the house for the first time. His second wife died falling down the stairs. And his daughter Abigail lived as a recluse there her entire life, giving it to her nurse upon her death. And that nurse? She hung herself. Now, it belongs to Mrs. Sanderson, who allows Markaway to study the house as long as he takes Luke with him.
Theodora is a psychic (also one of the first expressly lesbian characters in cinema) and Eleanor is continually depressed (as was Harris throughout shooting), who saw ghosts as a child and had to care for her mother until her recent death. Despite everyone else’s terror when the house begins to emit loud noises and knocks, Eleanor begins to fall in love with it.
Soon, Markway’s wife Grace (Lois Maxwell, Moneypenny from the James Bond series of films) arrives, demands a bed at the center of the haunting and begins to bedevil Eleanor, who is losing herself to either insanity, the house or perhaps both.
Here’s a trivia fact that probably no one but me will care about — Mr. Dudley is played by Valentine Dyall, who is the voice of the mummy in the absolutely unhinged classic, Bizarre/Secrets of Sex. Mrs. Dudley is played by Rosalie Crutchley from Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? and Amicus’ And Now the Screaming Starts!
My wife would like everyone to know that Theodora has the best clothes ever, because they were designed by Mary Quant, who claimed to have designed the miniskirt and hotpants.
Dedicated to one of horror cinema’s originators, Val Lewton, cinematic masters such as Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese refer to this as their favorite scary movie. It’s a bit talky, but it’s also packed with moments of unsettling eerieness, particularly as Eleanor’s voice narrates the sinister ending.
In our last post, we got into the origin of the Nightmare on Elm Street films. Now, sadly, we start to discover why — and when — the series started to go downhill.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child – 1989
What can you say about a movie where the director, Stephen Hopkins (Predator2, Judgement Night), says “What started out as an OK film with a few good bits turned into a total embarrassment. I can’t even watch it anymore.”?
A year after the last film, the returning Alice (Lisa Wilcox) and Dan (Danny Hassel) have been dating and seen no sign of Freddy until a shower turns into Alice going back in time to witness the creation of Freddy by the maniacs of the asylum. She tries to forget the dream as she’s graduating high school the next day, along with comic book lover Mark, model Greta (Erika Anderson, Twin Peaks) and aspiring nurse Yvonne (Kelly Jo Minter, Maria, the video store clerk from The Lost Boys).
The dreams don’t go away, with Alice witnessing the birth of a Freddy baby that makes its way to the church from the last film. He tells her he’s learned how to come back to life, just at the moment that he kills Dan. At the same time, she also learns that she’s pregnant with her dead boyfriend’s child.
No one believes that Freddy is after Alice, but Greta soon is killed by being forced to overeat in her dreams. Oh yeah — Alice is also seeing a fully grown boy she calls Jacob who she believes is her future son. Freddy is feeding his victims to her unborn baby — who yes, is also Jacob — to make him evil.
There is an imaginative scene where Freddy kills Mark within a comic book world, as well as the world that Freddy lives in now. But the ending, where Amanda Krueger seals away Freddy and Jacob decides to stay with his mother amidst strange puppet heads gets a little ridiculous. Actually, this entire movie is, supposing that teens we’d want to watch a movie about the terrors of teen pregnancy mixed with the terrors of being an Elm Street teenager.
Supposedly, there’s an uncut version of this movie that’s never been released that would change a lot of people’s opinions on the film. I’ll watch it again if that ever comes out. Yes, I know there was an unrate VHS release but supposedly there’s even more missing.
Maybe it’d be a better film if New Line had given the director more than four weeks to work on it. And get this — the poster was released before the producers had a clear idea what the movie was going to be about, other than the idea that Freddy would be a fetus and the title would be The Dream Child.
Somewhere between the fourth and fifth movies, Freddy’s Nightmares began airing on syndicated TV. The pilot episode, which tells Freddy’s origin story in great detail was directed by Tobe Hooper. After this, every episode would tell two stories about the city of Springwood, Ohio. The second tale in each episode would usually expand upon a character from the first story. Freddy may or may not be directly involved, but he’d appear in the beginning and end to do a wraparound sequence.
Directors like Tom McLoughlin (Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI ), Mick Garris (Sleepwalkers), Ken Wiederhorn (Shock Waves), John Lafia (writer of Child’s Play and director of Child’s Play 2), Dwight H. Little, who delighted my wife’s childhood with the fourth and part of the fifth segments of Halloweenas well as Murder at 1600 and even Englund himself (he’s Freddy in every episode and let’s not forget that he directed 976-EVIL).
Let’s face it — Freddy was entering massive saturation, being on TV every week, appearing in a black and white Marvel comic book written by Howard the Duck creator Steve Gerber that was pulled after two issues due to internal concerns with its violent content, a video game from LJN (of course) and a line of toys that caused great controversy.
The Maxx FX line is one of sadness. Conceived by Mel Birnkrant, the creator and designer of toy lines like Outer Space Men and Baby Face.
Maxx FX was to be toys that had a special effects creator action figure as well as all of the costumes to make him into different monsters, from Universal classics to the Alien, Jason and Freddy. Check out the article on the creator’s site — where the videos and image above were taken — to learn more. I have the Freddy Maxx FX in storage, having found it for only $10 at a closeout store a year after it was to be released.
Thanks for indulging me on that trip to the memory lane section of the toy aisle. Let’s get back to the movies!
Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare – 1991
Look, any horror movie that starts off with a Goo Goo Dolls song is just going to inspire my ire. But let’s try to be objective and not consider some of the better ideas for this sequel, including Jacob coming back to lead the Dream Warriors and a Peter Jackon screenplay where Freddy would stop being a threat and have the Elm Street kids even taking sleeping pills to screw with him.
Instead, this one starts ten years after where we left off, with Freddy having killed every single child from Springwood except for one teenager, John Doe. Waking up outside the city, he has no memories of why he’s there or even who he is.
He’s taken to a youth shelter, where he meets Spencer (Breckin Meyer), Carlos and Tracy (Lezlie Deane, 976-EVIL), who want to skip town. Part of Dr. Maggie Burroughs’ (Lisa Zane, sister of Billy) treatment is to take John to Springwood to cure his amnesia. The other kids all hide in the van and we’re off to the home of Freddy, just in time for John to have a nightmare and the van to wreck.
The abandoned house that the teens find turns into Freddy’s former home on 1428 Elm Street and we soon learn that Freddy has a child. After spending most of the film thinking John is the hero, he’s killed by Freddy, who reveals that he has a daughter.
Around here, Yaphet Kotto shows up and explains that he can control his dreams and how to defeat Freddy — drag him into the real world. If you’re screaming at your TV because this didn’t really work in the first film, you aren’t alone. And if Maggie being Freddy’s kid doesn’t hit you over the head with the sledgehammer of subtlety, then you just aren’t paying attention.
The last ten minutes of this movie — where Maggie goes into Freddy’s dimension to battle the dream demons that power him — were shot for 3D. Freddy gets blown up real good after Maggie gets off a kiss off line, saying “Happy Father’s Day!” Actually, no one feels good about this movie or this ending. Then again, the original theatrical version ran for 100 minutes while every home video release has run for 88, so obviously, big chunks were edited out of the film.
In the place of a decent tale, we’re given cameos by Johnny Depp, Tom Arnold, Roseanne Barr, Elinor Donahue and Alice Cooper as Freddy’s abusive father. That makes two 80’s slasher franchises that Alice has been involved with now.
This is the only Elm Street film to feature a female director — Rachel Talalay — and no female victims. Talalay would go on to direct episodes of Sherlock and Dr. Who, as well as Tank Girl.
Where can you take Freddy after all of these trials and tribulations? How can you make him more relevant? You have three choices, really. Go outside of the canon, a crossover or a remake. In the next chapter, we’ll discover how the Elm Street series would eventually do all three.
BTW — I figure this is a good place as any to mention some songs inspired by Freddy Krueger. Join me, why don’t you?
Also released on their album “Back for the Attack,” Dokken’s “Dream Warriors” is one catchy song and the entire reason I wanted to watch the third film. Don’t get me started or I’ll be singing it all day.
Prince Markie Dee of the Fat Boys Uncle Frederick has died and a lawyer claims that he has to spend one night in his haunted house to get his inheritance. If you ever wanted to hear Robert Englund rap, well, here you go.
Tracey Knight didn’t just star in The Dream Master, she’s also fond of singing this little ditty, which opens the movie.
Before Will Smith was a huge star, New Line actually sued him and his partner DJ Jazzy Jeff over this song and a planned music video, forcing a sticker onto all copies of their album “He’s the DJ, I’m the Rapper” stating that this “[This song] is not part of the soundtrack…and is not authorized, licensed, or affiliated with the Nightmare on Elm Street films.”
Stormtroopers of Death was a group made up of Anthrax’s Scott Ian and Charlie Benante along with former bandmate Danny Lilker and Billy Milano, who likes Freddy so much that his next band, M.O.D. would record “Man of Your Dreams.”
Former KISS guitarist Vinnie Vincent got into the Freddy action with this song and video from the fourth film. Man, how about the days when bands got budgets like this to produce music videos?
An album packed with dream related songs, both originals and covers, this also has Robert Englund doing intros to every song. They’re all redone by studio musicians, the Elm Street Group.
Finally, one more PS — the image for today’s Elm Street series comes from Sungold’s line of bootleg Monster toys. Their version of Freddy has an even better name: Sharp Hand Joe! You can even get a t-shirt of this from the awesome folks at Pizza Party Printing!
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