It's things like this that remind me why I love movies, why I love horror movies and why these movies are important. If you're a horror buff, film buff, love the 'Nightmare on Elm Street' world or just have a curiosity into what it takes to make elaborate looking films with little to no money then this is epic, four hour documentary is for you. "Never Sleep Again" covers all seven Freddy Krueger films as well as "Freddy vs. Jason". You'll see tons of interviews with the stars of those movies (barring a couple who are quite large now) and their various creators as well as hear the tale of the birth of New Line Cinema. I do recall years and years ago hearing that New Line was the house that Freddy built and now I know why.
Wes Craven created the original story from hearing of real events in which people (mainly in Asian countries after the Vietnam war) were having vivid nightmares and trying their best to stay awake. One such story was of a boy who told his parents that he couldn't sleep or else he would die. The boy's father was a doctor and gave him sleeping pills. He never took the pills but after a few days without sleep he finally blacked out and they put him to bed finding the pills rolling around under the bed sheets and a coffee maker in the closet. That same night the parents awoke to the boy screaming and by the time they made it to his room he was dead. I happen to agree with Craven in saying, now that's an interesting story. Well he and others go in the every little detail as does the others involved about the thought process, filming, writing and effects design of each film in the series. If you've never gone through and watched all the Freddy movies then I would actually say go for it.
Unlike the "Halloween" or "Friday the 13th" franchises, Freddy is a different kind of lead; and while he did become a bit of a game show host after he was pimped out as much as possible he still had so much more than the other slasher hosts. Freddy could be funny and dark and make it all work together. Now I'm not saying all those movies are good, because that's not the case. But are they watchable? Yes. Can you find something entertaining about going through those films and looking at the crazy set designs and the old school effects and delve into it's cheesy charm? Yes. In many ways this made me long to see more horror done in these pre-CGI ways that's NOT torture porn or some clever variation of torture porn (lookin' at you "The Human Centipede"). It is fact possible to say that no other horror franchise is as original or interesting to sit through than that of the 'Elm Street' collection.
Granted my favorite slasher picture remains John Carpenter's "Halloween". There's many, many creepy, classy and trashy things I love about that film and I'll never forget the fear I had as a kid trying to watch it and jumping throughout the whole movie. But "A Nightmare on Elm Street" always fascinated me and I wished I'd gotten to see it when I was younger because while almost everything in it I already knew about, I could have still be freaked by some of the stuff around that age (I wanna say I was 7 or 8 when I saw 'Halloween' and had never seen a horror movie before that). I think the idea of a man that can kill you in your dreams is a shit load scarier then anything else really. It's hard to control you're mind in a dream. It's more like watching a movie rather than playing a video game so easily someone could snap your neck in a dream and that'd be your end.
There is nothing like this around anymore and it's kind of sad. Some people might want to argue that "Saw" is that, but it's not. There's not different between "Saw II" and "Saw V". It's all a continuously stupid series of senseless stories, bland characters and traps that are not longer interesting. Also it's main character Jigsaw is a boring mix of John Doe from "Se7en" and Hannibal Lecter. The 'Elm Street' series while not always having the best stories, still brought an original vision to the table and had fun with it each time. Those films aren't fun they're just clunky editing and lame set ups that kill any sense of terror. I know in twenty years or so they'll be a documentary of those films as well, but it won't be deserving. Hell I'm even sure the one for "Friday the 13th" was deserving, but this one... yeah I guess it is.
What this saga did was help launch acting careers for the likes of Johnny Depp and Patrica Arquette as well as careers for writers and directors like Wes Craven, Frank Darabont, Chuck Russell, Renny Harlin, Stephen Hopkins and Brian Helgaland. It made a horror movie character a superstar known the world over, granted causing him to lose much of his fear effect for fun and games, but for a while he was a mega star. Now I wish I could say the Platinum Dunes remake was worth while and I wish I could say, yeah in a few years we'll see Nightmare 2 with a bigger cast and budget and maybe even somebody a little more tested behind the camera. I wish Jackie Earle Harley, who's performance of Freddy Krueger was in fact quite impressive will get a second chance to expand on his version of the character. Unfortunately I can't say those things cause I don't see it happening. P.D. played it pussy and turning in a shitty, shitty film. Almost as shitty as what Tim Burton did with "Alice in Wonderland". It's made some money so yeah... perhaps Bay and company will throw down some more cash and look for better names for a sequel. But what's the point if you're not going to be original and daring with what you do?
Rather than think hey we have to stay as close to this film as we possibly, why not take away the lessons those sequels taught us. Do they have to connect? No. Does it have to be scary all the time? No. But we must be original and fun. I know they can do that and I'd love, LOVE I tell you, to see Harley as Krueger again with some real writing talent going on behind and a director who's not afraid, has unique vision of surreal horror and knows how to make a fun movie. I think it's possible, but not going to happen right now. But in the mean time pick up the DVD for this or watch it online ( as I did) and kick back for a lengthy look at the creative world of horror cinema at it's best, worst and everything in between.
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