Number 8 of My Top 31 Horror Movies : The evil spirit of a slain killer seeks revenge by invading the dreams of teenagers whose parents were responsible for his death : A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET is the epitome of terror and Wes Craven was the master of serving it up, he knew what scared his audience and delivered a fearsome, bloody nightmare which has since spawned eight movies and a dreadful remake : In 1984 I was barely a teenager when Wes Craven gave us the iconic FREDDY KRUEGER, with his trademark hat, red & green sweater and a glove with razors for fingers, this demented killer not only petrified me and gave me sleepless nights back in the 80s but still does to this day : in 1984, and to make his movie Craven needed an actor to play a deceased child murderer built from the fires of hell, he needed a villain with menance & pure evil in his eye’s so they turned to Robert Englund a charasmatic actor known for bit parts in movies such as Galaxy of Terror, Dead & Buried and Eaten Alive to turn this monster into horror icon : like Carpenter’s Halloween Wes Craven’s movie also needed a heroine, a teenage girl who was innocent, beautiful and smart, a girl who would be Freddy’s equal on the horror battlefield, so after an extensive search Craven discovered Heather Langenkamp she would be the film’s Nancy and the perfect fit for Craven’s horror masterpiece : but why is A Nightmare On Elm Street still scary after all these years? well unlike Craven’s Scream the killer is supernatural, for me there’s something brutal about the way Freddy goes about his business of killing his victims, the death scenes are terrifying and made more squeamish due to the not seeing of who’s performing the act, you see the blood, the mutilation and you know it’s Freddy but you don’t see him and that’s where Craven excels, Tina’s death scene is the best example, as her boyfriend watches on she’s sliced open and then thrown around the cealing of her bedroom like a rag doll, blood draining from her body as she crashes back to her bed and the way Johnny Depp’s character Glen, like a vaccum cleaner is sucked into his bed and then spat back out pureed, the room awash with his remains, I found the scenes when Nancy wakes up from her nightmare in the Katja Institute bringing back Freddy’s hat and her arm sliced to be alarming and I still find the boiler rooms scenes particulary scary, the steam and the darkness only lit by the reflection of the flames engulfing the oven to be so unnerving, you just know Freddy is lurking somehwere in the shadows : from it’s chilling score written by Charles Bernstein, the wonderful John Saxon who plays Nancy’s dad and sheriff of the town to Wes Craven’s script that was turned down by Universal & Paramount Pictures back in the day but thank god for New Line Cinema who showed their trust in the filmmaker and was rewarded with a box office smash A Nightmare On Elm Street is essential Halloween viewing and even after all these years will turn your stomach and make it hard to sleep when the lights go down…… One two, Freddy’s coming for you. Three four, better lock your door. Five six, grab your crucifix. Seven eight, gonna stay up late. Nine ten, never sleep again ★★★★★
a nightmare on elm street
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One year after the brutal murder of her mother, Sidney Prescott and her friends are terrorized by a new killer : Written by Kevin Williamson & Directed by Wes Craven SCREAM is the BEST HORROR MOVIE in the last 25yrs : From that shiver inducing Dimension Film logo before the film starts, it’s smart edgy blood soaked script, the shocking start to the movie that nobody saw coming & the great Homages to horror movies of yester-year the film always delivers and to this day continues to blow my mind : Scream totally re-invented the genre from a director who already owned the scares in the 80s with his freaking great horror A Nightmare on Elm Street but unlike Elm Street Scream uses horror cliches and a whip smart script that’s incredibly funny yet utterly terrifying at times : The way Craven used horror films as the backdrop to Scream was a pure joy to watch, pictures such as Elm Street, Friday 13th, The Exorcist and of course Halloween got nods and even Wes makes a brief cameo as a school janitor dressed in that iconic Freddy Sweater, that small moment alone made me smile sooooooo much : Also let’s not forget the contribution it’s young fresh cast made, stars that were not household names such as Neve Campbell, Matthew Lillard, Rose McGowan, Jamie Kennedy & Skeet Ulrich all helped Craven’s blood lust come to life and create a new horror franchsise : The scene in the movie when Randy explains to his drunken friends about the Rules on How to Survive a Horror Movie whilst watching Halloween is one of my favorites, he pauses the film stands before the TV and tells his audience….. No.1 : Never have Sex…. No.2 : Don’t drink or do drugs…. and finally never ever ever say “I’ll be right back…” it’s sheer brilliance : I remember watching SCREAM in New York when it was released in the cinema, I didn’t know anything about the movie – I came out 2hrs later shouting, laughing and looking over my shoulder for Ghostface for the rest of that evening, what a movie BUZZ ★★★★★
Sad News : the wonderful New Yorker JOHN SAXON has died : as an actor John worked in the movies since the mid 50’s and is mostly know for starring in Westerns and Horror Movies, he will always be remembered for playing small but significant roles in the likes of Black Christmas, Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street, alongside Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon, opposite Clint Eastwood in Joe Kidd and Dario Argento’s horror masterpiece Tenebrae : John’s birth name was Carmine Orrico, he could speak Italian and had a black belt in Karate that became pretty useful for his tough guy movie roles – he died in Tennessee aged 83
Sad News Movie Fans !! Wes Craven the director who brought us A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream and many more classic horror films has died aged 76 – his horror characters throughout the years such as Freddy and Ghostface not only reinvented the horror genre but also gave me high blood pressure, phobia of sleep and a high electricity bill as my lights always stayed ON
HOURS – (2013/4) – Movie Review ★★★¾
Cast – Paul Walker, Génesis Rodríguez – set in 2005 during the time Hurricane Katrina was raining havoc down on New Orleans – Nolan (Walker) has just become a father to a newly born baby who is prematurely born & is placed in an incubator to help with her breathing – then the storm hits placing the hospital on high alert, the hospital’s power goes off, the flooding begins and then the criminal, looting scum come out to play – Nolan must do whatever it takes to keep himself and his new baby girl alive VERDICT Eric Heisserer who’s writing credits include the recent remakes of A Nightmare on Elm Street and The Thing makes his directorial debut with Hours – unlike other Paul Walker features this movie does not include a car instead it’s completely set in a hospital and requires Walker to step up to the plate and deliver some of his finest acting work to date – the scenes in the hospital with the corridor full of bodies left on the floor and the moments Nolan attempts to communicate with his new born by placing pictures of him & his wife on the incubator glass are quite emotional – overall Heisserer‘s Hours is a gripping, well shot and superbly executed movie that may get overlooked due to people’s preconceived ideas about it’s leading star – in my opinion Hours is well worth a watch….