Jungle Man Fix Jane
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
directed by Wes Craven
rating: 3 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Carnegie Library
There are two films here, and one is a trite indictment of the American legal system. Cops make lousy fathers and defense attorneys free criminals on technicalities. Justice is a mob and alcoholism the price you pay to see it done. A movie like that is worth next to nothing - about as close as a movie can get to a waste of time.
On the other hand, that opening sequence is an incredible homage to production design and Hollywood tradesmen, and a testament to the joy of making a horror film. If the stories are true, Wes Craven became interested in the subconscious after reading a newspaper article about the deaths of several Cambodian refugees. He wrote a movie about dreams, and when the protagonists of A Nightmare on Elm Street sleep, the visions they see are both terrible and grand.
The impression, upon experiencing such sights, is not dreamlike at all, but scary - a thrill. Surely someone has asked David Lynch about the movie ("I love it!"), and I am surprised that Craven returns to such a mundane screenplay in daylight hours. Freddy is a phantom from nightmares and far more effective without the melodramatic back story torn straight from the pages of Marion Cobretti's dream journal. The last ten minutes are like a miniature Home Alone.
Disbelieving and shell-shocked parents don't even belong in A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Nancy's fears would be better served by a Peanuts-like, adult-free atmosphere of adolescent terror. Which, I suppose, is the sphere where Phantasm floats, serene. Still, the experience of seeing either movie for the first time is a delight, and nice to discover after all these years.
directed by Wes Craven
rating: 3 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Carnegie Library
There are two films here, and one is a trite indictment of the American legal system. Cops make lousy fathers and defense attorneys free criminals on technicalities. Justice is a mob and alcoholism the price you pay to see it done. A movie like that is worth next to nothing - about as close as a movie can get to a waste of time.
On the other hand, that opening sequence is an incredible homage to production design and Hollywood tradesmen, and a testament to the joy of making a horror film. If the stories are true, Wes Craven became interested in the subconscious after reading a newspaper article about the deaths of several Cambodian refugees. He wrote a movie about dreams, and when the protagonists of A Nightmare on Elm Street sleep, the visions they see are both terrible and grand.
The impression, upon experiencing such sights, is not dreamlike at all, but scary - a thrill. Surely someone has asked David Lynch about the movie ("I love it!"), and I am surprised that Craven returns to such a mundane screenplay in daylight hours. Freddy is a phantom from nightmares and far more effective without the melodramatic back story torn straight from the pages of Marion Cobretti's dream journal. The last ten minutes are like a miniature Home Alone.
Disbelieving and shell-shocked parents don't even belong in A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Nancy's fears would be better served by a Peanuts-like, adult-free atmosphere of adolescent terror. Which, I suppose, is the sphere where Phantasm floats, serene. Still, the experience of seeing either movie for the first time is a delight, and nice to discover after all these years.
posted by NPK at 12:01 AM
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