Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy Review
Like anyone who grew up with the original A Nightmare on Elm Street series of films, I found the recent remake a very bitter pill to swallow. Luckily, a new documentary has arrived to remind us all why we so dearly loved this series in the first place. Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy is a true labor of love from co -directors Daniel Farrands and Andrew Kasch. The two disc set clocks in at nearly eight hours of interviews, behind the scenes footage, and minutiae from the original eight Nightmare films. Almost everyone involved with the orginal films is interviewed here (with the exception of certain “we’re too good for this shit now” actors like Johnny Depp, Patricia Arquette and Laurence Fishburne) The producers of this movie even managed to dig up Mark Patton, the lead actor of Nightmare 2, who seemed to have quite literally dropped off the face of the Earth after that movie was released twenty five years ago (turns out he’s been living in Mexico right off the beach all these years. Totally the first place I would have looked) They even got Elm Street’s original Nancy, Heather Langenkamp to narrate. Aside from getting Robert Englund himself to to do it, I can’t think of a more appropriate choice.
The first disc consists of the actual documentary itself, coming in at just under four hours. While I was fully expecting to be totally Freddied out by the time this was over, I was never bored and kept finding myself looking forward to the next chapter, even if it was a chapter dedicated to an entry to the series that I didn’t like. Each chapter is a mini documentary on each film, so I’m gonna cover each chapter separately.
Chapter One: The Original Film
The film covers the first movie the most, for obvious reasons. Wes Craven, Robert Englund, Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon and everyone from the original make up and effects guys to the guy who played Nancy’s sleep therapist in the movie (who was also the voice of Roger Rabbit of all things) are interviewed here. They even dug up the chick who played the Hall Monitor (“Hey Nancy! No running in the hallway!”) It is amazing to hear how the entire future on New Line Cinema was depending on this little movie, that was budgeted at a little over one million dollars. If Nightmare had failed, then New Line Cinema would have sunk with it. But studio president Bob Shaye knew a good thing when he saw it, and while every studio in Hollywood passed on Wes Craven’s idea, Bob Shaye gambled it all, and won. And not only was a great series born, but so was a studio.
Chapter Two: Freddy’s Revenge – The Gay Nightmare
While A Nightmare On Elm St. 2: Freddy’s Revenge is considered on of the lamest entires in the series, the chapter on this documentary about it is easily the most fun to watch. For years, director Jack Sholder and New Line President Bob Shaye have adamantly denied any intentional gay metaphor in the second movie, despite how overtly queer it is. Finally though, someone fesses up: screenwriter David Chaskin admits that all the gay metaphor stuff was indeed intentional, and was only amplified by the fact that the lead actor who played Jesse (Mark Patton) was openly gay, not to mention the set designer, who took it upon himself to place a “No Chicks Allowed”sign on Jesse’s bedroom door, among other obvious winks and nods.
Chapter 3: Dream Warriors-Everyone’s Favorite Sequel
One of the few truly great horror sequels, Dream Warriors does everything a good sequel should: Expands upon the characters in the original film, and introduces new ones that you like just as much. Freddy went from merely stalking his kids in the boiler room to truly exploiting their deepest fears in the most imaginative ways possible. Lots of fun anecdotes in this section, like how most of the male cast was obsessively crushing on Patricia Arquette, and asking Robert Englund for advice on how to score with her (no wonder she chose to skip the next one) and how we came this close to getting a naked chick with big boobs, but wearing Freddy’s head, in the movie. It might sound good on paper boys, but trust me…once you see the pics, you’ll know why they passed…more distrurbing than anything in all eight movies. Just sayin’.
Chapter 4: Dream Master – How To Make a Great Sequel With No Script
The best parts of this chapter deal with how director Renny Harlin went from living in a flea trap apartment in Hollywood to directing a huge franchise movie by essentially annoying the producers of the movie into a job. He pretty much just kept showing up to the New Line offices till someone finally said “ok, fine, you’re hired” It worked too, as Dream Master was the highest grossing movie of the franchise and some would say the peak of Freddy’s popularity. The most fun moments in this section deal with the explosion of Freddy merchandise during this time; there were even Freddy pajamas for kids. I’m not kidding.
Chapter 5: Freddy Comes to TV…And Totally Jumps The Shark
Remember Freddy’s Nightmares? No? Well then, you are probably better off. Debuting a few months after Nightmare 4, Freddy’s Dead was a crappy low budget wanna be Tales from the Crypt types series, with Freddy as your host. Most of the episodes didn’t actually feature Freddy in the stories, just as a burned up MC. Everyone involved with the series frankly admits it was nothing more than a cash grab in this portion of the documentary, and Freddy’s Nightmares made even the most die hard Freddy fans sick of his ass by the time Nightmare 5 came out the next year.
Chapter 6: The Dream Child
Almost no one really likes part 5, despite some honest efforts made by cast and crew. Unlike most behind the scenes DVD stuff you see on official documentaries made by the studio, the fact that this is an idependantly produced movie means you get to hear everyone involved sound off on just why this particular movie sucked and led New Line to officially pull the plug with the next entry, Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare.
Chapter 7: Freddy’s Dead. Kinda Sorta.
The highlight of this chapter has to be actress Lezlie Deane (who portrayed Tracy in Freddy’s Dead) who chose to film all her interviews in this over the top goth make-up for some reason, with some girl at her feet who (I guess) is supposed to be her slave or something, just silently staring into the camera the whole time. That alone is scarier than anything in the actual movie of Freddy’s Dead. Another fun nugget of info in this section are details on a young Peter Jackson’s proposal for an alternate Part 6, called Dream Lover that almost came to pass.
Chapter 8: Wes Craven Comes Home
The man who started the series comes home to finish it the right way. This portion of the documentary covers Wes Craven’s New Nightmare, a very high concept meta sequel that would never get a greenlight today.
Chapter 9: Place Your Bets: Freddy VS Jason
Just hearing about the ten years of development and multiple scripts that were out there for this movie is possibly more entertaining than the movie itself (which I’ll still take over the new remake any day of the week though) Some of the ideas were good, some awful, and some even involved Pinhead from the Hellraiser movies. Ultimately, Freddy VS Jason was the highest grossing movie of both the Nightmare and Friday the 13th series, so someone did something right.
Chapter 10: The House that Freddy Built
This chapter details how New Line Cinema went from a distributing company for indie films to a real studio, all built on the success of the Nightmare series. President and founder Bob Shaye gambled his entire company on the belief in Wes Craven’s idea, just as he gambled his entire company of the success of The Lord of the Rings a decade ago. Sadly, he also gambled his entrire company of a movie called The Golden Compass, which ended up sinking New Line and just making it another label for parent company Warner Brothers. Truly the end of an era in Hollywood that we’ll never see again.
But wait! That is all just on disc one bitches!
Aside from extended interviews with cast and crew from each movie that didn’t make it to the actual documentary, Disc Two has a shit ton of awesome goodies, nearly four hours worth.
-A preview for Heather Langenkamp’s own forthcoming documentary I Am Nancy, detailing the actresses’ legacy as the #1 “Survivor Girl” of horror.
For the Love of the Glove
– A feature on collectors (and makers) of Freddy prop replica gloves, including an extended interview with this one slightly creepy guy who has apparently spent a small fortune on getting his hands on authentic glove props from each movie in the series.
Fred Heads
– like any genre property, Freddy has his own OCD fans with vast memorabilia collections, some of whom share their obsessions with us on camera. God bless ‘em.
Horror’s Hallowed Grounds
– A visit to the locations used in the original film, including a return visit to 1428 Elm Street for one Heather Langenkamp, who waxes nostalgic about seeing her boyfriend get slaughtered across the street from her bedroom window. Good times. Also interviewed for this segment in the current owner of Elm Street house, who recently restored the house to its vintage 1984 movie look. I don’t care what anyone says, that is just fucking cool.
Freddy VS the Angry Video Game Nerd
-Totally worth watching just to see how truly lame the 1989 NES game was, and just how little it had to do with the actual movies.
Expanding the Elm Street Universe: Freddy in Comic Books & Novels
-As a teenager in the early 90’s, I actually read any and all Nightmare related comics and novels, no matter how crappy some of them were. So I was happy to see them touched upon here, however briefly.
The Music of the Nightmare: Conversations with Composers & Songwriters
– A good horror icon is only as good as his theme. Luckily, composer Charles Bernstein came up with one of the best horror themes in modern history with his score for the original Nightmare, which he did for next to nothing and in his own house. A side note, Bernstein was cool enough to compose a new score just for this documentary.
Elm Street’s Poster Boy: The Art of Matthew Joseph Peak
-Before the 90’s, movie posters were actual legitimate works of art, not just photoshopped after thoughts of the star’s face in a half silhouette. The iconic posters for the original 5 movies were done by an artist named Matthew Joseph Peak, who details how the posters went from almost no Freddy being shown, to Freddy front and center. Also, like composer Charles Bernstein, Peak was classy and cool enough to create a new piece of art just for this DVD release.
A Nightmare On Elm Street in 10 Minutes
-fairly amusing re-enactment of lines from the original movies by the original actors.
If the new Nightmare on Elm Street remake was a soulless venture, made by people who don’t care who only wanna squeeze out some money from a beloved series, then Never Sleep Again is the opposite; a true valentine to the series and its fans, made by people who are nothing if not fans themselves. Directors Daniel Farrands and Andrew Kasch give this the 110% effort than only real fanboys can give, and as far as this fan is concerned, it is the best medicine for having had to sit through the awful remake. (Warner Brothers would be wise to contact these guys for any and all special features that an inevitable Blu Ray box set would need.) If you are a fan in any way of the classic Nightmare series I highly suggest you grab this DVD, get some caffeine in your system and make a night of it. You won’t regret it.
