NEVER SLEEP AGAIN: THE ELM STREET LEGACY

U.S.A. | 2010 Directed by Daniel Farrands & Andre Kasch Featuring Wes Craven, Robert Englund Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon Robert Shaye, Rachel Talalay Color | 236 Minutes | Not Rated Format: DVD (R1 - NTSC | 2-disc set) 1428 Films

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		Review by Troy Howarth Film:10 DVD:10

In 1984, writer/director Wes Craven (The Hills Have Eyes) hit the big time with A Nightmare On Elm Street. The low budget fright show was a surprise hit with critics and audiences, and its influence continues to be felt in the horror genre...

You've really got to hand it to directors Daniel Farrands and Andrew Kasch — they've truly delivered what can be considered the definitive exploration of the Nightmare On Elm Street franchise. Clocking in just under four hours in length, it will likely strike many as a case of overkill — but those of us with an even passing interest in the series will almost certainly find it to be very interesting indeed. Heather Langenkamp (Part 1 and 3's Nancy herself) narrates and appears on-camera, and the filmmakers have managed to track down everybody from the major behind-the-scenes players (including Craven) to actors whose participation ranged from the major (including Robert Englund, whose portrayal of scar-faced child molester-murderer Fred Krueger made him into a major horror film star) to the minimal (yep, they even managed to find the actress who played the hall monitor in the original film). The end result is surprisingly fast paced and interesting.

By this stage in the game, it's fairly common knowledge that Craven struggled to get the first Nightmare made. In an era dominated by stalk-and-slash, the filmmaker sought to explore a more ethereal and cerebral brand of horror — and the major studios weren't buying it. This all changed when struggling producer/distributor Bob Shaye, of New Line, decided to gamble with his company's future — he provided Craven with the money to realize his vision and the rest, as they say, is history. These days, it's easy to forget what a truly original film A Nightmare On Elm Street was. Craven's exploration of teen angst and the terrors of the dreamscape stood out in relief against the steady stream of Friday the 13th-style slasher flicks, even if it also delivered plenty of stalk-and-slash action in its own right. Though hindered by some uneven performances and a cop out ending, the film established Craven as one of the freshest and most imaginative voices in horror — and its success ensured that its monstrous villain, Fred (later Freddy) Krueger, would return for more and more sequels. As is so often the case, the sequels would diminish the original's startling originality — by the time of writing, with a poorly received remake of the original having come and gone from local cineplexes, the idea itself seems old hat, as if it's been part of the pop culture for much longer than it really has. The sequels themselves are a mixed bag at best, but there's something to be said for some of them — Part 2, Freddy's Revenge, with its none-too-subtle gay subtext, is interesting in a 'what were they thinking?' kind of way (more on that in a bit); Part 3, Dream Warriors, is arguably the slickest and most imaginatively realized of the entire series; and Wes Craven's New Nightmare (Part 7, if we must keep tabs on the numbers) rebooted and reinvented the whole thing in a satisfying manner. Other than that, it all boils down to your passion for Freddy and bad puns... the truly frightening monster envisioned by Craven would degenerate into the Don Rickles of Horror Icons as the series progressed. The more Freddy became foregrounded in the sequels, the more his aura of danger and mystery would diminish; the easier his wisecracks began to flow, the easier to envision him as a figure of fun, rather than fear.

This exhaustively researched and produced documentary does a splendid job of putting the entire franchise into focus. The major participants are mostly present and accounted for (in the acting department, Part 1's Ronee Blakely and Johnny Depp are the only ones who don't appear, for example) and everybody has lively anecdotes to share about their brush with the Elm Street series. Given that so many of these films are so far in the past, it's no surprise to find the actors and filmmakers speaking frankly of their (not always pleasant) memories. Indeed, hearing the comments from those involved in some of the more risible entries makes one wish that the films in question were half as entertaining! Not all the films are on the same level, but the documentary is fair and balanced — the original gets the most air time, which is as it should be, but the follow-ups all warrant in-depth coverage. Some of the most entertaining coverage is of Part 2. Everybody from leading man Mark Patton (an out gay actor who was cast in the role typically played by a buxom blonde in films of this era) on down the line discuss the film's homosexual overtones — some of the participants insist it wasn't deliberate at the time, but even they are forced to admit that it seems blazingly obvious now. Gruff character actor Clu Gulager (Return of the Living Dead), cast as Patton's father in the film, uses this as an opportunity to bemoan the fact that he didn't get a blowjob on set; his wry sense of humor provides the documentary with some of its funniest moments.

Ultimately, one doesn't need to be an Elm Street junkie in order to appreciate this film. It's well produced, well paced, stuffed to the gills with information... In short, it's precisely the kind of documentary filmmaking that this genre sees far too infrequently.

1428 Films and CAV Distributing have done a terrific job by Never Sleep Again. The two-disc set (available only on DVD — no Blu-ray has been announced at this point) is as exhaustive as the documentary itself. The whole epic documentary is found on Disc 1 — it's presented in 1.85/16x9, and both interview footage and film clips are sharp and colorful. The soundtrack is clean and clear, and English subtitles for the deaf/hard of hearing are included.

Disc 2 is loaded with extra material, including extended/cut interview footage devoted to each of the films. The documentary crams in a lot of information, needless to say, but there's still some nuggets of interest in these added bits and bobs. Beyond that, there's literally a ton of featurettes devoted to everything from the fans' relationship with the franchise (some of these hardcore fans are really... hardcore) to Freddy's presence in various other fields of pop culture, from novelizations and comic books to video games. A featurette devoted to revisiting the locations used for the first film is a definite standout, and it's done with equal doses of humor and affection. 6/07/10

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