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AWESOME-tober-fest 2012: A review of Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

Posted in Halloween, holiday, movies, pop culture, reviews with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2012, Freddy Krueger, Halloween, holiday, movies, Nightmare on Elm Street, pop culture, reviews on October 19, 2012 by Paxton

Platinum Dunes had a minor success with their Texas Chainsaw Massacre reboot in 2003. 2009’s Friday the 13th reboot also actually made some money. So, in 2010, New Line and Platinum Dunes decided to reboot the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise.

I am a fan of Freddy Krueger as well as the slasher movies of the 80s. However, if I had to pick, I was more of a Jason guy myself. But I enjoyed the Nightmare movies, especially the first one and the third one. I was intrigued by this reboot, I enjoyed the Friday the 13th reboot by New Line/Platinum Dunes in 2009 and I loved the idea of Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy, so I was anxious to see how well they pulled this off.

Unlike the Friday the 13th reboot, I had not watched this movie beforehand, it was my first viewing. I was intrigued by the idea of Jackie Haley playing Freddy and I really liked the look of Freddy from the trailer. I didn’t go into it with HIGH expectations, per say, but I was optimistic.

Check out the trailer:

I think the best thing about the movie is the “look and feel”. It was definitely grittier and more dark than the later Nightmare movies. I also liked Haley as Freddy. His mannerisms and his look were very well realized. I even thought Haley was slightly more menacing than the original Freddy, well at least the version from the later movies. The wise-cracking jokester killer. All in all, I enjoyed it. It sort of fell apart at the end, mainly because I think the teens in the movie weren’t very interesting. I didn’t really like anybody. Rooney Mara was okay if a bit understated as Nancy. Katie Cassidy did pretty good, but I think I just got bored with the teens by the end. I like the way Freddy is “dispatched” in the final battle and how the final stinger shot is sort of an homage to the final shot in the original Nightmare movie.

I liked it, but I didn’t love it. However, that being said, I would watch another Jackie Haley as Freddy Nightmare movie. I think the potential is there to have a really good sequel. Especially if they follow along the story lines of Nightmare 3: Dream Warriors.

And they have to reunite Dokken for the soundtrack. That is a must.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2012: Marvel Comics’ A Nightmare on Elm Street magazine (1989)

Posted in A Nightmare on Elm Street, comic books, Freddy Krueger, magazine, movies, pop culture with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2012, comic books, Freddy Krueger, Halloween, holiday, magazines, Marvel Comics, Nightmare on Elm Street on October 18, 2012 by Paxton

In 1989 Marvel comics released the magazine Freddy Krueger’s A Nightmare on Elm Street.

The magazine had gorgeously painted covers by Joe Jusko. The interior art was in black and white and done by Rich Buckler and Tony DeZuniga. Tony DeZuniga also worked on the awesome MGM’s Marvelous Wizard of Oz magazine I’ve talked about before for my Oz series. The interior stories were written by Steve Gerber. The magazines were published around the release of Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child. At the time, comics were coming under fire for being too violent and Nightmare 5 was getting protests in LA for this very reason. This general backlash caused Marvel to decide to cancel the magazine after issue #2. Marvel wasn’t receiving pressure from anyone and the magazine actually sold fairly well, Marvel just wanted to avoid any problems so they quietly folded the magazine.

It’s a shame the magazine was canceled. The story was pretty interesting. The first issue even has a few pages devoted to its own version of Freddy’s origin involving Amanda Krueger’s entrapment, beating and rape within the walls of a mental hospital. The art is pretty good too, especially in the first issue. The second half of the second issue, though, the art becomes a little uneven and a little inconsistent. Sometimes it’s nicely inked and sometimes it looks like pencil drawings. A little weird.

Check out two samples of the art. On the left is a nicely inked page from early in the issue and on the right is a page that looks more “pencil-like” with very little inking. You can click the images to see them BIGGER.

It goes on like that for the last 10 pages or so. Sometimes only one panel on the page will have the “pencil” look. I guess they knew the mag was being canceled and just rushed it out. Which makes sense since the second issue of this magazine is extremely hard to find.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2012: Fangoria magazines featuring Freddy Krueger

Posted in A Nightmare on Elm Street, Freddy Krueger, magazine, movies, pop culture with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2012, Fangoria, Freddy Krueger, Halloween, holiday, magazine, movies, Nightmare on Elm Street, pop culture on October 17, 2012 by Paxton

I did this last week for Jason Voorhees, so I’m going to do it again with Freddy. I reached back into my stash of vintage Fangoria magazines and pulled out a few that had covers and articles about A Nightmare on Elm Street or Freddy Krueger.

The first issue I found was Fangoria #62 from 1987. It has a cover story on A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and the reunion of Nancy and Freddy. It was probably published a few months after the release of the movie.

This issue also featured the Friday the 13th Part 6 article about the gory scenes cut out of that film that I featured last week.

Here’s the cover article about Nightmare on Elm Street Part 3.

Fangoria 62 Nightmare 3 3

It’s an okay, mostly fluff article about what the new movie is supposed to be about. There are a lot of good photos, though, as Fangoria was always really good about including those in their main articles. No really good inside info, though.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2012: Freddy’s Nightmares (1988)

Posted in A Nightmare on Elm Street, Freddy Krueger, movies, pop culture, TV shows with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2012, Freddy Krueger, Halloween, holiday, movies, Nightmare on Elm Street, TV shows on October 16, 2012 by Paxton

Week 3 of AWESOME-tober-fest 2012, day 2 of Freddy Krueger Week. Today I continue my look at the dream master in pop culture with the late 80s TV show, Freddy’s Nightmares.

Freddy’s Nightmares began airing in syndication in 1988. It was a horror anthology TV series hosted by Freddy Krueger. The show’s premise worked in much the same way as other hosted anthology shows like Tales from the Crypt (The Cryptkeeper) or Twilight Zone (Rod Serling).

Freddy's Nightmares

The first episode, No More Mr Nice Guy, was directed by horror legend Tobe Hooper and featured an origin story for Freddy. Freddy is tried for killing children but gets off because he was not read his Miranda rights. The town forms a mob, catches up to him and burns him to the ground inside his hideout in an abandoned power plant. Throughout the series Freddy would begin and end the episode as the “host”. Some of the episodes of the series featured Freddy as the antagonist, but many of them only featured him tangentially or not at all.

The show ran for 2 seasons and has not been released on DVD in the US. However five episodes of the series were released on VHS in the mid-90s. The first three episodes were released on DVD in the UK, however, due to poor sales, all subsequent episode releases were canceled.

Here’s the intro to the show:

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2012: The Nightmares on Elm Street movie novelizations

Posted in A Nightmare on Elm Street, books, Freddy Krueger, Halloween, holiday, movies with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2012, Book Report, books, Freddy Krueger, Halloween, holiday, Movie Novelizations, movies, Nightmare on Elm Street, pop culture on October 15, 2012 by Paxton

Welcome to Week 3 of AWESOME-tober-fest 2012. Week 1 was Psycho Week in which I looked at Norman Bates. Week 2 was Friday the 13th Week in which I looked at Jason Voorhees. This week is Nightmare on Elm Street Week. So be prepared for some Freddy Krueger goodness all week.

In the late 80s St Martins published two collected volumes of novelizations to the first 5 Nightmare on Elm Street films. Both volumes were under The Nightmares on Elm Street banner.

The first volume was published in 1987 and called The Nightmares on Elm Street Parts 1, 2, 3: The Continuing Story. It was written by Jeffery Cooper.

Here is a review of the separate stories.

A Nightmare on Elm Street – This is very similar to the movie. You get a few more insights into Nancy’s thinking. However, honestly, I think this version is a bit abridged. It’s just over 70 pages. It seems like it should be longer. I feel like there were a few dream sequences that were cut from this novel. I could be wrong because it’s been a while since I’ve seen the movie. I know some of the Freddy-Nancy dream chases were a bit different in this book. But it felt short. But it was good nonetheless.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge – This particular movie gets so much crap from Nightmare fans. I know I hardly ever think about it. It’s not bad, it’s just not good either. The book is similar to the movie. Interesting at best. It continues the idea that Freddy feeds on fear, which is really dropped by the movie version of Part 3. I also feel like this is an abridged version. Again, it’s about 70 pages. I’m not sure what, if anything, was cut because I haven’t watched this movie in years, but nothing really jumped out at me as being different.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors – This one was the most fascinating. The book is apparently based on an early version of the script so the characters are mostly the same, but the story is wildly different. Especially the aspects of the Dream Warriors’ powers. Kirsten is mainly unchanged with her powers and character. Kincaid is a large, streetwise black man, but his dream power is flight instead of super strength like in the movie. Joey, who was mute for the majority of the movie but only part of this book, was the one that was super strong. Taryn, instead of being a punked out rocker chick with no powers actually breathed fire in the book (so much more awesome). Jennifer could turn invisible or phase out and the kid in the wheelchair, Will, that loved fantasy role playing and had wizard like powers was actually stupidly named Laredo in the book and not in a wheelchair at all. But he had the same wizard powers. Also, gone is the subplot involving Nancy’s dad and the burying of Freddy’s bones. Kirsten still tries to kill herself in the opening and gets sent to the hospital. There she meets the other Dream Warriors. Nancy shows up similar to in the movie. Nancy and Neil Guiness (Gordon in the movie) have a romantic attachment/affair. We find out about Freddy’s origin not from Amanda Krueger’s ghost but from plain and simple detective work by Nancy (which I like better). Joey isn’t seduced by the nurse but an old high school crush. The big dream fight where Freddy kills some of the Warriors is a lot bigger and more grandiose. Laredo (Will) actually has a pretty awesome shape-shifting fight with Freddy where he turns into a fire breathing dragon. If filmed, it would have been pretty epic as opposed to the lame fight that’s in the movie. Pretty much everyone dies. Kincaid, Taryn, Jennifer, Joey and Laredo (Will). Oh and Nancy dies killing Freddy. Kirsten and Neil are the only ones left. Somehow, Kirsten keeps Nancy alive in the Dream World and Neil visits her every night when he sleeps. It’s weird, honestly. The book ends similar to the movie in that Kirsten’s model Elm Street house has a light turn on. As if Freddy’s not dead. In many ways, I liked this story better. Especially the end battle between the Dream Warriors and Freddy. Plus, the themes from the first movie about Freddy feeding on fear and to defeat him you must take away that fear are more prevalent. However, with the novel, you don’t get the Dokken theme song, but I guess you can play that while you read the book.

At the end of the book there’s a short story that supposedly tells the “origin” of Freddy Krueger. It’s not really considered canon by anyone involved with the movies. And that’s fine because it’s not very good.

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