"One, Two, Freddy's Coming For You......"

The Nightmare on Elm Street films have been very profitable for New Line Cinema. Robert Englund’s portrayal of Freddy Kruger has made the character one of the most iconic in modern horror. Now, a documentary recently released on Blu-ray covers the entire history of the franchise. Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy (2010) is a comprehensive look at the movies, from the original entry in 1984 thru 2003’s Freddy vs. Jason. The film runs four hours, and is an exhaustive look at the making of the series. There are in-depth interviews with almost everyone involved with the Elm Street films, including stars Englund & Heather Langenkamp, writer-director Wes Craven, as well as a host of other actors, writers, directors, producers, and make-up and special effects artists.

Executive produced and narrated by Langenkamp, the film begins with a brief history of New Line Cinema’s origins as a company, and then moves on to the conception and production of the first film, 1984’s A Nightmare on Elm Street. Each movie is given it’s own “making of” segment and there are behind the scenes videos from the sets of the films, as well as photos, clips and production drawings. There’s even some coverage of the short lived TV series, Freddy’s Nightmares. The stories told by the cast and crew members are fascinating, and if you’re a fan, you’ll really enjoy this documentary. There’s a refreshing amount of candor about the quality of some of the entries in the series, and a frank discussion regarding the tension between creator Craven (who never wanted to do a sequel, much less start a franchise) and New Line executive Bob Shaye.




The better films in the series stood out from the other “slasher” movies because Freddy was a character that got at you through your dreams, a place where you couldn’t truly escape his power. His original motive for killing the children of Elm Street was getting revenge for his own death. Freddy had been a child murderer (softened from his original portrayal as a child molester), who was killed by the parents in an act of vigilante justice. Craven discusses what inspired him to write the original story, and there’s a lot of information regarding how the character and concept was changed, updated and refined over the course of the sequels. Various cast and crew members also discuss the thematic subtexts (some intentional, some unintentional) of the various films in the Elm Street saga.




One of the best films in the series, Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994), took the story in an entirely different direction. It featured the actors playing themselves as filming begins on a new Elm Street movie; they are threatened by Freddy, who is portrayed as an evil force that seeks to invade the real world and cause mayhem and death. Englund cites this entry as his favorite. The cast and crew also talk about Johnny Depp’s and Patricia Arquette’s pre-stardom appearances in the series. Also included is an interview with the heavy metal band Dokken, who provided the theme for A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987); the MTV-era music video for the song included a cameo by Englund. All in all, this is probably everything you ever wanted to know about the Elm Street series, and more.




While this informative film may not appeal to casual viewers due to its length, it is a thorough look at how genre projects are produced, released and marketed to the public. It even makes reference to the fact that Peter Jackson, the man behind the Lord of the Rings films, made an unused story pitch for one of the sequels. It's also noted that without the financial success of the Elm Street franchise, New Line may not have been able to produce the Lord of the Rings movies! Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy (2010) was originally released on DVD, and is now available on Blu-ray. Both versions include extensive additional interviews and featurettes as extras. Here’s a link to the trailer for the film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js_hu0iPyM8 and Dokken's music video for A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDveKxl7Ohs.

Robert Culp Rocks "The Outer Limits"

The 1950s and 1960s television landscape featured many anthology series, and a number of those shows planted their feet firmly in the genre of the fantastic: The Twilight Zone, One Step Beyond, Thriller, and Science-Fiction Theatre, to name a few. There was one short-lived show that proved to be as groundbreaking and influential as its better-known counterparts: the original version of The Outer Limits. The series was the brainchild of writer-producer Leslie (Stoney Burke) Stevens. Along with Joseph (writer of the screenplay for Psycho) Stefano, and a talented crew of actors, writers and an amazing array behind the scenes talent, they produced some of the most creative, chilling and thoughtful hours of science-fiction (often laced with horror and fantasy) on television. There are a number of episodes I could write about, but for this week, I’d like to focus on a different kind of alien invasion tale, entitled Corpus Earthling, starring Robert Culp.

Culp plays Dr. Paul Cameron, a surgeon who has a steel plate in his head as a result of a previous injury. His wife Laurie (portrayed by Salome Jens) works with geologist and researcher Jonas Temple. While visiting them in their lab, Cameron thinks he hears voices coming from a couple of rock samples they’re studying. The voices are talking about a takeover of the planet Earth. When the aliens realize Cameron can hear them due to the metal plate in his head, they try to induce him to jump from a window, but the attempt fails. Cameron thinks he’s going crazy; and neither Jonas nor Laurie can hear the voices. But does that mean they aren't there?

Laurie (Salome Jens) and the alien invaders

After Laurie and Paul leave, one of the interstellar rocks takes over Dr. Temple’s body. Now possessed by the aliens, he is driven to search out Laurie and Paul, who’ve left town for a few days so Paul can rest. Temple (played by Barry Atwater, who later went on to portray vampire Janos Skorzeny in the classic telefilm The Night Stalker) follows the couple, and Laurie is taken over as well. The now transformed Temple and Laurie both cause Cameron to doubt himself, and his life becomes a living nightmare. Cameron must make some difficult choices, as he’s the only one standing between the aliens and their plan to conquer Earth. Alien rocks taking over the Earth may sound like a silly premise, but the straight-forward treatment of the idea and stark look of the episode bring the idea home. It's a nicely-crafted tale, written by Orin Bortsen, based on a story by Louis Charbonneau.

The Outer Limits was always noir-inspired, baroque and Gothic in its look and feel, due in no small part to the inspired work of cinematographer Conrad Hall (who later went on to win several Oscars) and director Gerd Oswald, who both contributed to a significant number of episodes. The dark atmosphere gives life to the hellish experience of Paul Cameron, who’s well played by Culp, especially in the creepy scene when he discovers the now-transformed Laurie, who both tempts and repels him in equal measure. Culp appeared in two other excellent episodes of the show, The Architects of Fear, and the Hugo award-winning Demon with a Glass Hand, which was penned by the late Harlan Ellison.

If you’re looking for something a little different in your classic science-fiction television diet, give The Outer Limits a try. There was no on-camera host for the show, just an eerie control voice proclaiming “There is nothing wrong with your television set…” The series lasted a season and a half, and boasts an unusually high number of quality episodes for such a short-lived run. Other stars that appeared on memorable episodes of the series include Martin Landau, Sally Kellerman, David McCallum and Robert Duvall. There’s an excellent website devoted to the series called We Are Controlling Transmission, which can be found here: http://wearecontrollingtransmission.blogspot.com. Episodes of the show can be found on Hulu, and the first season of the series was recently released on Blu-Ray by Kino Lorber.

Leaves of Grass: Ed Norton Times Two

What if your past came back to haunt you in the present? The 2009 drama Leaves of Grass offers one answer to that question. Bill Kincaid (Ed Norton) is a philosophy professor at Brown University; he’s been successful in the world of academia, and is being courted by Harvard to create a philosophy curriculum within their law school. A phone call from home changes everything. Bill is told his twin brother Brady has been killed. Bill hasn’t been home in years and left his old world behind to re-invent himself in a new place, with a new life.

Ed Norton and...Ed Norton in Leaves of Grass

Bill heads home to Tulsa, but discovers Brady (also played by Norton) isn’t dead after all. He’s hatching a plan to break free of his allegiance to a local drug distributor, and start over with his pregnant girlfriend. Brady’s a pot grower, who makes some of the most potent weed in the state. He needs Bill to pose as him in order to enact a plot to outwit the drug dealer. Bill refuses at first, but is drawn into his sibling's plan. He also has to deal with his own demons, and reconcile his memories of the family he left behind.

Norton is excellent in the dual role, as the strait-laced Bill, and the free-spirited Brady. He expertly conveys Bill’s reluctance to deal with the ghosts of his past; the mixed emotions he feels for his brother, and his buried feelings of resentment towards his mother (a nice supporting turn by Susan Sarandon).  As Brady, he portrays how the brother who stayed behind feels about his sibling, who deserted the family, and never looked back. 

The story goes in directions you don’t expect, with moments of drama and pathos mixed with some unexpected black comedy. The fine supporting cast includes Keri Russell, Richard Dreyfuss and Tim Blake Nelson, who also wrote and directed the film. A soundtrack of Southern style rock and folk is a nice touch that adds flavor to the movie. This is a unique film, a little different from the usual Hollywood product. The closest comparison would be the films of The Coen Brothers (Blood Simple, Fargo, Miller’s Crossing). If you’re a fan of intelligent dramas that are a little off center, then I recommend you give Leaves of Grass a try.  Here's a link to the film's trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83AbvPYqIko.