A Nightmare on Elm Street Movie Marathon (Live Blog)

In about 10 minutes the A Nightmare on Elm Street Movie Marathon is about to begin, unfortunately, nobody has arrived yet.  Maybe that 7:30 AM start time wasn't a good idea.  

At 7:30 on the dot, I received a call from Jason Kuntz who told me that he was on his way and should be here in minutes.  With Jason finally here, the marathon started a few minutes late at 7:40.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (Finished at 9:12 AM)
So it begins. Freddy Krueger (or Fred as he is usually called during this movie) begins to haunt the children of those who killed him.  I haven't watched this movie in several years, but I was amazed on how little gore there is in this movie.  It almost more suspenseful than it is straight out slasher film that it is usually recognized as.  Any way you look at it, A Nightmare on Elm Street is a classic horror film.

Random observations: Thankfully the house I live in isn't 1428 Elm Street.  Gun powder in light bulbs make a big explosion but have little effect on anything else.  In the end, everything will be alright "because mommy killed him."  Finger trauma is also present in this film.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (Finished 10:49 AM)
Only two movies in and there is already a different approach taken on how Freddy Krueger haunts teenagers.  Instead of attacking them in their nightmares, Freddy possesses a kid, who ironically lives in the old Thompson house, and has him do the killings for him.  In the end, though, love conquers all.

Random observations: I really wish they made Fu Man Chews cereal, I'd totally eat that.  According to the diary found at 1428 Elm Street, the nightmares in the first movie happened on or around March 15th, which is also my birthday.  Robert Englund, who plays the iconic Krueger, was the bus driver in the beginning of the movie.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (Finished at 12:36 PM)
After taking a small detour during the second film, the series gets back on track with Dream Warriors, which seems to be more of a true sequel than the second one.  In this installment Freddy is back to haunting kids in their nightmares. We see some some familiar faces in Nancy Thompson and her dad and we also see some other familiar faces in the form of Patricia Arquette and Lawrence "Larry" Fishburne. Good effort all around and we even get to dive deeper into Freddy's past as we hear he is the bastard son of 100 maniacs.

Random observations: Nancy's grey hair from the first movie has changed sides.  I swear for a moment I saw Freddy Krueger take on Harry Potter.  Part three gives birth to the Freddy one-liners.  Max is not only a nurse, but he is a building manager, security guard and a maintenance man.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (Finished at 2:22 PM)
Donnie and his daughter Lainey joined us at the tail end of Dream Warriors and stayed through the first half of The Dream Master. I don't think Lainey was enjoying herself and will probably have nightmares for weeks to come.

In The Dream Master we see this franchise finally enter in the realm of typical 80s slasher movies. After being buried in hallowed grounds, Freddy is resurrected by a dog's fire urine and begins focusing on individual students to take out. Each situation is different and the deaths are becoming more comical. Even with all of drawbacks, I still have to rate this installment higher than part 2.

Random observations: Sequels with returning characters lose something when a new actor or actress portrays the character. Freddy Krueger's victims have their own wing in the Springwood cemetery. Freddy also performs his own rap song in the credits.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (Finished at 3:53 PM)
This has to be by far the worst movie in the entire franchise. Seriously. The movie picks up where The Dream Warrior left off and this time around we get even more comical appearances by Freddy where we see him ride around on a skateboard and where he does his best Superman impersonation. There is even a sequence that is reminiscent of the 'Take On Me' video by A-Ha. The only interesting aspect of this film has to deal with Freddy's past and the history of his mother.

Random observations: Freddy was born breech and his crying as a baby is very similar to the baby crying from the movie Eraserhead.

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (Finished 5:31 PM)
Thankfully the DVD set that I bought came with a couple of pairs of 3D glasses so we could enjoy this movie as it was shown in the theaters.  Seeing as this was supposed to be a send off, it does dive into Freddy Krueger's past and tries to fill in the missing holes. We learn that Freddy has a daughter. He also grew up being teased by his peers, which contributed to his hatred of kids. His daughter being taken away from him was also a factor. 

Like the past couple of installments, comedy seems to come before horror and it shows in the form a few killings. The one that takes the cake is the video game death in which Freddy uses his own version of the NES Power Glove. The finger knives on a chalkboard to make a head explode comes in a close second.

Random observations: Johnny Depp, who played Glen in the first movie, makes a cameo in this film. The 3D aspects, which came into play during the final scene, were pretty much pointless. In this film it is pointed out that Springwood is in Ohio, which explains the palm trees that were present in the first movie. Freddy once again inflicts finger trauma upon himself.

Wes Craven's New Nightmare (Finished 7:29 PM)
An interesting take to close out what I believe is the A Nightmare on Elm Street series. It is different seeing as it is more about the movie series and not another Elm Street movie. All of the actors are playing themselves for the most part and Heather Langenkamp (Nancy) has to put an end to Freddy Krueger one last time.

Maybe it is just me, but it seems that this movie is Wes Craven's end to the series, instead of what became of the series that he created. He took the best parts of what he originally put together, made it all work great one last time, and sent Freddy off on his own terms... in the boiler as he was created. This movie was surprisingly good.

Random observations: Freddy had an updated look in this movie with a green hat and a blue trench coat.

Freddy vs. Jason (Finished 9:16 PM)
Maybe it was just due to the fact that I was near the end of the road with the Friday the 13th movie marathon and was dead ass tired, but I seemed to enjoy Freddy vs. Jason a lot more after watching the Elm Street series. It could also be a possibility that it is a Elm Street heavy movie or the fact that I am still wide awake and alert.

This movie really is a special movie for the die-hard fans, you know, the types that can sit and watch the iconic horror franchises in one sitting.  Watching Freddy vs. Jason is a good way to cap it all off. Of course, though, there is still one more left, and we'll be heading out here pretty quick.

Random observations: Although it looks like the actress that portrayed Jason's mom in the Friday series, it is in fact not. The dream suppressant drug was also used in Dream Warriors. It is still experimental. More finger trauma is present in this film as Freddy cuts off the fingers on Jason's right hand during their epic battle.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (Finished 11:41 PM)
After seeing some of the recent horror film remakes, I had high expectations for this movie. While it was good, it didn't live up to what I had envisioned it to be.

For starters, this telling of Krueger's tale basically tosses out what was built up over the series. Instead of being a child murderer, Kreuger is a gardener at a preschool who also is a child molester. The teenagers he is stalking are all students who attended the preschool but have had those memories removed by their parents.

I'm not entirely sold on Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy Krueger either. I thought he was going to do a good job, but his facial features and makeup effects didn't fit too well with someone as iconic as Krueger. Robert Englund made Freddy who he is and gave him his personality. It's not like the other horror villains like Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers or Leatherface who can be interchangeable due to their masks.

I also felt let down by the lack of revisioning of the iconic scenes.  The bath tub scene was cut down to almost nothing and I was disappointed to see that there was no fountain of blood to speak of. The bodybag scene was also lacking.

The remake did have its moments, though, which made up for some of the points that I mentioned. Overall it is probably one of the worst horror remakes in recent years, but I didn't feel totally let down by it either.

Random observations: After 16 hours of movie watching, my brain hurts and it's time to go to sleep... if I can sleep at all.

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