Tag Archives: Nightmare on Elm Street

10/31/2016 · 3:17 pm

The Hidden

One of my favorite movies of all time is The Hidden, from 1987.

This is the movie that got Kyle MacLachlan cast in Twin Peaks. It was made by the same crew that did Nightmare on Elm Street. If, by some fluke, you’ve never experienced it, allow me to make a case for why it’s probably the greatest film ever made.

Kyle MacLachlan is mysterious FBI agent Lloyd Gallagher. Michael Nouri is the L.A.P.D. detective stuck working with him, investigating a weird string of robberies and murders. You see, an extraterrestrial entity is taking over people’s bodies, and making them kill. This alien also enjoys heavy metal, Ferraris, and high-powered assault weapons. Continue reading →

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Filed under Faint Signals, Movies You Missed, Nostalgic Obsessions, O'Shloktoberfest, Saturday Movie Matinee, Thousand Listen Club

Tagged as 1980s, 1987, alternative music, Andrea Thompson, Babylon 5, Brad Fiedel, breasts, Clarence Felder, Claudia Christian, Dick Tracy, DragonCon, Ed O'Ross, Gary Busey, horror movies, I.R.S. Records, Jack Sholder, Jacques Haitkin, Kyle MacLachlan, Lethal Weapon, Lin Shaye, metal, Michael Convertino, Michael Nouri, Miles Copeland III, movies, Nightmare on Elm Street, NYPD Blue, Richard Brooks, sci-fi, Stewart Copeland, The Hidden, The Terminator, Wendie Malick, Wes Craven, William Orbit

10/25/2016 · 2:10 pm

Freddy vs. Jason

Horror icons are sparse in the 21st century for a very simple reason. Horror used to be adults scaring children. Now it’s all about creepy children scaring adults, and adults don’t scare the way kids do. Hence, a decent slasher flick gets forgotten after four or five years, regardless of how many sequels it has (witness the interminable Saw franchise of torture-porn).

Two of the most enduring figures in terror are Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees, of the Nightmare on Elm St. and Friday the 13th franchises. Both are bogeymen; mythical killers of young folks, in familiar settings. Therein lies the key to their longevity and appeal. Continue reading →

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Filed under Bad Influences, Faint Signals, Idiot's Delight, Movies You Missed, Nostalgic Obsessions, O'Shloktoberfest, Saturday Movie Matinee, Thousand Listen Club

Tagged as 2000s, 2003, Angelo Badalamenti, Beast Wars, breasts, Fangoria, Freddy Krueger, Garry Chalk, Heather Langenkamp, horror movies, Jason Voorhees, Katherine Isabelle, Kelly Rowland, Lochlyn Munro, Monica Keena, movies, Nightmare on Elm Street, Nightmare on Elm Street 3, Optimus Prime, Patricia Arquette, Robert Englund, Ronny Yu, Sean Cunningham, Wes Craven

03/24/2016 · 4:05 pm

Reborted

Moviegoers today act like naked Kate Winslet in Titanic, coyly demanding Leonardo DiCaprio to draw her like a French girl. A preternatural relationship has been forged between audience and studio. A production falls all over itself to seduce a fandom, because that’s where the blindly loyal dollars are. If a popular intellectual property is even slightly altered for a motion picture adaptation, it’s headline news, even above mass murder and election-year chicanery.

Eventually, this film will be remade, and this scene will feature different actors, pretty much just to fuck with you.

The movie industry has become such an intellectual wasteland that the 80s era of numerical sequel-mania looks dignified by comparison. Honest promotion and word-of-mouth don’t work anymore; attention span is dead. The only way to really sell a remake is to get people steamed. Take the things viewers loved about an original film, and subvert them. Serves the suckers right anyway, for falling in love with a fictional universe. The names P.T. Barnum and J.J. Abrams aren’t similar for nothing. Continue reading →

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Filed under Don't Know Don't Care, Idiot's Delight, Late To The Party, Nostalgic Obsessions, Saturday Movie Matinee, Worst Of All

Tagged as 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, breasts, comedy, corporate crap, Disney, Dukes of Hazzard, Fantastic Four, Fight Club, Friday the 13th, Ghostbusters, Godzilla, horror movies, Jem & The Holograms, Kate Winslet, Lost In Space, Marvel comics, movies, National Lampoon, Nightmare on Elm Street, reboots, remakes, RoboCop, sellouts, Star Wars, The Simpsons, Titanic, Transformers, Tron, TRON: Legacy, Vacation, whores

03/14/2016 · 10:04 pm

My First Necronomicon

By the age of ten, I had somehow managed to view both Alien and The Shining. These formed the blueprint of what I understood of the “horror” genre, which I’ve loved ever since. I often bought issues of Fangoria and GoreZone in junior high, because I was intrigued by the pictures’ ability to sicken me, and amazed that magazines existed in stores that were nothing more than full-color gross-out photos. The work of technical-effects masters like Rick Baker, Tom Savini and Kevin Yagher was lovingly displayed like bloody Playboy centerfolds.