the groundhog day project

A little reenactment to get the ball rolling with Freddy vs. Jason . I was watching a YouTube video from GoodBadFlicks earlier, notes on the movie Cabin in the Woods , and he argues (rather aptly) that the old ones who watch over the “ritual” therein... (“Mrs. Voorhees” should be more helpful with her directions. She tells Jason to go to “Elm Street” but doesn’t tell him what city or even what state. It’s a bit of a walk from New Jersey to Ohio. He might need some snacks, or an extra machete for the road.) ...represent we in the audience, watching the same ritual of death over and over and over again. The ending of that movie is us destroying the whole setup to start over. In that video, he suggests that the more recent remakes of Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street were not the way to go; we need new ideas. Really, I’m not sure that the basic slasher setup isn’t doable indefinitely; a killer stalking a series of victims—that’s a plotline a lot of different sets of deta...

Note #1 - I skipped a movie on my list today—I will get to it in a few days—because I wanted Day 450 of this blog to be something I knew I liked. I barely remember Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation but I know it had some issues with its release... and I’m using that to move it down the line for this “month” of slasher films. In case you haven’t been paying too much attention, I’ve been going in order of cinematic release (in the US). I skipped that particular film past its initial release to its later release, so that I could watch... Note #2 - Well, so that I could watch Wes Craven’s New Nightmare tonight. And speaking of release dates, I first saw this film before it was released in theaters, saw it at a test screening at the United Artists Marketplace Theater in Old Town Pasadena. At the time, it seemed like New Nightmare was just a working title. But, the prospect of Wes Craven returning to the series was good reason to go see the film as soon as possible. Now, onto...

“Do you know the terror of he who falls asleep? To the very toes he is terrified, Because the ground gives way under him, And the dream begins...” — Friedrich Nietzsche “Welcome to Prime Time, bitch.” — Freddy Krueger A few credits, then the outline of the US, with Springwood marked, and this: SPRINGWOOD, OHIO, TEN YEARS FROM NOW MYSTERIOUS KILLINGS AND SUICIDES WIPE OUT ENTIRE POPULATION OF CHILDREN AND TEENAGERS. REMAINING ADULTS ARE EXPERIENCING MASS PSYCHOSIS. THERE IS NEW EVIDENCE OF ONE SURVIVING TEENAGER... So begins Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare . Since Robert Englund gets billing above the title here, it occurs to me that one problem the Nightmare films have is personality. Jason and Michael have personality, sure, but Kane Hodder (who played Jason several times) never got billed above the title, nor did anyone who played Michael. The comedic tendencies coupled with, you know, Freddy actually showing his face—scarred, but still his face—mean the numerous victims...

It’s been a while since I’ve watched A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child . And, I’m pretty sure I don’t like this movie. And so, I turn it on and the logo is different and it starts with some attempt at artistic extreme close-ups of a sex scene... lit in the generic movie orange and blue. From nude to nun, the Alice Johnson story... or at least her dream. Six minutes of nudity without showing anything, she might as well be a nun that’s about to be raped by a bunch of mental patients. Wow, how offensive was that? Seriously, though, it’s a strange juxtaposition starting off with so much of Alice not only naked but having sex, when the usual slasher film lead is virginal and innocent, maybe even tomboyish. Alice not only had sex but had sex on screen, and she’s going to be a mother. Sure, she was already the Final Girl in a previous film, but she’s still the Final Girl here, too. She just doesn’t fit the stereotype. Anyway, I am not as tired as when I watched a couple of the...

As A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master begins, I realize I don’t really remember this movie. I know I’ve seen it, because I watched all of these movies on video in the 90s. It seems to begin with shared nightmares continuing without Freddy, which is an interesting idea. Joey, Kincaid and Kristen from the previous film in the series are back. Kristen is no longer played by Patricia Arquette... Speaking of which, I haven’t mentioned the big names that are in all of these slasher films. Kevin Bacon in Friday the 13th , Dennis Hopper in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 , Patricia Arquette and Laurence (billed as Larry) Fishburne in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors . (Ha, dog’s name is Jason. Wrong series.) Johnny Depp in A Nightmare on Elm Street , Corey Feldman in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter . And of course Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween . All who went on to more mainstream success. Nice shot when Kristen’s mother drugged her so she’d sleep. The camera spins ...

Sleep. Those little slices of death. How I loathe them. — Edgar Allan Poe So begins A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors . Gotta remember this quotation from Edgar Allan Poe, too: The death then of a beautiful woman is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world... The slasher film, of course, shows us the deaths of numerous beautiful women, but really it’s all about that final girl, the one who will get away. The homicidal pursuit works as a surrogate for a sexual one. We want the girl, but we settle for wanting her dead. Thing is, we get neither of these things. The slasher film is inevitably a disappointment for the males in the audience, but also something quite the opposite. It’s like a gift to the id in us all—but especially the supposedly heteronormative males—twisting our lust and our longing to kill into one primal urge. The obvious question then: why do females like the slasher film? Karanovic (2012) suggests, “For the women, it may not be sexual, but m...

I haven’t seen A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge in quite a while. I can’t remember if it manages to do what the first one did in regards to the usual Final Girl setup, a la Carol J. Clover (1988, 1992)—that is, not have her (Does this one even have a Final Girl? The opening dream sequence suggests a male lead.) not grab some phallic weapon and fight back. The first A Nightmare on Elm Street show us a lot of clocks— this one has already show a couple and it’s only 12 minutes in. The flow of time, or rather the altered flow of time is important to these movies because of the nature of dreams. But, there’s also a notable juxtaposition between the editing of film altering time and the fluid nature of dreams distorting time. If the former is done right, we don’t notice it because it helps draw us in and keep us captivated by the action. The latter may, after the fact, be revealed as very distortive, but during the dream it seems quite normal. Pinedo (1996) suggests that th...