For the last week of October we watched through the entire Nightmare on Elm Street series (the first three of which I've already talked about) and the last couple Friday the 13th films (I reviewed the first eight last year) finishing with Freddy vs. Jason (2003).
1. A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)
After the relative breath of fresh air that was Dream Warriors this film is a huge step down. The plot is incredibly incoherent. How does Freddy return exactly? Why is he destroyed by looking at his own reflection? Why does is seem like the victims in this film fall asleep in the middle of the day for no reason? Another problem is that there are just too many characters here to real latch on to any one. It is clear that the producers wanted to up the body count, and the kills in this film, while really creative and featuring great effects work, are much more mean spirited then previously. The central idea (the final girl in this film is able to attain the dream powers of Freddy's other victims) has promise but is mostly wasted. New Line Cinema turned down Wes Craven's proposal for this installment and reportedly began shooting before a director was even hired and Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2, The Long Kiss Goodnight) was ultimately given the rather thankless task.
Score: 5/10
2. A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989)
This film doubles down on everything that was wrong with it's predecessor. The are more mean-spirited and the plot is more confusing. The production value, which was one of the few good things about The Dream Master (it may have the most impressive effects of the series) is also a step down here. Freddy himself, once a terrifying if occasional sardonic ghoul, has now been reduced to a silly, comic book villain, who seems more interested in toying with his victims then killing them. While Renny Harlin's direction was, at least, competent, Stephen Hopkins' often falls flat.
Score: 4/10
3. Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)
The final nail in the coffin for the series, Freddy's Dead is a bizarre concoction. Tonally, it's all over the place, vacillating between surreal and Lynchian (the scenes in Springwood come across as a subpar Twin Peaks homage) to over-the-top and cartoonish, to downright disturbing. The series had lost any semblance of a coherent mythology at this point with the film seeming to come up with new ideas on the fly. The climax (presented in glorious pre-Avatar 3D), which brings back the idea from the first movie of bringing Freddy into the real world in order to kill him, feels 7 years too late. Why does it work this time anyway? The kills here are so drawn out, ridiculous, and so thoroughly lacking in any sense of true terror that you really just want Freddy to go away by the time the first victim dies. This is an abysmal film.
Score: 2/10
4. Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993)
Having obtained the rights to Jason Voorhees character (but not the Friday the 13th title) New Line Cinema decided to bring him back from the dead only to kill him again. He dies both at the beginning and the end of this film! Like Freddy's Dead, it plays around with the series mythology, revealing that Jason had a sister that we never knew about. The plot is rather confusing (though not nearly as much as The Final Nightmare) and Jason doesn't even show up (after dying in the film's opening minutes) until the climax, instead his "spirit" is transferred from one body to another throughout the film. The resulting picture feels more like a mediocre X-Files episode then a Friday the 13th film. On the plus side, it does have a more likable protagonist then many of the franchise's other installments and the blood and gore effects are really creative. It is definitely the odd-one-out of the series but I appreciate the new direction the filmmakers tried to take.
Score: 5/10
Wes Craven returns to direct this out-of-universe sequel, about Freddy entering the real world to haunt the cast and crew of the latest Nightmare film, a concept the director had come up with for the 3rd film which was rejected at the time and which he resurrected for this one. The film anticipates Craven's Scream films in it's meta commentary on the genre, it feels as if Craven was uncomfortable with what the character he'd created had become. In any case, this is the best Nightmare since the original, which is fitting since most of the original cast returns (playing themselves this time around). Between the script and the effective direction, Craven successfully blurs the line between dreams and reality in a way not seen since the original film. More remarkably, the director rescues Freddy Krueger from his campy, pop-culture image and restores him as a figure of menace.
Score: 8/10
6. Jason X (2001)
As with Jason Takes Manhattan, the producers tried to change things up for this installment by moving the location away from Camp Crystal Lake, this time into a futuristic, space bound setting. The results are better this time around as the film is faster paced and has a welcome sense of self awareness compared to it's predecessors. The cast, as per usual, is made up of largely expendable degenerates, who Jason dispatches with renewed vigor. They're are quite a few impressive kills here, most notably Jason shoving a woman's head in liquid nitrogen before smashing it to bits. There's also a fair amount of sex and nudity, which I could really have done without. I can't really say it's a good film by any standard, but it is a more entertaining one then many of the series later entries.
Score: 6/10
The last canonical entry in either series, Freddy vs. Jason is able to realize it's concept without feeling too contrived, which, in itself, is an accomplishment. Freddy has been left powerless when the authorities in Springwood form a conspiracy to suppress any knowledge of his killings. This leads Krueger to bring Jason back from the dead (how he does this is not clear) in order to make the youth of the town afraid once again, allowing him to invade their dreamspace). The cast is relatively likable for this kind of film, and Robert Englund puts in one of his better performances as Krueger, balancing out the menace and the camp. The direction, courtesy of Chucky veteran Ronny Yu, is a bit too manic for my taste, and lacks the surreal atmosphere of the better Nightmare films and the low budget charm of the Friday movies. Again, I'm not sure this is a good film, but as a diverting novelty it's a lot better then it might have been.
Score: 6/10
As I have done in previous years, I will do a wrap-up and ranking of this year's Shocktoberfest sometime in the next week. Stay tuned!
No comments:
Post a Comment