Review

In the 1980s there was an unholy trinity of monsters terrorising screens across the world. You didn't want to venture into the woods around Crystal Lake, visit Haddonfield during Halloween, and for sure you didn't want to fall asleep if you were on a teen on Elm Street. Freddy Krueger, the bastard son of a thousand maniacs, was a dream demon to be reckoned with. Through seven movies, a television series, and horribly a re-make, Freddy cut a bloody path through teens on his way to becoming a pop icon to rival Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers. However Freddy alone could be giving the accolade of financing a major Film Studio that would eventually fund and produce Peter Jackson's awarding winning Lord of the Rings trilogy. Indeed, New Line, was the house that Freddy built. Let's slice our way into a four and a half hour documentary about the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. We have a review of the third movie following.

The first thing that confronts the Audience with this outstanding documentary is the running time, let's face facts here kids four and a half hours is even out of Peter Jackson's league! Surprisingly the dual Directors managed to keep it interesting and lively throughout, you will not find yourself checking your watch or hoping that Robert Englund isn't going to tell another yarn. I could have taken another hour or so of this stuff as it for sure wasn't a puff piece, pulling the scabs off some not yet fully healed wounds. Must admit I watched the doco over two sessions, so yeah worth putting aside a couple of nights to cover this one, unless of course you are an Elm Street fanatic.

Like all good documentaries, Never Sleep Again drops some surprises on you and gives enough gristle on the bone to have you developing some expertise in the subject matter. For example Peter Jackson was asked to write a script for the fifth movie, which he duly did, and got knocked back. Jackson naturally had a kick arse idea, but it was way too surreal for New Line and in particular Studio President Robert Shaye. I was also unaware that Elm Street would provide Director Renny Harlin with his first major Hollywood break. So there are some cool background details to the franchise that'll have you wondering how they managed to crank out the movies in the first place; lack of funds, tight schedules, and cheap labour notwithstanding.

Never Sleep Again pretty much follows the franchise in chronological order from Wes Craven's ground breaking first movie, A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), though all the sequels, before finally signing off with Freddy vs. Jason (2003). Each movie is discussed in depth, with not all the discussion praising each entry. Wes Craven for one was clearly not overly impressed with New Line as the franchise got more and more stupid in the later entries. Surprisingly A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985,), regarding as both the gayest horror movie ever made and the worse movie in the franchise, gets lots of coverage. The people who made the movie are either the most intellectually challenged units in history who shouldn't be allowed out on their own, or are lying through their teeth. They still hold they did not make a gay sub texted movie, which no doubt explains the gym teacher wearing leathers in the gay bar who ends up getting naked bum whipped with a towel, oh and the Probe board game that Jesse Walsh keeps in his closet. Insert your own "out of the closet" joke. Added bonus for mine was how well each movie did at the box office with the fans definitely sticking with the franchise through the bad times and the good.

Franchise leading lady, Heather Langenkamp, narrates over the four hours, with interviews of cast, actors, and New Line employees being interspersed. We have about everyone who ever appeared in an Elm Street saga adding their two cents to the doco, with the notable exceptions of Patricia Arquette and Johnny Depp. It was kind of cool catching up with some of the Cast to see where they are now, not surprisingly we're not talking a lot of Oscar action down the years, but it's surprising the number of Crew members who went on to bigger things. If you ever wonder what Robert Englund went through in order to become Freddy, then Never Sleep Again will answer that question.

Probably the most interesting aspect of the documentary for me was the coverage of the issues Wes Craven had in selling his script to Hollywood and the rise and eventual fall of the New Line Company. Simply put, no one was interested with Robert Shaye being the only person who saw the merit and likely box office gross in Craven's idea of a revenant who invades teenager dreams. Shaye pretty much hocked himself to the hilt and put the New Line Company on the line as he rolled the dice on Craven. In return Craven signed over pretty much all the rights to the franchise, a move he would come to deeply regret. New Line rode high on Freddy's adventures with the company going from a store front to a fully-fledged studio able to realise Lord of the Rings, however when the fall came it came pretty hard as a number of bad decisions eroded the financial stability.

The definitive guide to the life and times of Freddy Krueger, excellent stuff

Each movie in the franchise is treated as its own chapter during the Documentary with some cool animation and Claymation used to join the chapters into a coherent whole. A nice touch is the chapter titles that pretty much sum up what each individual movie is bringing to the table. Nice to see CGI isn't dominating the Documentary, as it never really worked for the franchise at the best of times.

For no discernible reason Never Sleep Again is finally getting an Australian release August 2012, a full two years after its release in most other markets. Once again a ludicrous decision by the local Distributor as anyone with a driving need to see the Documentary has either imported from another region or obtained it via more dubious means. YouTube for example has the whole Documentary available for anyone who wants to watch it. If various anti-Piracy people want to stamp out the online trend maybe they should start with looking at YouTube, just saying, rather than going jackboots and all after Citizens.

So I'm more your Mikey Myers sort of a person but I did dig Never Sleep Again which demonstrated at least some Studios were taking risks and making some serious attempts at new horror in the face of the Boredwood conveyor belt mentality. The doco is brisk, informative, and features all those sorts of details that the fans crave. Not my favourite franchise, but great Documentary regardless, worth catching for both fans and non-fans.

Currently we're waiting on the DVD/BR release Downunder, so no idea of the contents, but if in other regions Never Sleep Again should be available via the many online options. Please note we don't support piracy, don't be that person, purchase or rent a copy.