Nathan Rabin's Happy Place's Definitive Guide to American Movies about the Film Industry
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Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy (2010) FM
Writer-director Daniel Farrands’ 2013 magnum opus Crystal Lake Memories devoted six hours and forty riveting minutes to chronicling the curious evolution of the Friday the 13th franchise. It was the deepest of deep dives by documentarians fueled by insatiable curiosity. By comparison, Farrands’ Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy, which he co-directed with Andrew Kasch, devotes a mere four hours to the Nightmare on Elm Street series. Despite its disconcerting brevity, Never Sleep Again is nevertheless as satisfying and authoritative as Crystal Lake Memories.
The documentarians secured the passionate participation of the series’ most important figures, most notably writer-director Wes Craven, producer/New Line head honcho Robert Shaye, actor Robert Englund, and actress Heather Langenkamp, who narrates and executive produces in addition to being interviewed.
As with Crystal Lake Memories, the talking heads are wonderfully blunt and candid. Craven, in particular, has incisive things to say about his creative process and the tricky business of scaring people. He’s also more than willing to express his dissatisfaction with the many entries in the series that he had nothing to do with.
Never Dream Again is full of juicy gossip and fascinating trivia. We learn here, for example, that Peter Jackson might never have taken New Line to a new level of success and popularity with the Lord of the Rings franchise if he hadn’t gotten his foot in the door by co-writing an unproduced screenplay for a fifth sequel to Nightmare on Elm Street.
Never Sleep Again is a passionate celebration of the art and craft of horror that’s not just for die-hards. For fright fans, however, this irresistible exploration of Freddy Krueger’s enduring legacy is the stuff of dreams.
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