There is no question that Freddy Kruger is one of the most
prolific horror icons ever created. Through 7 films Kruger has been slicing
people up in their dreams and blurring the fine line between film and reality
in Wes Craven’s New Nightmare.
Now, the whole collection is finally available on blu-ray and the result is a nice package but sadly lacks in the quality of features that Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy set before it.
Before you even open the Blu-ray box you notice that it’s
just a bigger standard blu-ray box. Not a book shape like you would find in the
Aliens Anthology or Star Wars blu-ray collection. It’s very disappointing. There are 7 films in this collection which include: A Nightmare On Elm Street on disc 1, A
Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge and A Nightmare on Elm Street 3:
Dream Warriors on disc 2, A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: Dream Warriors and
Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Baby on disc 3, Freddy’s Dead: The Final
Nightmare and Wes Craven’s New Nightmare on disc 4 and a Standard DVD special
features disk on disc 5 Lets start out with Disc 1
Disc 1
The special features are where this disk really shines. You
get an hour-long documentary called Never Sleep Again: The Making of A Nightmare
On Elm Street. It’s a great inside look on how the film was made starting from
Wes Craven’s childhood memories and news articles he read that inspired the
film, through the actors and actresses to the MPAA and distribution troubles.
It’s a really comprehensive feature that leaves no detail unturned. 
The other special feature here is The House That Freddy
Built, which is another documentary but this time focusing on New Line Cinema
and how A Nightmare on Elm Street propelled the studio to the top and became
the New Line Cinema we know today.
What’s interesting here is that they expand, not just on how Freddy and the
Nightmare on Elm Street franchise shaped the company, but on how other horror
franchises helped the company such as Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III,
Critters, the Blade franchise, Final Destination and Friday The 13th
which was acquired by New Line from Paramount back in the early 90’s for Friday
the 13th: Jason Goes To Hell.
The final documentary that this disc holds is Night Terrors:
The Origins of Wes Craven’s Nightmares. It’s an in-depth look at dreams and how
cultures all around the world interpret them. Doctors who specialize in dreams
all give their knowledge as well as Wes Craven giving his knowledge he gained
while researching the film. They also
dive into the theory of if anyone can kill someone while they’re sleeping. It
also goes through the theory of if you die in a dream you die for real. It can be
interesting to some and I am happy it’s in here but you will probably watch it
once and never again.
The rest of the features on the disc are pretty standard,
you get a fact track option, which displays trivia about the film as you watch.
But they come up like subtitles and it’s just very unappealing.Focus points also make an appearance as a special feature. As you watch you can hit enter on your remote when signaled to and it will take you to a tidbit of information about that scene in the film. Some are interesting such as alternate takes, but most of it is taken straight from the Never Sleep Again: The Making of A Nightmare on Elm Street mentioned earlier in this review.
You also get two commentaries one is a carry over from A
Nightmare on Elm Street DVD which features Wes Craven, Heather Langenkamp, John
Saxon and Cinematographer Jacques Haitkin. The other commentary features Wes
Craven, Robert Englund, Heather Langenkamp, Ronee Buckley, producer Robert
Shaye and co-producer Sara Risher. This commentary get’s on your nerves because
it’s not your standard commentary. The people are not in the room watching the
film and talking about it, it’s all sound clips with a voice introducing them
i.e. “Wes Craven, writer and director.” Or “Robert Shaye, producer.”
Rounding out the special features are the alternate endings,
which consist of three very different ways the film could have ended. It’s a
nice touch to the blu-ray and I am definitely glad it’s there. And the last one
is the theatrical trailer.
Disc 2
Disc 2 contains both A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s
Revenge and A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge is I think the
worse one, it just doesn’t sit well with me because Freddy comes out of the
dream world and the whole homosexual overtones just didn’t fell right in a Freddy film.
Yeah, the blu-ray transfer is the same as the first one, so it’s passable but
even revisiting A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge in HD the
problems are still there.
The special features are nice though. We have an
unintentional comical featurette called Heroes and Villains where the director,
Jack Sholder, tries and defends what he did and saying “Oh, we didn’t expect this
to be a franchise, we just knew the last one was a scary movie.”
Psycho Sexual Circus, yeah, the name of that featurette
really stands out. You have Robert Englund, Jack Sholder, and Rachel Talalay
discussing the infamous homo-eroticism the film has. It’s kind of weird watching
Sholder say “Well we didn’t know it had all this homo-erotism in it at that
time.” How could you not? I am glad they
didn’t just shutter away from the subject matter and it’s on the disc because,
especially in these times it needs to be talked about.
A short almost pointless added tidbit is called Male Witch,
where it’s five minutes of the make up designer going I wanted him to be a male
witch with the pointed down nose. Uhh, cool story bro, moving on.
The last feature is Freddy on 8th Street and it’s
just a five minute little thing about how they needed to publicize A Nightmare
on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge then Robert Englund gives his two cents on
why Freddy was popular.
The last thing on Freddy’s Revenge is a theatrical trailer.
There is no commentary to be seen sadly, which is a shame
because there is so much controversy, like the fact that Freddy is out of the
dream world and the homo-eroticism elements it would have been interesting to hear
the cast and crew discuss it in a commentary track. Nightmare 2, it’s in here,
it’s bad, whatever.
Now, one of my favorite Freddy films is A Nightmare on Elm
Street 3: Dream Warriors. This is the film that got the series back on track,
it also introduced a new comical Freddy, cracking one-liners after each kill
and a story about kids coming together and facing their fear. This is it “The
big break in the blu-ray case, welcome to primetime, bitch.”
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| Title Screen of Nightmare 3 |
The featurettes on this disc are fine at best but the first one
titled Fan Mail is a talk show host, who explains that if you’re in a Freddy
movie or Freddy type movie you will have a whole new set of fans. The final
line just baffled me beyond belief when he said “Sorry, I haven’t answered your
fan mail.” What the fuck? Okay, thanks for the apology dude.
Christian Warriors is sighted right beside the sheer
wackiness of the Fan Mail feature. This covers the start of the film with
interviews of Wes Craven talking about the initial first draft of the script,
Robert Englund discussing his treatment and script for his vision of the third
film. Bruce Wagner also talks about his role in writing the first draft. The
featurette ends with how they made Freddy go from complete scariness to
comical.
Snakes and Ladders is an interesting piece covering the
special effects of the film. The special effects make designer discusses the
Freddy worm and how they wanted it to be shaped into a male penis. We also hear
from the director Chuck Russel and screen writer Frank Darabont on the barking pig and how it was almost
cut out of the movie due to budgetary means. It’s short but very informative.
Trading 8’s covers Freddy’s one-liners. Robert Englund
discusses how the most popular line in the film “Welcome to prime time, bitch.”
was his idea and how the script said something different. We also hear from
Bruce Wagner of where the idea of the marinette scene came. Also thrown into the mix is Chuck Russel and Frank Darabont returning to discuss the hall of mirrors and
ponder who came up with that scene.
There is a lot of random shit on disc 2 especially on the
Nightmare 3 side. The feature called That’s Show Biz is right up there with Fan
Mail. This is where Robert Englund tells a story of how he and Chuck Russel
were working over 20 hours one day and they need a burrito and standing there
were transvestites. Why is this a feature on the actual disc? This should have
been inserted on Snakes and Ladders or Trading 8’s, not have it’s own
section.
The burn out feature is awfully cut, I mean, we have John
Saxon recalling his time on the set how much the difference was between the
first few days of filming to the last day of filming. I can see that it’s
called burn out meaning the cast was burnt out. But John Saxon’s part only
lasts like 4 minutes, so they throw in Heather Langenkamp and she discusses how
she came to be in the film. IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH BURNING OUT OR ANYTHING.
Again, just like That’s Show Biz it should have been put in another feature.
This next feature is just laziness it’s called The House That Freddy Built
which is a good look into New Line Cinemas rise which is on the first disc.
Here they took Jack Sholder, director of Freddy’s Revenge of all people, they
took his 3-minute segment and threw it in here! Why? WHY! That’s complete
laziness and stupidity on the part of New Line.
The last 2 features are a music video by Dokken full of the
80’s hair and cheese and a theatrical trailer.
The same complaints are from Nightmare on Elm Street 2:
Freddy’s Revenge is here NO COMMENTARY!!!! I want commentary; it would be so
awesome to have Frank Darabont, Wes Craven and Robert Englund share their
thoughts on Freddy’s first foray into his comedic personality.
I am actually really surprised at that sheer desperation of
features they are just grabbing and throwing in. It’s kind of ridiculous
because there are so many archived features, interviews etc. to make Nightmare
3 an amazing blu-ray disc in itself.
Disc 3
Disc 3 contains A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream
Master and A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Baby.
The Dream Master is almost as bad as Nightmare 2. It doesn’t
have that scare factor or that wondrous oh my god what kind of dream sequence
will happen next. The film looks good it’s a notch up from standard DVD but not
the best blu-ray transfer but it satisfies. Kruger continues to crack his
one-liners which is always a nice thing to hear but it doesn’t reach up to the
standards that Dream Warriors set before it.
The Dream Master does have some pretty cool imagery in it.
Like when Freddy opens up his shirt and you see all the children screaming and
imbedded into his burning scars. I also love the last scene when the children are struggling in this sack like thing. But a few images don’t make up for a lack
luster film. But i'd rather watch this and Freddy’s Revenge before that god
awful platinum Dunes remake.
The 5 special features on here are okay at best.
The first one mocking James Bond is called Kruger, Fred
Kruger. This starts off with Al Sharpio the president of theatrical
distribution talking about how Nightmare 3 was awesome critically and
financially. This quickly picks up with Bob Shaye, director Renny Harline and a
few others in the crew discussing the writers strike that was going on at the
time, Bob Shaye admitting that he despised Renny Harline for his lack of
creativity and the one of the reasons why he chose him was because he was big
and had great stamina to work all night due to the film being rushed quickly.
Hopeless Chest covers the two most memorable effects of the
film. The soul food pizza with the children’s faces as meatballs and the
children trying to break out of Freddy’s skin. It’s interesting, but we have
seen it all before.
Let’s Makeup is another short feature where special FX make
up artist Howard Berger explains how he put Robert Englunds make up on.
The final feature is called The Finish Line where Renny and
Bob talk about how rushed the project was, the nerves they felt when test
screened the film etc. oh, and a theatrical trailer.
No commentary again sadly and most of the features here or
either boring or have been seen but done better in other documentaries or
special edition DVD’s.
This brings us to the 5th installment of A
Nightmare on Elm Street called The Dream Child. This one is better then the
Dream Master, but doesn’t stack up to the quality of the first or third one. I
personally love the line “IT’S A BOOOYYYYY.” by Freddy. The picture quality is
okay and the sound is passable but it’s not up to par to what you would expect.
The special features on this disc are the same as the rest nothing
sticks out. The first special feature is called Womb Raiders, where Rachel
Talalay talks how she was burnt out and didn’t want to do it. We also have the
director Stephen Hopkins explain his vision of the film as well as a lengthy
discussion of wombs and how they didn’t want to over kill it with that subject
in the film. The Sticky Floor starts with Robert Englund talking about the time
of special effects and how they were just going into the computer graphics age.
Alan Munro, visual effects supervisor also explains how hot it was filming the
last scene of the film. He also touches on the explosion they did and how the
incident lead to a sticky floor.
David Miller, make-up artist, also comes on to explain the
look of the Freddy baby.
Right after getting through the sticky floor we get thrown
into the Take The Stairs feature. This should really have been thrown into
something else because its just five minutes Stephen Hopkins explaining how he
envisioned the stairs scene and that’s it. It’s like why? This doesn’t need to
be it’s own feature.
Hopkins Directs is a three-minute look at a conversation
between Hopkins and Robert Englund on the stairs scene. It was kind of cool
watching it but it’s way too short and really Hopkins is just clarifying not
directing.
The final featurette here is A Slight Miscalculation. This
feature starts out with Alan Munro talking about how they miscalculated the
audience interest of what they want when they go and see a Freddy movie.
Hopkins also gives his take explaining how a shocking horror film couldn’t be
done this day in age. That feature lasts not even five minutes.
Also included are two music videos and a theatrical trailer.
The first music video is one entitled Fat Boys Are You Ready For Freddy, which
is the most far out of left field crazy thing I have ever seen on a blu-ray. The
next one is even crazier titled Whodini Anyways I Gotta Swing It.
Well that’s one way to go out on blu-ray, was not expecting
those rap videos.
The zaniness ends here as we go to the final blu-ray disc.
Disc 4
Disc 4 is the final blu-ray in this collection but not the
last disc. This disc holds Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare and Wes Craven’s
New Nightmare. Freddy’s Dead, as crazy as it is, I still like it. It's got good
one-liners but the attempt at a back-story completely falls flat on its
head.
The special features on this disc start out with Rachel’s
Dream. Robert Englund starts this one off by talking about Rachel Talalay and
how she was up for the job. Talalay then
comes in and talks about her vision of the film and how she wanted to create
more back-story then the previous entries had. She also openly admits about
being inspired by Twin Peaks and wanted to incorporate that into the film.
Coming at you in full fledge 2D is the 3D Demise featurette.
This is where Talalay admits the struggle with the ending being in 3D.
86’D is just Robert Shaye talking about Freddy’s Dead and
how they exhausted all other ideas for Freddy and the only real way they could
freshen it up was 3D.
Hellraiser is a nice breath of fresh air as Clive Barker,
writer of the Hellraiser series comes in and talks about how hard it is trying
to keep things fresh in a fifth installment of any franchise. The final one
here is the theatrical trailer.
This leads us to the final film in the collection, Wes
Craven’s New Nightmare.
Wes Craven’s New Nightmare looks great and the audio is
actually really good too compared to the other discs for some reason. The
special features on this disc include a transfer of Wes Craven’s commentary
from the original DVD release.
Becoming A Filmmaker is Wes Craven explaining how he was a
teacher and his super religious up bringing that lead him to become one of the
most iconic horror directors to ever grace the screen. Located right next to Becoming A Filmmaker is a featurette titled An Insane Troupe. This feature is 5 minutes of Wes Craven
talking about what you have to do first before you audience can be scared of
whatever villain you want in your film.
The Two Worlds feature is an interesting little feature with
Wes Craven explaining his reasoning for making New Nightmare and dives into the
subject of the film and why he wanted to do this story.
The Problems With Sequels is just Wes Craven talking about
his outlook on sequels and what he honestly thinks of it and also adding his
comments on the Nightmare sequels.
The last featurette on the last blu-ray in this set is
called Filmmaker and its just Wes Craven explaining what the term filmmaker
means to him and his views on either if films are art or just films. Also
included is the theatrical trailer.
Disc 5
This final disc in the collection is just a standard DVD.
Why? I have no idea. On the disc you get 2 episodes of the TV series Freddy’s
Nightmares, which is a fun little thing to enjoy. Fear Himself: The Life And Crimes Of Freddy
Kruger is an in-depth look at the villain and his humble beginnings. Welcome to
Prime Time are little clips of footage and interviews from other Nightmare documentaries.
The last thing in this collection is called Conclusions which
you have a university of Virginia professor Mark Edmundson, Clive Barker, Sean.
S. Cunningham and Robert Englund discussing the nightmare legacy.
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| The Best Documentary |
This is a solid blu-ray box set, Freddy vs. Jason is not
here sadly as well as the horrible Platinum Dunes remake, which would have been
nice to add just to say it was included in the blu-ray. With all the special features
combined through out this collection nothing compares to what Never Sleep
Again: The Elm Street Legacy has. That being said you have Freddy Kruger on blu-ray with a good assortment of features and really, what more could a
Nightmare fan want. For the ultimate Freddy viewing experience I highly recommend
picking up Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy along with this blu-ray box
set.
4 out of 5
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