Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy (2010) (Blu-ray Review)
Directed By: Daniel Farrands
Starring: Robert Englund, Heather Langenkamp, Wes Craven
Rated: UR/Region A/1:77/1080p/Number of Discs 2
Available from IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT
Murderer. Dream Demon. The bastard son of a hundred maniacs. Any way you slice it, there can only be one man – one monster – who epitomizes those words: Freddy Krueger. For decades, he has slashed his way through the dreams of countless youngsters and shows no signs of ever resting in peace. A Nightmare on Elm Street star Heather Langenkamp is your dream guide in this thrilling “shockumentary” that takes you deeper into Freddy’s realm than ever before, featuring exciting clips, never-before-seen photos, behind-the-scenes footage, conceptual art, publicity materials and exclusive new interviews with over 100 key cast and crew from every Nightmare, including Wes Craven, Robert Englund, Heather Langenkamp, Jack Sholder, Mark Patton, Kim Myers, Chuck Russell, Jennifer Rubin, Renny Harlin, Lisa Wilcox, Tuesday Knight, Stephen Hopkins, Kelly Jo Minter, Rachel Talalay, Lisa Zane, Alice Cooper, Patrick Lussier, Miko Hughes, Monica Keena, Brendan Fletcher, Ronny Yu and many more. So get ready for Freddy in the definitive account of modern cinema’s eternal bogeyman and what has been called the most frightening and imaginative horror franchise in motion picture history!
The thing about a film like this is you have to really be careful how you go about making it. Naturally, it’s going to be mainly targeted at the diehards of the series and the average fan might not like the length, but you need to give the watcher new stuff that even the biggest of Freddy fans might not even know of before seeing it here. There are some of the same ol’ stories here with Never Sleep Again that you’ve all heard before, but at the same time I’m happy to report as we spend a fair amount of time on each film we learn a whole lot of new stuff as well. What makes things even better is that nothing is put before you all cleaned up with a cherry on top. Everyone in their interviews talk about how much they loved working on a Freddy film and all that, but if they had any issues with anything it is also brought out in the open. Among the many things we take a dive into is Wes Craven and his somewhat love/hate relationship he has with former New Line head, Robert “Bob” Shaye, his detest of having sequels to the original, and his thoughts on what Freddy became.
Also, we learn which Nightmare film had a director that Bob just didn’t seem to care about at all. Now if there was one bad thing I have to say about this thing, it’s that while they do talk about Johnny Depp, we sadly don’t hear anything from him in regard to this. It’s understandable, but still you wish he was around for this stuff cause you’d love to hear what he thinks of it now. The run-time is somewhat of a turn off, but how else would you really be able to dive into each entry and cover such grand issues as the gay overtones and metaphors of part 2? That’s right, the giant pink elephant in the room is finally brought out in the open and spoke about in detail. Now maybe that stuff is great to run through for your first watching, but due to the length of it, don’t look for many of your friends to love it if they aren’t hardcore fans. Also, don’t be shocked if even you yourself skips around stuff during repeat viewings. But as far as overall entertainment and details mixed with really good information regarding the subject matters goes, you can’t really go wrong with Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy.
– Extended Interviews
– First Look: Heather Langenkamp’s “”I Am Nancy””
– For the Love of the Glove
– Fred Heads: The Ultimate Freddy Fans
– Horror’s Hallowed Grounds: Return to Elm Street
– Freddy vs. The Angry Video Game Nerd
– Expanding the Video Game Universe: Freddy in Comic Books and Novels
– The Music of the Nightmare: Conversations with Composers and Songwriter
– Elm Street’s Poster Boy: The Art of Matthew Joseph Peak
– A Nightmare on Elm Street in 10 Minutes
– Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy Teaser Trailer
