Thanks to Friday's column, I've made a new "friend" who likes to talk with me about great things such as Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and stuff. He thinks Jason Frank aka Tommy aka The Green Ranger aka The White Ranger aka The Red Zeo Ranger aka The Red Turbo Ranger aka The Easter Bunny aka The Second Gunman is the best, but I hold a place dear in my heart for Jason, the original red ranger, and of course, Amy Jo Johnson.
Anyways, on with today's topic that has nothing to do with current movies.Yesterday was my last day of school for this school year and I didn't need to go to school until 12:35 to take the final Journalism exam. So I was sitting around thinking of ways to pass the time, and for some reason which I still don't know, I felt compelled to watch the cheese filled "Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare."
I don't know why I felt like watching this one, for which there are five other Nightmare movies that are better than it (and Freddy's Revenge is NOT one of them), but I just had to do it. What a magnificent ride it was!
I always find watching any of the Nightmare sequels to be an odd experience. Sometimes I wonder whether or not I would know Nightmares 1 and 6 were connected had they not both had the same central villain. I guess one could come to the assumption that Wes Craven's creation was pretty much perverted into the polar opposite of what it had originally been.
If you watch the original Nightmare on Elm Street, it's fairly evident that Freddy himself does not infact get much of the screentime at all. Also, Freddy's face is kept in darkness for almost the entire movie. Freddy delivers no "witty" banter after offing people, and certainly doesn't murder anyone in a comical style.
The thing I love most about the original is the fact that the viewer knows virtually nothing about the killer in the movie (although they do learn somewhat of his origin towards the end of it). I've always felt that the unknown is much scarier, and someone killing many people for no known reason at all always seems scarier to me than someone with a motive.
Freddy was a very frightening central villain in the original NOES, and it's a shame to see him degenerate into nothing but a comedic slapstick bufoon of a villain. The more we learn about Freddy, how the "dream people" gave him powers, why he kills people, how he was born, etc, he loses a part of that "unknown" part of him and becomes more and more human, and in a "horror" movie, mere humans are certainly not as frightening as "monsters," especially when the started out as a monster.
Even Wes Craven tainted the character of Kruger in Nightmare 3. While it was a great film, Nightmare 3 introduces the first instances of the "witty" Freddy, most noticably the line, "Welcome to prime-time bitch."
If Nightmare 2 jolted the "dark" essence of Freddy a little, Nightmare 3 derailed it and sent the darkness spiraling away, leaving the comedic Freddy to fill his place in the remaining Nightmares, TV series, comic books, TV appearance, etc.
Then of course, there's Wes Craven's New Nightmare. Much like the first, Freddy does not play the central character of this movie, and instead the central heroine, Heather Langenkamp takes control. For some reason, while interesting, I was never at all scared by this film, and probably wouldn't be if I was a child and saw it.
The Freddy in this movie is barely like that of the Nightmare films except in appearance, but I can't help but feel like he doesn't belong. The whole concept of Freddy breaking out of the film world is very interesting, but can never seem to incite fear in anyone, perhaps due to the comedic persona which he cannot escape from.
If only two Nightmare films were made, the original and New Nightmare, than the Freddy in New Nightmare might have had inspired some fealing of dread in viewers, but no matter how serious and deadly he acts in New Nightmare, all it takes is a moment thinking back to him killing a guy inside of a video game and muttering "Great graphics!" to destroy that deadly image.
By the sixth installment in the Nightmare series, things were undoubtedly getting stale. It seemed that America was finally tired of the "funny" Freddy, and for that I am thankful, for I shudder when I think of how much worse it could have gotten with a few more sequels.
Each one was progressively worst than the last, with the exception of Nightmare 3. Each time Freddy came back from the grave for no explainable reason, even though the method with which he was last killed was said to be the indefinite way to banquish him forever in the movie before.
He wasn't really killed in Nightmare 2, but Nightmare 3 seemed to be the final stake in his heart. Why did he come back in Nightmare 4? Because a dog pissed on his grave in a dream? Hardly a great reason for his return, but then again, the focus was on getting more money at the box office, not actually writing plots that made sense.
How did Freddy return in Nightmare 5 even after he was said to be killed forever in Nightmare 4? Who knows.
Even after he was killed by all of the souls he had killed previously in Nightmare 5, he still inexplicable showed up in Freddy's Dead, this time without even a NOTION of anything that had happened in the previous movies.
The way in which Freddy was dispatched was frankly quite lame compared to many of the previous ways in which he died, yet it was said to be the only "true" way to kill him. Argh. As I viewed Nightmare 6, my mood went to anger to pity.
It's obvious New Line knew it was beating a dead horse, as evidenced by the pathetic 3D sequence towards the end of the movie. The further flashbacks of Freddy's life in Nightmare 6 just plain disgust me.
Another reason I felt the series became stale, besides the dumbing down of Freddy, was the central character. It's an odd thing to think about. Whenever the main character of your movie becomes the villain, what does the series degenerate to? It degenerates to the same villain every movie, only with a new crop of victims for him.
The only tying force between films is the villain himself, and with no other reoccuring characters it takes very little for the series to become stale. Even though it's had many pitfalls, I like to admire the Phantasm series of movies for it has stuck with the same characters for four whole films, each one having something fresh to offer.
While the Nightmare series merely told Freddy's secrets a few times each movie, whenever the Phantasm series lets one or two secrets of the Tall Man slip out in a movie, it usually creates two or three more questions and only serves to pique the viewers curiosity even more.
As of now, the only DVDs in the Nightmare Boxed Set that will probably be getting love from me are Nightmares 1, 3, 4 (for sentimental value- it was the first I saw in theaters, and the Nightmare Encyclopedia (pure greatness). I'm interested in seeing what others think about the "perversion" of Freddy thoughout the series and how much people actually want another Nightmare film to be made.
If you have an opinion on the Nightmare films, I implore you to post about it in the forums. And remember, don't fall asleep.
