Movie Review - Nightmare On Elm Street

A Nightmare On Elm Street

(2010)

New Line Cinema / Platinum Dunes : New Line Cinema / Warner Home Video

2.25 / 10

Once, the production house of New Line Cinema meant new and groundbreaking films, especially the Nightmare On Elm Street Series, and excluding the terrible part VI - Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, were pretty decent at doing that.

So they decide to try and breath life into a long dead Kruger and bring the nightmares back to life for a new set of fans...

... er... 

No.

This is a travesty of a reboot.  

Mistake number one - they try to remake the first film with a few "adjustments" to the storyline to make it fresh and bring it up to date.  This isn't fully utilised, as we're living in a modern world with internet, cell phones, and all types of other gizmo's that should have featured in the nightmare-scapes of Krueger's victims.  See the tongue, out of the phone in the original part two, Freddy's Revenge, and Freddy's knives becoming syringes in the original part three, Dream Warriors.

Mistake number two - Bad direction, Samuel Bayer relies on sound bursts way too much to make his audience jump.  This is sloppy directing.  With a story most people know, if you're not going to give your audience something new then you have to do a good job of being able to really scare them.  There's NO build up of tension or suspense and this creates a lack of atmosphere that was very tangible in the original run.

Mistake number three - Bad characterisation.  None of the cast appears to have any depth, they all feel more two-dimensional than three.  This isn't too bad a thing with the minor characters, but with the main characters, it's essential to create empathy and to feel sadness and terror when their situations take a turn for the worst.  The major calamity in this instance is Freddy Krueger, where Robert England made it his own, Jackie Earle Haley comes nowhere near.  This is more than a shame as Haley is a good actor, who did a splendid job as Rorschach in Watchmen.  If he had produced a character similar in mannerisms, as the Nightmare Krueger, this would have helped make him a more terrifying and powerful character, which Freddy IS.  However, this Freddy isn't anybody to be scared of Robert England is still KING!

Everything that a horror film should be is missing from this movie.

What could have made the movie better?

Do Not remake the first film; use a completely different story.  Skipp and Spector, two great horror writers helped pen the original part five, The Dream Child.  It was also reported they'd wrote a story for the sixth film, "Bastard Son Of A Thousand Maniacs",  which is one hell of a title and it went all the way back to Freddy's conception.  This would have been an awesome place to start.  Add in better characterisations and you're on your way.

Then you would have to get a director that understood horror, terror, and suspense, as well as Wes Craven, did.

Next, add imagination, which was rife in the original series... a bed cloth twisting and turning itself into a noose, a boy's veins pulled out of his body to make him a human puppet.  Come on people nightmares are people's imagination dropped into the Darkside.

I wouldn't recommend this to anyone, save your money... or better yet spend it on buying the original film series box set and see how it should be done.

Movie Review - Edgar Allan Poe's "Lighthouse Keeper"

Edgar Allan Poe's "Lighthouse Keeper" (2016)

Thunder Entertainment / Millman Productions

8.5 / 10

To all of the people involved in this movie, which if you waited to the credits isn't very many, thank you, Thank You, THANK YOU, for making such a beautiful movie.

This has to be the most visually beautiful horror movie I have ever seen and it was a joy and a pleasure to watch.  I cannot tell how close to Poe's original story it kept to, though it has given me an incentive to root out my copy of Poe's tales and have a read, which is a marvellous bonus.

The story is set somewhere between the 1930's and the 1960's and the sets have been expertly set to give you the exact right feel.  There's hardly any knick knacks in the lighthouse, as these times were a less clutter-some place.  The only tech in the house is a gramophone; the lights are candles and oil burners; the stove is an iron wood burner; even the spices in the rack are in tins.  This alone is a nice touch; right down to the costumes.

The story is a slow burner which starts out as a smouldering ember and works into an all out forest fire.  There are three major characters; The Lighthouse Keeper, Walsh, portrayed brilliantly by veteran actor Vernon Wells. giving a believable performance as a man who, though not happy to be alone, has adapted to the solitude of being by himself, making him gruff, argumentative, and self-righteous.  J. P. played nicely by Matt O'Neill, is the sole survivor of a storm washed up on the Lighthouse's beach.  While waiting for the ferry to take him off the island strange things occur to him, he hears voices, bumps into a strange and mysterious woman, and wonders why the candles have to remain lit.  Rachel Riley gives a good performance as Nora, the mysterious woman who lives in the woods on the island and fall in love with J. P., though she may have something to do with the lighthouse keeper.

Benjamin Cooper does a fantastic job of unravelling the dark secrets of the characters; and though their secrets are very very dark Cooper makes a bold decision to shoot the majority of the movie in glorious daylight.  The scenery is so colourful and attractive I wanted to become the lighthouse keeper.  The camera shots are artistic and engaging.  I loved the fact that you could also see everything in the night shots; there was either moonlight or candlelight, which added to the great depth of the filmography (something you don't usually rate in a horror movie).  There were a couple of scene's that were jarred and disjointed, but I can forgive that because all the rest are so well done.

If you like ghost stories filled with mysteries and a few twists then I would recommend this.  When the movie started I thought I wouldn't like it, the rain in the storm was fake and it was a period piece.  Though, as the film progressed I became impressed with everything about the story and movie, to the point where this is now one of my favourite horror films.

Movie Review - Bornless Ones

Bornless Ones (2016)

Black Drone Media : Uncork'd Entertainment

6.75 / 10

Isn't it just the case, after I moan about dull and boring new horror movies something comes along to prove me wrong... and boy am I glad to be wrong, I just hope this isn't the exception.

Bornless Ones surprised the hell out of me.  This is a real budget film; there's only one production company and one distribution company.  So my hopes were not too high, to begin with.

What you get is a pretty decent story based around the occult with daemons taking possession of the living under the guise of helping.  Though this has been done a few times the addition of the possessed secrets coming out and giving the daemons the capability to torment and torture their prey is a nice twist, which adds to the strength of the story.

Another bonus, for me and the film, is the actors.  Though most are not well known, except maybe for Austrailian Mark Furze for his stint on Home and Away, they all give sterling performances.

Michael Johnston gives a great performance as a cerebral palsy suffer, Zack, who seems to recover from the incurable illness.

Margaret Judson portrays Emily, Zack's sister, who is now charged with looking after him after their mother dies in a fire during a car crash.  She is believable as a sister under stress and strain while trying, so hard, do the right thing, even though it negatively affects her relationship with her husband.

Devin Goodsell plays Jesse, Emily's husband, who, not only suffering the new stress of looking after Zack and the relationship trouble it brings, is also having work problems and has been suspended from his teaching position.

Mark Furze and Bobby T personate their friends Woodrow and Michelle.  Mark Furze is very believable as an American Jock who will do anything to help his friend and girlfriend.  Bobby T is also a talented actress who gives a more than credible performance.

These are actors and actresses to watch out for.  If I could make a film, I would consider these five in the running.

The credit for the story and its screen depiction goes to the writer and director Alexander Babaev.  He does a nice thing of including daemons into the occult, along with their sigils and symbols.  I have a cold shiver of dread when I see the writer and the director are one in the same because, in my experience, it hardly ever makes for a good film.  However, like I stated at the start of the review, I am glad to be wrong.  With this film, Babaev has me committed to watching his next movie, should there be one... and I hope there is.

There are some decent special effects in this film as they use wet-work, most of the time.  The only bad effect is the CGI Guardians, as these are spirits made out of mist, they just don't look as realistic as they should, luckily they don't detract from the film too much as they're only onscreen for a few seconds; though they are memorable for the wrong reasons.

For all the Horror Fans out there I would recommend this as a late night view, grab a beer and settle down for a decent movie.