Oh, The Horror! #43: A Nightmare on Elm Street

Let me be first to say that although I am a Robert Englund fan, I wasn't always a Freddy Kruger fan. Since I was a kid, I never got too much of the appeal of these films. I knew they were a HUGE favorite for horror fans, but I was never enthusiastic to watch Freddy films. Now I have seen a few, many I can't quite remember except for specific scenes. About a week or so ago I watched 2.5 Freddy films and feel I was maybe a bit too hard on the it. Some time last year I tried to watch the first A Nightmare on Elm Street and really couldn't get into it at all. I felt it was fairly laughable and nothing grabbed me. Upon watching it again, I found myself finally getting into it. The characters were all there and the premise was in fact strong. As to why I had a dislike for it, I can't possibly say. The premise has such strong potential and a lot of promise for stories and the first did a rather decent job with that. A mysterious, burnt killer with knives for a hand invading your dreams is completely horrifying, especially for the fact that when he kills you in your dreams, you die in real life too. Upon finally giving this film another shot - a fair shot - I felt the movie franchise would have been extremely strong without the pointless sequels. Now, the third part of the series, Dream Warriors, had some great ideas and itself was a fine film, the series could have done without sequels period. The first film was a solid horror tale and by itself would have been a solid footnote of a scary movie.

Visually, this film was very well made, especially blurring the lines between dream and reality, creating some surreal scenes. Examples being the first victim's death, Freddy's various appearances, among other things. My favorite scene would surely be when Nancy, the film's protagonist, is asleep and Freddy's figure begins to slowly come forward through the wall atop her bed. Very creepy scene and very well done. Visual-wise, I'm actually looking forward to see what kind of nightmares and special effects are used for the up-coming remake despite my dislikes for the current remake genre. My biggest complaint also for the film was in fact the use of music. I felt most of the music used for this film were very poor choices and could have highly improved the creepiness of the film if a more subtly creepy type score scheme was used. The main musical theme is very good, but other musical pieces in other scenes I found to be quite jarring and sometimes nearly took me out of the scene.

A Nightmare on Elm Street is a creepy fun movie that stands rather well on it's own. I'm glad I gave it another fair shot after all this time of un-interest and somehow completely disliking it last time I watched it. Heck, I didn't even bother to finish it last time. But hey, if you're like me about this franchise, give the first film a fair viewer. You may like the interesting premise and may in fact like Freddy himself. The character works better as a sinister and creepy monster then the wise-cracking joke-ster he ended up being as the franchise went on. And here's hoping the remake does some justice. I'll try to give it a benefit of a doubt.

Directed by Wes Craven.

Oh, The Horror #30: The Corpse Bride

Directed by Mike Johnson and Tim Burton, The Corpse Bride is a fantastic stop-motion film filled with wit and eye-popping fun. The movie takes place in a Victorian era town where a young and shy young man named Victor, a fish merchant's son, is arranged to get married to Victoria, the daughter of soon to be penniless aristocrats. Both are worried of meeting each other in fear that they wouldn't like each other but hit it off rather well as compared to their parents respectively. During their wedding rehearsal, Victor stumbles upon his vows and accidentally sets Victoria's mother's dress on fire. He is threatened by the pastor to learn his vows, setting Victor off to run away into the woods to practice his vows. Suddenly, he recites it perfectly with a new sense of confidence and places the ring onto a stick resembling a hand, only for the hand to grab Victor's arm and reveals itself to be the hand of a corpse. Frightened, Victor attempts to run away to safety only to be followed in an extremely well down scene which would scare the hell outta me if I were in his shoes. The corpse takes Victor to the Town of the Dead where, well... every one's dead. And as compared to everyone living, they're happy. Here we learn the back-story of the Corpse Bride, named Emily, and of her "fate" to be set free when she finds her truly love, this being Victor. Thus introducing us to the problem of the film for our protagonist: Does he pick Victoria or does he stay with Emily, who unlike a real corpse is very clever, funny, free-spirited, and beautiful.

Voicing Victor is Burton's main man, Johnny Depp, who gives a wonderful performance as the clumsy protagonist in love with Victoria, voiced by Emily Watson. Helena Bonham Carter voices the titled character and we're rounded off by other cast favorites the likes of Albert Finney as Victoria's father, Michael Gough as Elder Gutknecht the elderly skeleton with knowledge of magic, and Christopher Lee as Pastor Galswells. For me, though, it's definitely Lee and Gough who steal the show. It's a ton of fun seeing old school horror alumnus voicing such hilarious characters, their voice being extremely recognizable that I have to have a smile on my face, especially when Gough recites the line, "Now, why go up there when people are dying to get down here? " which never fails to get a chuckle from me.

The animation is amazing. Every time I watch this movie I'm amazed at just how far stop-motion filming has come. I stated before back in my Coraline review that I tend to prefer stop-motion animation over plain old CGI film-making and it's because it seems to have this really raw and gritty feel to it. It feels a bit more real to me in a sense. The colors in this movie, although low-key, really help put you into the movie too. Especially when you get to the Land of the Dead. The Land of the Dead is vibrant and always has skeletons ready to have a blast singing a song as compared to the Land of the Living where everyone is slow and dull and the lighting is bland. It's extremely entertaining watching all the civilians of the Dead town getting excited and ready to throw a party over a new arrival. And speaking of song, who doesn't love Bonejangles song about how Emily came to be the Corpse Bride, The Remains of the Day? That specific song number is enough to watch the film. Danny does a great job with the raspy jazzy skeleton who loves a woman with meat on her bones. I have to say, though, besides that song, the other numbers aren't quite as memorable. Especially compared to the wonderfully memorable tunes of The Nightmare Before Christmas. When one starts watching this movie for the first time, they can't help but start comparing both films. I will say, though, try your best not to. When I first watched this movie, I couldn't get into it because it wasn't The Nightmare Before Christmas. When I watched it again, this time seeing it as it's own movie, I enjoyed it immensely.

From watching this film you could tell every one probably had a great time. And it helps as it's a really enjoyable film. I was able to talk my mom into watching this movie as she tends to disregard films of this nature and she caught herself really getting into it and finding a lot of scenes hilarious. It's in fact a fun family movie, although I have a feeling some parents, particular with strong Christian faith may not want their child seeing a film of this nature. Just my two cents with that. Only real complaint from me was that I felt it could have been a longer film. Would have enjoyed more fun, but hey. You get what you get, least it was entertaining.

Oh, The Horror! #13: Sleepy Hollow

Man, it's been darn long, hasn't it?!? Now that school is over just for a month, hopefully I can bring this back on track. I've missed doing this. But yes, without further ado... SLEEPY HOLLOW!



Another one of my absolute favorite movies and another directed by my favorite film maker, Tim Burton. I've seen this movie quite a lot of times. When I had gotten the VHS, I've watched it so many darn times and hardly ever missed when it came on TV. A few weeks ago was the first time I've seen it after maybe 2-3 years and I still have a great time watching it. The imagery, the characters, Johnny Depp as Crane, the music, special effects, everything is an absolute blast to watch. Watching this movie always made me wonder what happened to horror. Why don't we ever get more horror movies like this? Now its all slasher this, etc. How come we never get any real solid story-telling with supernatural forces scary the daylights out of us? I want to see more movies like this and really showcase just how great horror film is rather than what;s clouding people's mind of what horror is. I don't mind what people proclaim as "torture porn" or whatever, but it's not the only type of horror in the genre. C'mon, now!

But anywho, if you've never seen this movie, you just HAVE to. The direction is absolutely amazing with a story that never lets go of you. All the characters play wonderful parts and just fascinates you into this mystery of the Horse man. If you're a fan of the classic tale by Washington Irving, I think you'll have a blast watching this interpretation besides quite a few liberties being taken, such as Crane being a constable instead of a teacher, and although still a bit of a coward he has the brass balls to stand and fight against the Horseman himself! And c'mon, who doesn't love Christopher Walken who plays the Hessian, the man who ends up becoming the head chopper. Although we know who the killer is, there is a mystery conspiracy plot throughout the movie as we wonder just how people are connected in this strange town of Sleepy Hollow and just why the Horseman is going after certain folks and why he lets certain people live. The special effects are magnificient. It's not a man wearing a cloak over his shoulders, but an actually man... headless! And he see him chopping off people's necks and cutting a man in half. The effects are just simply amazing and adds to the creepiness and chills of the movie. And Danny Elfman's music... ah man is it ever so nice to hear him with Burton adding more creepiness to this film. And to top it off, you get a wonderful performance by Miranda Richardson who I have to say really steals the show along with horror alumnis Michael Gough and Christopher Lee with small parts.

There is one thing that I do find weird about this movie and that's the flashbacks and dreams we see of Crane's character. Those scenes I have to say are probably the most beautiful scenes in the movie, but I don't quite understand why they're in the movie. They seem to not play much of any roles besides to look awesome. Like the scene when his mother is dancing in the forest and begins to float and finding out that his mother is a witch and his father was actually a man of faith, a minister. In one specific dream, when his father walks past a young Crane, the man turns into the headless horseman. Huh?

Heh, but anyway. Fantastic movie. Definitely a top of Burton's best.

Oh, The Horror! #1: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

As I've mentioned in my last post, I am a fan of horror. I'll be posting stuff of horror that I really enjoy, whether it be movies, stories, pictures, anything of the like. Also, for horror fans I'd recommend checking out the blog of Tristan Jones (look to the right, there's a link "Mind of Mongo") as he has some nice updates on characters from horror fans who stand out to him. They're always great fun to read about.

But yes, for my first entry...

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

You've no idea how much fun I have watching this movie! I saw it when it came out in theaters and truly felt it was probably Tim Burton's masterpiece, and I say that as a Tim Burton fan since I was in Junior High. It was Burton who got me interested into film and whenever I'm in a bit of a rut while filming, I think of Burton films. He truly is an inspiration when I'm behind the camera doing something. But I digress. Edward Scissorhands will always be my favorite movie hands down, but Sweeney Todd is Burton's masterpiece in my opinion. The way I see it, all of Burton's previous films, most notably Sleepy Hollow, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Nightmare Before Christmas, etc, were all practice leading to this! A truly bloody horror musical! And I LOVE musicals. You can ask my buddies. So a horror musical directed by Burton. That's definitely asking for my approval as a great film and darn good time.

The mood and atmosphere is very gloomy and lovely. Like a lot of Burton's film, although there's color, it's still gives a sense of watching an old black and white film. But with this movie also, the make up helps us imagine it also as a bit of a silent movie setting, the way certain shots are, the way the characters look and react, etc. Then all you need is the lovely musical scores and numbers by Stephen Sondheim and voila. We have a work of genius in our hands! And the way the blood is used is an extra goodie treat! It's so over the top and adds some nice humor as Depp, as the demented barber, is singing a love song of his daughter while slicing the necks of his customers. And Helena Bonham Carter is wonderful as Sweeney's partner in crime, Mrs. Lovett. As Mr. Todd kills his customers, Mrs. Lovett takes the body and turn them into successful pies. Yum-my!

I have to also say this is certainly one of Johnny Depp's best performances. It's great hearing him belt out in song but his look and anger through the movie and those eyes of pain and hate just puts a smile on my face as an actor. As an actor, I actually get typecast as the evil, demented, or plain evil or weird guy and this is certainly a role that I applaud as it's a role I would certainly love to reenact. Heh, first I gotta complete those singing lessons I stopped doing a few years back. But it truly is a lot of fun seeing Depp fall into this character and like Burton, also inspires me in an actor side mostly due to him picking to play actors that aren't formulaic. I mean Captain Jack Sparrow, Edward Scissorhands, Sweeney Todd, Willy Wonka. The guy's an artist genius. Thank you both Burton and Depp for the inspiration.