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| Topic | Board 8 Watches and Ranks 80s Horror - Pt. 2: 80s Revenge |
| Snake5555555555 04/21/24 2:00:09 PM #156: | Inviso - The only Freddy movie Id seen before this watchthrough was Freddy vs. Jason, so I went into this relatively untarnished on the franchiseaside from general knowledge gleaned from pop culture. And the movie has an interesting concept in that a supernatural killer who comes after teens in their dreams lends itself to the slasher horror genre, without feeling played out and formulaic. But I think this is very much a case of growing pains, with a franchise that perhaps wasnt sure how to really make themselves stand out. I see that this movie has an extremely high Rotten Tomatoes, but I just dont feel like it stands out THAT much to me. The concept is good, and Id say most of the kills prior to the ending are solidbut the film falls a little bit flat for me.
One of the problems is that the movie tries to keep it secret who Freddy Krueger is, which means you spend the first half with this random serial killer stalking randomly selected teens in their dreams for seemingly no reason. And which an aura of mystery can work at times, it doesnt when its information that will be revealed later one and is being deliberately withheld from the audience for no reason. The Groundskeeper Willie Simpsons parody does a better job of dealing with this by showing what happened to cause the supernatural powers and subsequent revenge. Maybe the way the movie starts works for some people, but it really doesnt for me. What we get instead is a random guy chasing a random girl through a boiler roomfor reasons the audience doesnt know right away. I GET that the cold open in slasher films often times starts with a random murder, but that murder tends to set events in motion. This, Tina doesnt die and we spend several more scenes with characters talking about nightmares involving the same creepy dude. Again, I just feel like I would have liked the movie better if it started with SOME exposition to justify what were about to spend much of the film experiencing. But yeah, we get more and more creepy scenes of Freddy invading peoples dreams, until he starts actively getting his kills in. Tinas death is brutal, and it has her levitating as shes murdered; Rod is accused of Tinas murder, and winds up getting strangled to death in a faked suicide; and eventually Glen gets killed in an iconic moment when hes dragged into a portal in his bed, and liquified into a blood fountain. That middle section is actually really good, because while it takes a while to establish the plot (due to having it start apropos of nothing), once you understand Freddys capabilities, the stalking in his victims sleep is actually pretty interesting. Plus, Nancy starts to piece things together, having been made privy to the knowledge (well after it shouldve been divulged, but whatever) that her family burned Freddy alive for killing children and getting away with it due to a botched police investigation. Its interesting to watch Nancy try her best to come up with a solution to a problem that literally no one else gives a shit about. Seriously, by the end of the movie, shes pretty much the ONLY person even AWARE of the actual problem and trying to SOLVE the actual problem. I think thats kinda the other thing that lets me down in this film: everyone other than Nancy, and to a lesser extent Rod, is the fucking WORST at horror movies. Nancys mom is a worthless drunk, and her dad, despite being a cop, doesnt question why she knows about Fred Krueger when she tells him that Freddy has been stalking her in her dreams. For fucks sake, Nancy goes a sleep clinic, and both a doctor AND her mother witness her having a nightmare that results in her receiving fresh scars on her wristsand they dont consider Hmmthats odd. The only response is to install bars over the windows in Nancys house, so that shes kept safe (aka, to trap her inside when the climax happens). And oh my god that deputy that sees her screaming for help (from across the street of a gruesome murder) and takes his sweet-ass time doing anything about it. That ending is rough, by the way. I dont care for Nancy pulling Freddy into the real world, because its hard to justify her doing it by herselfbut at least the movie established her ability to take things from the dream world to the real world earlier on. This also leads to her Home Alone-ing Freddy, which is fun. But I HATE the whole Im not scared of you anymore, so you have no power bullshit, followed by the utterly cartoony ending dream sequence with Nancys mom getting turned into a mannequin and pulled through a window. Yeahthe beginning and end are not great, and Freddy isnt even that compelling of a character in this movie, but at least the middle is well-executed, and I give Nancy a ton of credit for being as clever as she is in a world where every other person seems to be trying to ensure that she dies. Rockus - A great concept that allows for some inventive sequences and has a terrific villain. Everything about Freddy Krueger has become iconic, from his signature claws, to his striped shirt, and his playful personality as he has fun toying with his prey. Even his name is memorable. Its kind of a shame because I dont think the franchise ever built on the first one in any meaningful or interesting way and you would think that this kind of concept would play well to adding more ambitious ideas and set pieces to it. That said its still rather strong and deserves its status. Evilordexdeath - This and Friday the 13th were two movies I always thought of side-by-side growing up - probably in no small part because the antagonists fought each other that one time. They are kind of like the 80s equivalent to Sadako and Kayako, but without the chemistry. Freddy and Jason, of course, represent two different sides of corrupted sexuality, with the former being a sexual predator and the latter an innocent who was let down by people being too busy boning to stop him from drowning. This is presumably why Jason wins their little duel: he represents a puritanism in line with American cultural norms and - OH GOD THESE MOVIES ARE SO BORING!!!!!!!!!! While he loses the showdown Freddy's consolation prize is that he does star in the slightly better movie. His dream powers make for cooler visuals and while the acting is equally terrible it's mildly funny slightly more often than it is in Friday the 13th. At least I've seen both now, I just hope my nightmare doesn't start anew when someone puts one of the 10,000 sequels they each got on a future list. --- I've decided to put my fears behind me. I'm not going back. If you're gonna scream, scream with me ... Copied to Clipboard! |
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