Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy

Back in the late 1970's to early 1980's, Writer and Directed:Wes Craven (The Scream Series, Red Eye, Shocker) created one of the most memorable villains of all time and his name is Freddy Krueger (Played by Robert Englund until the 2010 remake with Jackie Earle Haley as the new Freddy Krueger). Originally Wes Craven's screenplay was rejected by every major studio and every big-name producer until producer Robert Shaye (Book of Love, The Last Mitzy) decided to produced the movie with his then small distributor company turned major studio:New Line Cinema.

This documentary interviews most major cast members of the original series (Except:Johnny Deep, Patricia Arquette, Craig Wasson, Bradley Gregg and Laurence Fishburne), including every director, make-up artists, screen-writers and more. Interviews are surprisingly honest, they talked about what worked and didn't worked in the series. Even the spin-off "Freddy Vs. Jason" is talked about with the cast & crew.

Directed by Daniel Farrands (Screenwriter of "Halloween 6:The Curse of Michael Myers") and Andrew Kasch made an extremely long but always entertaining documentary of the entire original series. It is certainly more fun to watch than "His Name was Jason" documentary, which Farrands was involved in and it is better than "Halloween:25 years of terror".

Interviews on all the movies are certainly fun to watch, especially the underrated but flawed "A Nightmare on Elm Street 2:Freddy's Revenge", considering how gay the movie is now! There's even an surprise interviewee on "Freddy Vs. Jason" is one of the biggest laughs of the feature.

Disc 1 is the entire documentary of "Never Sleep Again:The Elm Street Legacy". Which is nearly four hours long! DVD has an sharp anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1) transfer and an good Dolby Stereo 2.0 Surround Sound.

Disc 2 includes slashed scenes:extended interviews of the entire series, featurettes and more. "Never Sleep Again:The Elm Street Legacy" is great fun and die-hard fans of the series will certainly have an ball watching it. Even non-fans will some of the interviews to be truly enjoyable. Don't miss it. (**** ½/*****).

Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy (2010)

**** (out of 4)

Four hour documentary covering the entire series (minus remake) is without question one of the greatest things ever produced for the horror genre. Both HALLOWEEN and the Friday THE 13TH series have had documentaries done on them but there's no doubt that this film here is above both of them and ranks as one of the most well-informed ever produced. I prefer both Jason and Michael but it's impossible not to be impressed with this film because the filmmakers were actually able to bring pretty much everyone back (with the exceptions being Depp and Arquette). Not only do you get all the directors, writers and main actors but we also get several who had very small parts like the "where's your hall pass" girl from the first film. All seven movies and then the cross over are given a large amount of time so that we can hear about them being made, hear about the various production issues and we also get to see some deleted scenes that I don't believe have ever been shown before. The entire film is one big highlight but some of the most memorable moments can be found in the section on part 2, which has become known as the gay Freddy. It's funny seeing the writer, director and cast talk about the gayness to the film and it's even funnier to see how most of them didn't realize while making the film. The troubled production here is also very interesting as if Craven's thoughts on a sequel to a film he had planned on keeping single. The Craven aspect is another one of the most interesting things here because, again, I don't believe he's ever really talked about any of the sequels outside the ones he was involved here but he comments on all of them here. His opinion of them is rather low, which is to be expected to a point but it's funny to see other directors, especially the man behind part 2, dishing on the original. FREDDY VS JASON gets a lot of time given to it as we hear about the dozens of screenplays that were denied before they finally came up with a winner. There were years of rumors and fake reports about what was going on with this film so to finally hear some true stories was a nice tough. The various endings were discussed as well as an alternate version that featured more of Freddy. The cast list is too large to even start with but fans won't be disappointed because all the majors are here as well as most of the smaller characters and we even get Alice Cooper for good kicks. Horror fans can always debate which series is the best or which films are the best of a series but I don't see how it would be possible for someone to sit through this thing and not be impressed. The passion of this thing hasn't been touched by any other documentary of its kind and I'd be willing to bet that those other guys are going to have to step up their game if they want to come anywhere near this. Everything you want to know will be answered here and it really gives one a major respect for what a small studio ended up doing with one character.

If you never sleep again, it will only be because you are too busy sifting through all that "Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy" has to offer. This comprehensive 2-disc DVD set serves as a study on the infamous "A Nightmare on Elm Street series" which not only offers a four hour (!) long documentary, but almost as much in special features and extra footage.

Produced by the same folks who brought us "Halloween: 25 Years of Terror" and "His Name Was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th" and hosted by Nancy Thompson herself, Heather Langenkamp, the main feature covers just about everything you would ever want to know about the original eight-film franchise. Beginning with Wes Craven's original film and wrapping up with the 2003 hit mash-up, "Freddy vs. Jason," the documentary brings back most of the main cast and crew from each film (sans major players such as Patricia Arquette, Laurence Fishburne and Johnny Depp) as they wax nostalgic about all of the fun, thrills, melodrama, successes and failures that "Elm Street" brought each and every one of them. Each film is given ample time and is expanded upon wonderfully, and not only is it a blast to see how some of them have aged, but a lot of new information is brought to the forefront that, even if you've followed the series throughout the decades, will come as news to you. This certainly is no fluff-piece, as everyone is open and honest, and in spite of its length, it never drags or feels dull.

Once you've plowed through the main feature, there's still a second disc of special features to swallow, and as before, there is not a moment wasted. The main meat of this disc is a compilation of extended interviews that runs almost as long as the average "Elm Street" flick. If you simply can't get enough after the four hours you've just completed, this piece serves almost as a fitting desert. Other features focus on Freddy phenomena such as the character's transition into comics, the music that was used in the series, locations, props and, of course, the fans. There's also a rather amusing bit with the famed Angry Video Game Nerd where he rips apart the Nintendo game based on the franchise, albeit, in a loving manner. There's so much here that it almost justifies its own release.

While the release glosses over the recent remake (save for a few minutes of cut footage), it doesn't spare anything from the Robert Englund golden-era. Those who remember how great this series was in its time will no doubt eat up each and every savory morsel that "Never Sleep Again" has to offer. You're certainly getting the bang for your buck, and even if the studio itself isn't too keen on producing something this informative, it's good to know that independent film-makers with a love for the material are willing to do all the leg-work themselves. Without this DVD, your "Nightmare on Elm Street" collection simply is not complete.

This was simply put, the best, the most comprehensive, the most audacious, the most auspicious and loving fan letter to any lover of this series of films that anyone could expect. Kudos and a clink of the champagne glass to all involved, a labour of love that delivered.

From it's humble beginnings to it's controversial subtexts, revealing interviews piece together the history of the elm street series and paint a portrait of the horror community that made me stand up and applaud "Yes I am a horror fanatic and yes I am proud" Much we have seen before on the pretty comprehensive 8 disc set of Nightmares that New Line put out a decade or so ago, but so much new material and history has happened since then.

The lowlight for me was seeing former studio head Bob Shaye, a man broken after losing control of his studio due to politics. And when he broke down on camera, so did I, who would have thought, in tears in a documentary about the "ELm Street" series. SHeesh I must be getting sentimental in my old age. Every character actor from every movie is interviewed in depth and a running time of four hours - it still felt short! By the end the film had me standing and clapping at the screen like so many teen girls on their first Twilight viewing. Awesome Awesome Awesome. A Perfect 10.

This was an excellent documentary and is probably going to cover any questions you would have about the series. The interviews are great and the cast and crew of every movie seemed to all have a great time with the films so they enjoy talking about the experience. This keeps the film fresh and enjoyable throughout and will keep even the most hardcore fans entertained.

The film goes through the movies one by one, speaking with various cast and crew about production and the film itself. It answers some questions and may even surprise you with some information ( IE NoES 2 having strong homosexual undertones completely surprised me. ) on each of the films. While the doc is 4 hours long, it never seems to drag and each film in the series is covered equally.

It's a wonderful companion to the series and I doubt any doc is going to come this close to being so complete and well done on any other horror series or horror flicks in general. A must own for any Freddy fan.