Looking Back at A Nightmare on Elm Street

(Note: this was originally published in Dreamwatch magazine, issue 146, from 2006. I figure that offering some oldies from my archives at least preserves them online. Plus, A Nightmare on Elm Street is one of my favourite films of all time!)

Calum Waddell gets dreamy-eyed over the fright-film which gave a generation of teens sleepless nights and developed into the horror genre’s most reliable franchise…

One, two – Freddy’s coming for you… Three, four – better lock your door… Five, six – grab your crucifix…

Back in 1984 horror director Wes Craven had yet to break into the mainstream. Dismissed by no less than Stephen King (in his book Danse Macabre) as a purveyor of “porno-violence”, Craven’s reputation lay entrenched with a couple of down and dirty, but nonetheless profitable, exploitation films – 1972’s Last House on the Left and 1977’s The Hills Have Eyes. After these two infamously nasty cheapies, the filmmaker had tried to enter the mainstream with his comic-book adaptation of DC Comics’ super-vegetable Swamp Thing (1982), but the resultant freak flick was a box office dud.

Even worse, every studio in town was turning its back on a script that was dear to Craven’s heart – A Nightmare on Elm Street. “The studios kind of psychologically distance themselves from the genre,” recalls Craven, adding, “although they love the fact that they can make a lot of money from it. After you make one or two horror films your name is kind of known with that genre but there’s also a personal thing where you want to go into areas that are dark and hard to imagine.”

Thankfully, a lowbrow independent outfit called New Line Cinema, headed by Robert Shaye, finally agreed to finance Craven’s latest terror offering and, as a result, the most important scary movie of the 1980s was gorily birthed. Released to a then-stellar $26 million gross in the US, A Nightmare on Elm Street spawned numerous imitators, put New Line on the path to becoming the Hollywood player it is today and made star Robert Englund the true heir to the throne of Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff.

“I would do anything for Wes Craven,” laughs Englund, who is understandably grateful to the filmmaker for giving him such a prominent and profitable, role. “I would sign up with him on anything because he is such a gentleman and so easy to work for.”

Englund maintains that, over 20 years since the release of the first film, it continues to attract new admirers. “It’s really becoming a certifiable classic now,” maintains the actor. “I remember being a little boy in the mid-50s and when television happened we discovered the golden age of horror from the 1930s. We would sit at home and watch Dracula, Frankenstein and The Black Cat and even as young kids we would love them. I think that is what has happened with A Nightmare on Elm Street. Some films stand the test of time and because of the great hook – the bad dream, which is universal – we keep catching new generations.”

Craven agrees with his leading man, mentioning that Freddy Krueger had a far more worldly appeal than his previous screen baddies – namely the cannibalistic mountain dwellers of The Hills Have Eyes and David Hess’s Krug Stillo from Last House on the Left. “Everyone can relate to having bad dreams," states the director. "Plus, a film really lives or dies by its actors [and] Robert Englund is wonderful.”

Craven also admits his own affection towards working in horror, which, arguably, hit its peak with A Nightmare on Elm Street. “I think that it’s a tremendously flexible and very vital form for the audience,” he begins, “It’s kind of cathartic – there’s a certain amount of affection, there’s a lot of intelligence and a bit of suspicion of the establishment when you’re dealing with dreams and nightmares.”

Seven, Eight – Better Stay Up Late…

A Nightmare on Elm Street introduced audiences to Freddy Krueger and his nemesis Nancy Thompson (played by newcomer Heather Langenkamp). Thompson is revealed as the daughter of two parents who took part in the group slaying of a local child murderer after he walked free from court on a technicality. After being burned to death by the irate parents of Elm Street, Freddy returns years later to stalk and kill their children inside their dreams whilst they sleep. Also starring a pre-stardom Johnny Depp and Enter the Dragon’s John Saxon, the original flick kept Englund’s burned bogeyman hidden away in the shadows, although his trademark comical wisecracks are still present.

“I think one of the problems is that when you get too relentless with a horror movie there is too much tension built up and eventually you kind of emotionally short out,” states the actor. “However, if you use humour to relieve that pressure eventually you can set the audience up for a scare again.” Craven himself states that behind the scenes there were a few laughs too. “It’s strange because when you’re shooting a horror film you tend to be laughing a lot,” concedes the filmmaker. “Part of it is because you’re dealing with these horrific subjects but where you have some control over them.”

Reflecting on the shoot of the first Elm Street, Englund admits that – after playing Freddy in no less than eight films and a TV series – his recollections of each feature have started to blur into one. “It’s so long ago my memories get clouded with the other movies,” he laughs. “Sometimes I start to mention something that I did in part one but it turns out it was part three. However, I do recall Johnny Depp telling me a few stories about his beginnings and there was a big fiasco when we did the exploding blood bed for his death scene; that took a while to work properly [laughs]. I also remember Sean Cunningham doing some second unit work with us.”

Indeed, Cunningham – who had produced Craven’s Last House on the Left and directed 1980’s Friday the 13th – was given a “special thanks” on the end credits of A Nightmare on Elm Street. However, as Dreamwatch discovers, his involvement went a lot further than that. “I shot a whole bunch of stuff over two or three days,” mentions Cunningham, who remains close friends with Craven. “I shot one dialogue scene with Johnny Depp and Heather and part of the alley scene with Robert chasing the girl. I just did whatever Wes told me to do. What Wes had done was he had mortgaged his soul to Bob Shaye to make it and Shaye was the only person who believed in it as much as Wes. We were right behind schedule and we were running out of budget. So, you know, Wes just wanted whatever help he could get and I was fortunate to be in a position where I could come in and help, walk around and tell people what to do for a couple of days [laughs].”

Nine, Ten – Never Sleep Again… 

For Englund, his success in the Freddy role was bittersweet – largely due to the complex prosthetics that needed to be glued to his face every morning. “Usually, the hell of Freddy is getting the make-up put on every morning for four-and-a-half-hours,” he sighs. “But I don’t want anyone else to do him because I feel proprietary towards the old guy.”

Of course, that might yet happen – especially given the rate at which Hollywood is remaking classic horror flicks. “Yeah, I agree,” replies the actor, “Although there is also talk about having John McNaughton, the director of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, come in and do a prequel – which will be shot in a documentary style. I think that could be very interesting. I don’t know if I’m too old now or not, but I would love to be involved with that. When I first began doing Freddy I was in my early 30s but I was playing him older – I was playing him at about 48. So, currently, I feel like I’m the right age.”

As for the legacy of A Nightmare on Elm Street, Englund believes that even the worst of the sequels has something to offer. “Of course the first one is great and scary, but three and four are terrific as well,” he says. “I also think that there is a lot of good stuff in part five. I adore Wes Craven’s New Nightmare and obviously everyone loves Freddy Vs Jason. So out of eight movies I would say that six of them are great and there is even some good stuff in the other two. I think Freddy – me and my silhouette and the glove and the posture and the hat – stands up as a logo for the experience of all of these movies, which are currently sitting on someone’s desk in a DVD box set. They all hold up and always will.”

(NOTE: obviously this was written before the awful remake. Unfortunately, the prequel never did see the light of the day. Shame eh?)

THE FIRST BRITISH PEOPLE TO WALK UP HAMBURGER HILL IN VIETNAM

Well that was what we were told anyway.

Last year I fulfilled one of my bucket list ambitions by backpacking from Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) to Hanoi in Vietnam - accompanied by my girlfriend Naomi Holwill. I have long been interested in the 20th century history of Vietnam - from the rise of Ho Chi Minh after the post-war Japanese retreat from the country and the return of French rule to the gradual American involvement in Indochina politics and, of course, the outbreak (unofficially) of fullscale war.

After the 1973 Paris Peace Accords, America left their self-created puppet state of South Vietnam. Inevitably - despite President Ford's failed last ditch attempt to gain financing for the re-introduction of American military - Saigon fell to the North on April 30th 1975. Even today, visiting Reunification Palace in Saigon is a moving experience - a site of liberation and the conclusion of a conflict which should never have been and, ultimately, achieved nothing outside of mass devastation, a body count (on both sides) which totalled seven figures and the relentless bombing of Laos and Cambodia. The latter of these may, depending on which history book you care to engage with, have led to the rise of the Khmer Rouge.

The below picture has become iconic and the helicopter pad remains on Reunification Palace: a reminder of a time when Vietnam was at the centre of world attention and the combat seemed neverending.

In visiting Vietnam there were certain sites that I wanted to get to - no matter how tricky they proved. I was determined to see My Lai, where Sargeant William Calley (now, despicably, a free man living in Atlanta and running a jewelery business) infamously ordered his soldiers to fire upon an unarmed village, rape the women and massacre the children. This may sound like 'dark tourism' and perhaps it is - I am not about to philosophise about what drives so many us to see places of genocide, from Auschwitz to Choeung Ek and so forth. All I can say is that I wanted to develop a greater image of what My Lai looks like and, although the recreated village that has been propped up in the area is surprisingly tacky, I have no regrets about going (well, except when some high school children came rushing in and thought the museum of bloody pictures was a laugh riot - the sole black spot of my entire Vietnam experience).

As an aside, cameras should be banned from these places.

The amount of tourists who think nothing of posing, with big 'holiday' grins, in front of areas where people were slaughtered is embarassing. It is bad enough when men in shorts and women in short skirts think this is suitable apparel for visiting Buddhist temples (or, in Malaysia, mosques) but pictures of your foreign mug in massacre sites is just ridiculous. I took one snap at My Lai - of the monument which was erected to honour the dead. I've posted it below. Exactly why some visitors feel the need to stand in front of this with a smile on their face is puzzling - what exactly are you celebrating with such an image?

For those who wish to visit the site the best place to be based is Hoi-An - a gorgeous town with nary a corporate logo in sight. Sheer heaven on earth. Tours can be organised via Viet Vision (http://www.vietvisiontravel.com/) and take about three hours there and back by car (with a sidetrip to the temples of Mỹ Sơn).

Anyway, moving on - I was also interested in visitng Hamburger Hill.

Put aside the rather rubbish movie of the same name from 1987 because the Battle of Hamburger Hill was so much more than this: it was a turning point in the war. The Tet Offensive of January 1968 had disorientated the US - even when, at the end of a raging fight with the North, Uncle Sam had still come out on top (the Tet Offensive, incidentally, is the fight which is documented in the latter half of Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket). Nevertheless, due to the clear evidence that the North was not about to back down, it was the beginning of the end for the US involvement in Vietnam and led to a number of quick-fix mini-battles which were designed to claim a large count of enemy bodies in the name of 'victory'. One such instance was Hamburger Hill (real title: Ap Bia Mountain) - so called because the mass amount of dead bodies looked like meat strewn across the muddy landscape.

The Battle for Hamburger Hill raged between May 10th - 20th 1969. The Americans actually succeeded in capturing the hill from the North Vietnamese army - but at the cost of 72 brave infantrymen and over 350 wounded. On the Viet Cong side, an equally brave 675 (reported) were killed.

And for what?

Only 16 days later the hill was abandoned because it was considered of such little importance. A grand waste of lives on both sides - and an indication to the American public, and the world, that this was a war being fought with a wayward sense of longterm achievement.

Hamburger Hill is located near the Loation border. A part of the country which is still thick with landmines. To get there seemed unlikely until I finally discovered a young history scholar online called Mr. Vu who specialises in trips to the former DMZ and areas of interest across central Vietnam (his web site is here: Mr. Vu Tours). Despite the fact myself and Naomi were travelling across Vietnam during their New Year celebrations (which caused no problems at all despite some online forums stating that everything would be closed!), Mr. Vu agreed to pick us up and take us to Hamburger Hill.

The place to be for this trip is the Emperial City of Huế: the site of the Tet Offensive and still a place which shows evidence of the conflict which once made it one of the most dangerous places in the world (see below):

That said, Huế (pronounced "Whay") is every bit as safe as any other part of Vietnam (i.e. very safe) and - as with everywhere else we visited - English is widely spoken, making you feel all the while like a dumb foreigner. Although not as picturesque as Saigon, Hoi-An or the utterly stunning city of Hanoi - there are still some fantastic things to see in Huế, including the Purple Forbidden City (below):

Three days, however, is probably plenty - and so I strongly advise taking one or more of Mr. Vue's tours - especially since he informed us that, yes, we were the first British people to ask for a tour of Hamburger Hill (I know we're Scottish and he knew this too - but I wanted to make sure that we were not just the first Scots but Brits as well!). He mentioned that very few people at all bother with this tour - it seems that many young people who visit Vietnam today do so as a sidetrip from the party hub/ beach resorts of Thailand or as part of a wider jog around Southeast Asia. Very few, we were told, engage with the immediate history of the nation - and this is an enormous shame because, even if your knowledge of the Vietnam War is minimal, the drive to the Laotian border and Hamburger Hill is absolutely stunning:

With beautiful countryside and mountains, this is one of the most spectacular trips I have ever taken. With a time of about two hours from Huế, Hamburger Hill itself is not an especially gruelling car ride. Moreover, the hill was paved in 2009 which means that, as long as you are in fit shape, it is an easy jaunt to the top. That said, below is a small selection of just some of the stairs you will be expected to hike up (Mr. Vue is at the top) - so make sure you know just what your limitations are!

On the way up a reminder of the hill's past is evident in the impact wraught by bombs:

Hamburger Hill proved to be a peaceful hike - and upon reaching the top a new plaque has been erected. Mr. Vue explained that this was because returning American infantrymen, who survived the battle, have began to return to Vietnam and revisit the location. He told of one story where three ex-army men wanted to spend the night at the top of the hill: something that was unfortunately not possible because of the sensistive location near the Laotian border. I have included a picture of the plaque below:

On the way down, Mr. Vue and one of his colleagues - who was the gent that erected the new steps himself and also joined us on the trek - told me about a cave which was used by the Viet Cong. I was asked if I wanted to visit and I agreed: although none of us could have expected to find yet another remnant of the war past - a small piece of material from a Viet Cong outfit. Of course, this was put back where we found it.

Hamburger Hill is an incredible place to visit. The wildlife has never recovered from this area so it is remarkably quiet - moreso than any large woodland should be. In itself this lends a haunting atmosphere to somewhere that is already ominous. The scenery is, as expected, amazing - especially from the top. Furthermore, Mr. Vu is a well educated historian himself and he can provide you with answers to any questions you may have. I was honoured when he praised my knowledge of the war - and I would love to, one day, return to Vietnam and see even more of the country. Aside from being full of friendly, hospitable people - it is also a progressive and industrious nation, moving forward but rightly proud of their fierce independence: something that we should never forget how hard they fought for.

In closing, here are some more pictures - which rounds off my first ever piece of travel writing!

NEW MARK MILLAR INTERVIEW

For all you comic book fans out there!

Mark Millar SFX chat

SLICE AND DICE IN GLASGOW

Our documentary, SLICE AND DICE: THE SLASHER FILM FOREVER, will be screening in Glasgow at the GFT on a double bill with Scott Spiegel's fantastic fear-flick INTRUDER on Sunday March 24th. The plan is to have some DVD giveaways, the usual aftershow drinks (hopefully at Nice 'N Sleazys) and a stall with some merchandise for sale... this time courtesy of 88 Films - who are releasing SLICE AND DICE UK-wide on DVD April 14th. The guests will be James Moran, writer of SEVERANCE and COCKNEYS VS ZOMBIES, and Norman J. Warren, the legendary Brit-director behind INSEMENOID, TERROR and many more. Both men appear in SLICE AND DICE and were valuable additions to a documentary which also includes Corey Feldman, Mick Garris, Adam Green, Tom Holland, Tobe Hooper, Felissa Rose, Christopher Smith and many more! The event will kick off at 6.30pm, we'll show some classic trailers, and tickets will be on sale soon (£8 conc. £10 full) at the GFT web site:

Glasgow Film Theatre


Hope to see you all there!

Intruder Trailer

Slice and Dice Trailer

HMV and the Dire Future of Physical Media

The news that HMV has been saved from Hilco will be of some relief to DVD labels around the UK. Where this leaves their sister shop Fopp I am unsure - and, even if some HMV stores continue to exist, it is doubtful that the chain will ever resort back to its old ways or become a juggernaut again in the future. The sad fact is that downloading, streaming and Netflix (as well as torrents) have killed the demand for physical media and, as austerity cuts continue and the economy risks a slide into a triple dip recession, the chances of increased sales in CDs, DVDs and Blu Rays feels like wishful thinking.

The sad fact is that this is most likely to hit the indie labels, such as Arrow Video - whom I have freelanced for during a rewarding three and a half year period - and their various contemporaries such as Shameless, 88 Films and Second Sight. Even more threatened will be the labels releasing niche titles - foreign films, documentaries, underground efforts and cult flicks from the past. I have linked below to a recent article in The Guardian for some further views on this:

HMV and the demise of the indies

Of course I can only speak for myself. Whilst HMV was never especially appealing to the little leisure funds that I had, Fopp was. Indeed, for scant outlay that little store, which had a presence in Edinburgh and Glasgow, offered me the chance to buy on a whim all number of obscurities for as little as £3 per DVD. I have spent a fair whack in Fopp and the idea that in the future I will have to know what I want to see, and then find it on Amazon, is depressing to say the least. Part of the fun of a shop stocking physical media is taking a chance - and I am sure that many film fans have picked up the Arrow releases that I have worked on as a consequence of this. Indeed, not so long ago Fopp had a shelf of Arrow discs reduced to a fiver including Inferno, Phenomena and Tenebrae. It made me really pleased to think that a young 18 year old film student, perhaps intrigued by Argento through the more mainstream patronage of an Eli Roth or Quentin Tarantino, would take the dive into picking up one of these editions and, thus, discover a whole new world of international genre filmmaking. At 18 I would wander into HMV and look for reduced prices on VHS (remember that?) copies of all number of Hong Kong movies and even such 'wow I really paid full whack for that' genre footnotes as The Dead Next Door (I got ID'd buying that one too!).

Still, as profits remain slim this is clearly nearing the end for those of us who want to own evidence of our passion for music and films. So it is then that kudos should be afforded to the labels, such as Arrow, who continue to offer a bit of bang for your buck. Whatever happens, then, I am proud that - as late in the game as it is - I offered some sort of mark on the UK DVD market. And I guess in ten years time I, like many fans of my age, will hold my collection near and dear to my heart.