Nightmares in Red, White and Blue (2009)
*** (out of 4)
Lance Henriksen narrates this documentary that takes a look at the history of horror movies in American cinema. We start off in the silent era and move all the way through the recent "torture/porn" films and get interviews with such people as Carpenter, Corman, Cohen, Yunza, Dante, Garris, Romero, Bousman and McLoughlin. NIGHTMARES IN RED, WHITE AND BLUE is a pretty good documentary but it's certainly not oging to teach die-hard fans anything that they didn't already know. I think the biggest problem with the film is that it really doesn't shine any new light on the subject as everything here has been covered before in other documentaries and even those interviewed here are giving the same stories that they have before. With that being said, as a die-hard horror fan I always enjoy hearing the stories so I'm sure others like myself will enjoy the film. If you're unfamiliar with the genre then this film does a pretty good job at giving you the history of the genre even though it does skip around quite a bit and doesn't appear to be following any real plan. We start off in the silent era where Lon Chaney is discussed and then we hit the Universal monsters, the Val Lewton productions, the atomic films, the monsters from outer space, the Norman Bates of the world and then into the 70s attitude with graphic movies, the slashers and then there's the recent torture movies. You're certainly going to get a lot of film clips and I'm sure those who don't particularly like slashers won't enjoy that segment as there's all sorts of gore and violence. The one thing I found to be really fun was the Friday THE 13TH tribute where we see all the death and sex scenes from the entire series edited together in a little montage. Fans of the genre aren't going to learn anything new but this is still a fun film.
*** (out of 4)
Lance Henriksen narrates this documentary that takes a look at the history of horror movies in American cinema. We start off in the silent era and move all the way through the recent "torture/porn" films and get interviews with such people as Carpenter, Corman, Cohen, Yunza, Dante, Garris, Romero, Bousman and McLoughlin. NIGHTMARES IN RED, WHITE AND BLUE is a pretty good documentary but it's certainly not oging to teach die-hard fans anything that they didn't already know. I think the biggest problem with the film is that it really doesn't shine any new light on the subject as everything here has been covered before in other documentaries and even those interviewed here are giving the same stories that they have before. With that being said, as a die-hard horror fan I always enjoy hearing the stories so I'm sure others like myself will enjoy the film. If you're unfamiliar with the genre then this film does a pretty good job at giving you the history of the genre even though it does skip around quite a bit and doesn't appear to be following any real plan. We start off in the silent era where Lon Chaney is discussed and then we hit the Universal monsters, the Val Lewton productions, the atomic films, the monsters from outer space, the Norman Bates of the world and then into the 70s attitude with graphic movies, the slashers and then there's the recent torture movies. You're certainly going to get a lot of film clips and I'm sure those who don't particularly like slashers won't enjoy that segment as there's all sorts of gore and violence. The one thing I found to be really fun was the Friday THE 13TH tribute where we see all the death and sex scenes from the entire series edited together in a little montage. Fans of the genre aren't going to learn anything new but this is still a fun film.